In order to pass his expansive agenda, President Roosevelt brought together a fragile coalition that included midwestern farmers, northern businessmen, racist white southerners, and urban working-class voters.  As a result, many New Deal programs had exemptions and compromises built in, including explicit exclusions of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. While the New Deal brought relief and stability to many white Americans, including once-excluded European immigrants and their descendants, economic recovery remained illusory for people of color. Photographer Margaret Bourke-White captured these contradictions in her 1937 photo of Black flood victims in Louisville seeking emergency food aid.