1929-1939
• Stock market
crash
• Didn’t realize
the effect it
would have
• No money to
replenish what
was borrowed
Many found being broke
humiliating.
The Roaring 20’s
• The new concept of
“credit”
• People were buying:
– Automobiles
– Appliances
– Clothes
• Fun times reigned
– Dancing
– Flappers
– Drinking
Why was this bad?
• Credit system
– People didn’t really have
the money they were
spending
• WWI
– The U.S. was a major
credit loaner to other
nations in need
– Many of these nations
could not pay us back
The Stock Market
• People bought stocks
on margins
– If a stock is $100 you
can pay $10 now and
the rest later when the
stock rose
• Stocks fall
– Now the person has
less than $100 and no
money to pay back
And then….
• With people panicking
about their money
investors tried to sell
their stocks
– This leads to a huge decline
in stocks
– Stocks were worthless now
• People who bought on
“margins” now could not
pay
• Investors were average
people that were now broke
• Herbert Hoover was
president at the start
• Philosophy: We’ll
make it!
• What He Did: Nothing
• The poor were looking
for help and no ideas
on how to correct or
help were coming
• Farmers were already feeling the effects
– Prices of crops went down
– Many farms foreclosed
• People could not afford luxuries
– Factories shut down
– Businesses went out
• Banks could not pay out money
• People could not pay their taxes
– Schools shut down due to lack of funds
• Many families became homeless and had
to live in shanties
Many waited in unemployment
lines hoping for a job.
People in cities would wait in line for
bread to bring to their family.
Some families were forced to relocate
because they had no money.
“Hooverville”
• Some families were
forced to live in
shanty towns
– A grouping of shacks
and tents in vacant
lots
• They were referred to
as “Hooverville”
because of President
Hoover’s lack of help
during the depression.
A drought in the South lead to
dust storms that destroyed crops.
“The Dust Bowl”
The South Was Buried
• Crops turned to dust=No food to
be sent out
• Homes buried
• Fields blown away
• South in state of emergency
• Dust Bowl the #1 weather crisis
of the 20th century
Two Families During
the Depression
A Farm Foreclosure
Some families tried to make money by
selling useful crafts like baskets.
*FDR*
• When he was
inaugurated
unemployment had
increased by 7
million.
• Poor sections (like
Harlem) had 50% of
the pop. unemployed
• Instated the “New
Deal”
• Yea! Frankie!
• People everywhere were
effected by the depression
• It wasn’t till President
Roosevelt took over and tried
to put the economy back
together that people even saw
a glimmer of hope
Major Historical Happenings...
• Jim Crow Laws
• Scottsboro
Trials
• Recovering
from the Great
Depression
• Racial Injustice
• Poor South
Jim Crow Laws
• After the American Civil War most
states in the South passed anti-African
American legislation. These became
known as Jim Crow laws.
• These laws included segregation in…
– Schools
-- Hospitals
– Theaters
-- Water fountains
– Restaurants
– Hotels
– Public transportation
– Some states forbid inter-racial marriages
• These laws were instituted in 1896 and
were not abolished till the late 1950’s
(even then still not completely).
• 9 young AfricanAmerican men (1320) accused of
raping 2 white girls
in 1931
• Immediately
sentenced to death
• Trials went on for
nearly 15 years
before all the men
were dismissed
• Started on a train bound for
Memphis
• Several white men boarded and
picked a fight with the black men
• Whites were forced off train by the
12 black men. The white men
reported the the black men had
raped two white girls on the train to
authorities
• They were immediately arrested and
tried in front of an all-white jury.
The trials caused a huge uproar
amongst the black community.
• Wrote To Kill a
Mockingbird in
1960
• Based the story on
her life growing
up in Monroeville,
Alabama
• TKAM was the
only novel she
ever wrote
• The character of
“Dill,” Scout and Jem’s
playmate in the novel
was based upon Lee’s
actual neighbor,
Truman Capote
• Capote is famous for
amongst other things,
In Cold Blood and
Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
• It has been said that he
gave Lee Mockingbird
as a gift.
• In 1962 the novel
was turned into a
film starring
Gregory Peck.
• It received a
humanitarian
award and several
Academy Award
nominations
Great Depression
Brother can you spare a dime?
