Another interesting thing is that despite his not-so-great record on Civil Rights, FDR was extremely popular in the Black Community, getting 75% of those who could vote in 1936 (the Black vote had previously been mostly Republican, though not to the extent that it's Democratic today). What explains that?
The New Deal was the decisive factor in breaking the allegiance of black voters towards the Republican Party. Although blacks did not receive equal access to, or were universally benefited by, the New Deal programs, they nevertheless felt that those programs provided them more attention then they had been given under Republican Administrations in preceding decades. Moreover, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was very well known for her relationships with leaders of the black community at the time (i.e. Mary McLeod Bethune), and she pressured her husband to be more responsive to black issues, such as with anti-lynching legislation. Black voters certainly appreciated her efforts.
