Until the 1930s, Blacks typically voted Republican, which was Abraham Lincoln’s party and had been associated with reform. However, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was running for reelection in 1936, there was a dramatic shift in political alliances. Seventy five percent of Black voters supported the Democrats in the 1936 election. One of the reasons for this was that the Republican Party was no longer associated with reform as it had been earlier. It had become a party more represented by businessmen, not reform seekers. The other reason for this was that Roosevelt’s New Deal programs offered a degree of relief from the Great Depression.