When the Depression started, African Americans were hit particularly hard. The racism of the time meant that employers would much prefer giving white men jobs to black men, and so, by 1932, 75% of unemployed Americans were black. Whites would form groups entirely dedicated to preventing black people from getting jobs.

Some federal programs did help African Americans, like the Public Works Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and the Farm Service Administration. In fact, a quarter of the residents in federal housing projects were black. Government agencies even often followed non-discrimination policies.

However, there were many other federal programs and agencies that actively harmed African Americans. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration heavily favored landowners over the tenant farmers who were predominantly black, and the National Regulatory Authority's non-discrimination wage policies only encouraged businesses to fire African American workers. 

Black women with domestic service jobs were fired and their positions were given to white women. As the Depression worsened, racial tensions continued to grow and many lynchings took place as the whites tried to intimidate black workers. Any attempts to pass anti-lynching laws in the Senate were immediately shot down by racist southern Democrats.

Many black people migrated north, and found very few jobs. The cities had already been devastated by failed businesses and closed factories. African Americans already living in northern cities lost jobs as well when service and domestic work dried up. Black workers were of course disproportionately affected by this, and black unemployment rates far exceeded white ones.

The unemployment rate for black women was often higher than that of black men's, but the jobs black women did have were born out of what is now called "survivalist entrepreneurship". A fifth of black women workers would own or work in boarding houses, a third were laundresses, a quarter worked in beauty occupations, and a tenth made were dressmakers or seamstresses. Retail jobs were taken by white women.

African Americans also found some employment during the labor movement as strike-breakers. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supported the white labor unions, and as a result, 500,00 African Americans joined white labor unions.