'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself''?This quote from his inaugural address sums up the mood of the American people when Roosevelt was elected president of the United States United in the deepest part of depression. It faced numerous challenges due to the mismanagement of previous Republican governments, such as the unemployment of a large part of the American population and the banking crisis. Roosevelt had promised the American people a "new deal" upon accepting the Democratic nomination for president in 1932, however, his campaign offered only vague hints of what it would entail. He put the issue of economic security on the agenda. President Roosevelt explicitly and consciously defined the New Deal as the embodiment of freedom, but the freedom of economic security rather than the freedom of contract, or the freedom of every man for himself. Did Roosevelt implement the first New Deal, also called the "Hundred Days" to address the urgent situation the country found itself in?. He faced a banking system on the verge of collapse, as over five thousand banks were already closed, including all of those in New York and Illinois, as they had been closed by their respective state governors that day. Roosevelt declared a "banking holiday" in March 1933, as by then banking had been suspended in over thirty-eight states, and he temporarily halted all banking operations and held a special session of Congress. On March 9, Congress quickly passed a bill called the Emergency Banking Act, which provided funds to support threatened banks. He continued to try to protect the economy by introducing the Glass-Stegall Act, which prevented commercial banks from getting involved. .....half of the document......included that racial and ethnic groups were ignored by the previous administration, yet the South helped the New Deal welfare state be shaped to only help white Americans as found the majority of black workers moving to the more venerable and less generous wing of the new welfare state. The federal government allowed states to set benefits for blacks at extremely low levels and determine eligibility standards that included moral behavior outlined by local authorities, which led to widespread discrimination in benefit payments. African Americans were hardest hit by the Depression as they had double the unemployment rate of whites, so most blacks received direct public assistance especially in northern cities like Harlem where half of the families received public assistance for all years '30..