1920’s
Problems
Factories making Too
Much, Farms growing
too much
BANKS Have
NO $$
PEOPLE LOST
SAVINGS & JOBS
Factories Fire Workers
(Don’t need them)
Farm Prices fall
(Farmers can’t make $$)
NO ONE TO
HELP!
Banks Close because they
have no money: Loans
have not been paid back,
can’t give people their
savings
Farmers & Factory Workers
can’t pay back loans to
Banks: DEFAULT!!
People Default
on Loans
+
Banks
have no
money to
give
=
Banks
Close
People Loose
savings
1932 Electoral
College Votes
OBJ #5- Opponents of the New Deal (Against)
C. Supreme Court Reacts
1. 11 New Deal Plans Ruled Unconstitutional
2. Roosevelt Reacts: ‘Court Packing Scheme’
a. Wants Court raised from 9 to 15
-President chooses new judges
-New judges would favor New Deal
3. Friends & Enemies Very Upset!!!
a. FDR wants TOOO much POWER
b. Congress with all friends won’t pass
law for FDR
4. FDR Wins Anyway- By 1938 New Judges
a. 1 Justice switches, 1 Justice retires
OBJ #5 - Describe the reasons people opposed Roosevelt’s plan.
Give two (2)
examples of people who opposed Roosevelt. Why? What did the Supreme Court say
about the early part of the New Deal? How did Roosevelt try and change their minds?
What was the result?
V. OBJ. #5 - Critics of the New Deal
A. BIG BUSINESS!!!! (Gov’t doing too much!)
1. Gov’t Can’t tell us what to do
B. FDR, not doing enough:
1. “Share Our Wealth”, Huey Long Gov. Louisiana
a. Heavy Tax on the wealthy
b. Give everyone- Home, Car, $$
c. Assassinated in 1935
2. Father Coughlin, “Radio Priest”
a. Mad at FDR for not being tough enough on big business
b. Hates communist, Unions, Jews (Hitler?)
3. Francis Townsend
a. Give pensions to anyone 60+, would get jobs to
younger people
OBJ #5- Opponents of the New Deal (Against)
C. Supreme Court Reacts
1. 11 New Deal Plans Ruled Unconstitutional
2. Roosevelt Reacts: ‘Court Packing Scheme’
a. Wants Court raised from 9 to 15
-President chooses new judges
-New judges would favor New Deal
3. Friends & Enemies Very Upset!!!
a. FDR wants TOOO much POWER
b. Congress with all friends won’t pass
law for FDR
4. FDR Wins Anyway- By 1938 New Judges
a. 1 Justice switches, 1 Justice retires
Origins and Causes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Extreme wealth inequalities
Ballooning stock market
Over reliance on unprotected loans
Too much speculation & borrowing
Overproduction and uneven distribution capabilities
Stock Market crash was a symptom
Banks lacked money, people lost savings, debts were called in, no cash
Production stopped, workers fired, no $, consumption declined, no
profits, more workers fired
President Hoover
•
•
•
•
•
•
Herbert Hoover
Progressive
War Reconstruction
Opposed direct federal aid
Self-help & volunteerism
Self-help cooperatives
The Bonus Army/March
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
World War One veterans
Gov’t denied their pensions
Marched on Washington, 1932
Congregated around White House
Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Military evicted them from D.C.
Deep anger at gov’t
Deep class divisions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqevdBZCbcQ
Hoover Dam
Grand Coulee Dam
•
•
•
•
•
•
Columbia River, 1941
Largest concrete structure in the world
Created a 150 mile lake
Too much power
Bonneville Power Administration
Powered 70% of Northwest
The Dust Bowl
• Economic and environmental disaster
• Overproduction, monocrops
• Plowed up grasses for farms to meet the needs of a
booming wheat market
• Soil exhaustion, soil erosion
• Drought and winds
• 1935: Blew winds from CO and NE, blackened the sky
across the plains, into the East and Atlantic Ocean
Responses
• Killed millions of animals,
burned millions of tons of
food
• Taylor Grazing Act
– Federal control of grazing
Migrants: Okies
• Poor whites and
sharecroppers
• Evicted from OK, TX,
MI, ARK
• Going to CAL
• L.A. Police Chief “bum
blockade”
Women
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Work & aid
• Patriotic home economics
conserve, recycle, help
America “as a woman”