Living Through the Depression

Topic 14 Lesson 8
 Guiding Question
• What were the effects of the Dust Bowl?
The Dust Bowl
• Throughout the 1930’s the southern
Great Plains went through an
environmental disaster and the
region became known as the “Dust
Bowl”
• Both humans and nature played a
role in it
• New technology, such as tractors
and disc plows allowed farmers to
clear millions of acres of sod, which
held the soil in place…when a
drought hit in 1931, the crops died
and the soil dried up and blew away
in strong windstorms
The Dust Bowl
• The drought and storms, known as
“black blizzards”, continued for
years with each storm taking away
more soil while burying roads and
vehicles
• Thousands of Dust Bowl farmers went
bankrupt with many giving up their
farms
• About 400,000 migrated (to move
from one place to another to live or
work) to California
• They became migrant workers
searching for work and were called
“Okies” by the local people after
Oklahoma, the state where many of
them came from
Hard Times for All Americans
• The Depression was a terrible
time for all Americans
• Many people wrote letters to the
White House addressed to First
Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
asking for help
• People could not afford food or
medical care and many lost their
homes
• Families broke apart as many
jobless went on the road looking
for work while children were
sent away to fend for themselves
Women
• Desperation drove women into the
workplace although many people
thought that women should not
hold jobs with so many men
unemployed
• But the earnings that women
made helped families survive
• For women at home, many sewed
clothing, baked more bread, and
canned more vegetables
• Some women did laundry for
others or took in boarders
(people who paid to live there and
get meals there)
 Women
• The New Deal era opened doors for
women in public life
• Frances Perkins became the first
woman to serve in a cabinet position
when she became the Secretary of Labor
• FDR also named over 100 other women
to federal posts including Ellen
Sullivan Woodward, who started
program to provide jobs for women
• Eleanor Roosevelt played a major role in
FDR’s presidency…due to FDR’s
disability, which limited his travel, she
acted as his eyes and ears…she was a
powerful voice for women and those in
need
African Americans
• More than 50% of African Americans in
the South had no jobs and those that had
jobs were replaced by unemployed white
people
• About 400,000 African Americans
migrated to northern cities in the 1930’s
however they did not fare much better
• African Americans did make some gains
during the Depression…an example is
the organization called the National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) which
fought against discrimination in the
labor movement…due to the NAACP,
over 500,ooo African Americans were
able to join labor unions
African Americans
• FDR named several African Americans to
federal positions
• He sought advice from a group known as
the “Black Cabinet” which was made up
of Robert Weaver, a college professor,
and Ralph Bunche, who became a civil
rights leader
• Mary McLeod-Bethune, who founded
Bethune-Cookman College, was another
advisor to FDR
• In 1939, when Constitution Hall refused to
host a performance by singer Marian
Anderson, Eleanor Roosevelt, helped
arrange for Anderson to give a concert at
the Lincoln Memorial
 Latinos
• At the beginning of the Great
Depression, about 2 million Latinos
lived in the US
• As unemployment spread, Mexican
Americans became targets of
resentment
• Some lost their jobs and some
politicians and labor unions
demanded that they leave the US
• Authorities rounded up many
Mexican immigrants and sent them
to Mexico…more than 500,000
Mexican Americans left the US
during the early years of the
Depression, many against their will
Latinos
• Mexican Americans who
stayed in the US faced
much discrimination
• They encountered
roadblocks in getting
relief money and if they
did receive some, it was
less than what whites
got
• They were als0 turned
away from hospitals and
schools
Native Americans
• Native Americans suffered
widespread poverty but made
some gains in the 1930’s
• John Collier, the head of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs
introduced reforms known as
the “Indian New Deal”
• These changes helped to
restore Native American
cultures that were damaged by
past government actions
Native Americans
• Collier stopped the sale of
reservation land and got jobs for
77,000 Native Americans in the
CCC
• He also used PWA funds to build
new reservation schools
• Collier also pushed Congress to
pass the Indian
Reorganization Act of
1934…this law restored tribal
government and provided money
to enlarge some reservations
Radical Views Grow
• During these hard times,
radical groups grew and these
groups advocated for extreme
and immediate change
• Socialists and Communists
saw the Depression as the
death of a failed economic
system
• While both socialism and
communism had significant
influence, neither became a
political force in the US
Fascism
• In the 1930’s, fascism grew in
Europe
• Fascism is a set of ideas that
stresses the glory of a nation
above individual needs and one
that favors dictatorship
• Countries such as Germany and
Italy were two countries ruled by
fascists
• While fascism didn’t attract
many Americans, it drew enough
attention to be deemed
dangerous…fascists blamed Jews,
Communists, liberals, and
minority groups for the nation’s
problems
Entertainment and the Arts
• Two trends grew in
entertainment and the
arts during the Great
Depression: escapism
(light or romantic
entertainment to help
people forget their
problems) and social
criticism (portraits of
the injustice and
suffering Americans
experienced during the
Depression)
Radio and the Movies
• Radio became very popular
during the 1930’s
• “Soap operas” were daytime
dramas that got their name
from the fact that many were
sponsored by, and featured ads
for, laundry detergents
• Adventure programs such as
Dick Tracy and The Lone
Ranger had millions of
listeners as did shows by
comedians such as George
Burns and Gracie Allen, and
Jack Benny
Radio and the Movies
• By 1930, 80 million people per
week were going to the movies
• Walt Disney made the successful
animated film Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs in 1937
• Two years later, people flocked to
see the colorful and uplifting film
The Wizard of Oz
• Some movies did explore serious
topics such as The Grapes of
Wrath, a movie based on the
John Steinbeck novel about
Dust Bowl migrants who move
from Oklahoma to California to
find work and a better life
Literature and the Visual Arts
• Writers and painters
portrayed the sad realities
of Depression era life
• Richard Wright’s novel
Native Son told the story
of an African American
man growing up in Chicago
• Writer James Agee and
photographer Walker
Evans depicted poor
Southern farm families in
Let Us Now Praise
Famous Men
Literature and the Visual Arts
• Photographer Margaret
Bourke-White also
recorded the plight of
American farmers and
Dorothea Lange took
captivating photographs
of migrant workers

• Painters such as Grant