Georgia
Studies
Unit 7: Early 20th
Century Georgia
Lesson 1: The Great
Depression
Study Presentation
Lesson 1: The Great
Depression
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
– How did forces of nature affect the
economy of Georgia?
– How did state and national political
policies influence the growth and
development of Georgia and the
future of politics in the state?
The Roaring Twenties
• 1920 – 19th Amendment gave women the right
to vote and more women began to enter the
workforce.
• Flappers: name given to women who took on
the new fashion – known for short hair, makeup, dancing, drinking
• Jazz (Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington)
and Blues (Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith)
became popular forms of music.
• First women in Georgia legislature: Bessie
Kempton Crowell & Viola Ross Napier
• Rebecca Latimer Felton first woman in U.S.
Senate
Life in the Roaring Twenties
• Life in US after World War I was good
• More modern conveniences freed women
from household chores
• Electricity became more available
• Other inventions included gas stoves,
toasters, sliced bread, baby food
• Radio: WSB started in Atlanta
• 1927: first talking motion picture
• Walt Disney creates Mickey Mouse
• Charles Lindbergh makes first ever nonstop
flight from New York to Paris, France.
• http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/stories/voice_of_the_south
The Destruction of King Cotton
• Boll weevil: insect which ate Georgia’s most
important cash crop
• Price of cotton also dropped
• 1924: major drought (period with little or no
rain) hit Georgia
• Georgia farmers did not have the “good life”
that many Americans enjoyed
• Farms closed forcing banks and farm-related
business to close
• Great Migration – Many tenant farmers leave
Georgia to work in northern factories.
The Klan Strengthens
• Targeted African Americans, Jews,
Catholics, and immigrants
• Number of members increased in every
state
• 1925: Klan march on Washington with
40,000 members
• Declining membership by the end of the
decade as members were linked to
racial terrorism
The Bottom Drops Out
• Stock Market: Place where shares of ownership in
corporations (stock) are bought and sold
• “Black Tuesday” – October 29, 1929: Stock market
prices fall greatly; millions of people loose all their
wealth
• Total losses by end of year: $40 billion
• Example: U.S. Steel was $262 per share –
dropped to $22 per share
• Some stocks worth less than 1¢
• https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/
greatdepression/
Causes of the Great Depression
• Many people had borrowed too much money
• Factories produced more goods than they could
sell
• As people and businesses had problems making
money, banks did not get paid for loans
• “Speculation” in the stock market: paying only a
portion of the price of a stock hoping that the value
will go up
• Runs on banks: people were afraid they would
lose their money if it was left in the bank
• laissez-faire: attitude that the economy would fix
itself if left alone
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOzMdEwYmDU
•
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/greatdepressioncauses/
Living Through the Depression
•
•
•
•
1932: 13 million unemployed
9,000 banks closed
31 Georgia banks failed
Hoovervilles: named for President Hoover –
shacks where homeless people gathered
• Soup kitchens set up by charities and
governments to feed hungry
• Schools were often forced to close or shorten
schedules
• Georgians were already suffering from economic
problems before Black Tuesday
• http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/stories/great_depression
The New Deal
• 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected
president
• New Deal: Roosevelt’s plan to end the
depression
– Examined banks for soundness
– Give jobs to unemployed workers
– Tried to improve American’s lives
• Paved the way for recovery though all
programs did not work
Georgia and the New Deal
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – Created jobs
for young men. Men worked in exchange for
housing, food, and money. Built many of GA’s
parks, sewer systems, bridges, etc.
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) – Raised the
price of farm products by limiting supply. Farmers
were paid to produce less to drive the price up so
each farmer made for money for their crops.
• Rural Electrification Authority (REA) –Brought
electricity to the rural (country) areas of the U.S.
• Social Security Act – Passed in 1935. Helped to
provide old-age benefits for retiring workers. Also
offered insurance for the unemployed and
disabled.
•
•
http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/stories/rural_electrification_administration
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/newdeal/
African Americans During
the New Deal
• Did not benefit from many New Deal
programs
• WPA: Works Public Administration – did
employ many African Americans
• Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet”: influential
African Americans working with President
Roosevelt:
– Mary McLeod Bethune
– Clark Foreman
– Robert Weaver
– William Hastie
Georgia’s New Deal Governors
Richard
Russell, Jr.
Eurith
Rivers
Eugene
Talmadge
Ellis
Arnall
Richard Russell, Jr.
• Tried to run the state like
a successful business.
• Served the US Senate for
38 years after leaving his
position as governor.
Eugene Talmadge
• One of Ga.’s most controversial
politicians.
• He won the 1st of 4 terms as Ga.’s
governor in 1932.
• Since the state wouldn’t let him to serve
more than 2 consecutive terms his time
in office was split.
• He targeted rural farmers & took
advantage of the county-unit system.
• However, he often went against
programs to help the farmers. He was
against FDR’s New Deal.
• He thought the Federal government
should not get involved in state matters.
• As a result, much of the New Deal
Policies didn’t affect Ga. till he was out
of office.
Talmadge Against FDR’s New Deal
 He did not like big government having programs that
controlled people’s lives.
 He especially disliked relief efforts, public welfare,
and federal assistance programs.
 He opposed minimum wage requirements.
 When the General Assembly passed laws to enable
Georgia to participate in other New Deal programs,
the governor vetoed them.
 When Talmadge refused to follow federal New Deal
regulations, the federal government took over New
Deal programs in Georgia.
 After two consecutive terms, Talmadge ran for US
Senate against Richard Russell and was defeated.
Eurith Rivers
 Supported New Deal.
 Health services for all
Georgians
 Old age pensions
 Teacher pay raises
 7 month school year
 Homestead exemptions
for taxes
 Expansion of the state’s
highway system
Talmadge Re-Elected





In 1940 he came back this time promoting white supremacy.
Softened his anti-Roosevelt stand
Modified version of New Deal
State’s economy grew
Talk of Integration at University of Georgia & Georgia Southern University
so Talmadge had those who wanted integration fired.
 Offended the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and they
voted to take away the accreditation of
white Georgia colleges.
• Before his death he helped strengthen
racism in Ga. & reinforced the idea that
the federal government was something
for white southerners to fear.
Ellis Arnall
 Georgians were upset the
Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools and
with Governor Talmadge.
 Elected Arnall over
Talmadge in 1942.
 Immediately took steps to
correct the problems with
the university accreditation
 Led Georgia to become the
1st state in the nation to
grant 18 year olds the right
to vote.
Georgia
Studies
Unit 7: Early 20th
Century Georgia
Lesson 2: World War II
Study Presentation
Lesson 2: World War II
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
– How do acts of aggression influence
public sentiment toward conflict?
– How can wars create economic
opportunities?
– How do atrocities against ethnic or
cultural groups impact other peoples
and regions?
Increasing Tensions
• Dictator: individual who ruled a country through military
strength
Country
Leader
Quick Facts
Japan
Emperor
Hirohito
Attacked China seeking raw
materials
Italy
Mussolini
Attacked Ethiopia and Albania
Germany Adolf Hitler
Soviet
Union
Josef Stalin
Nazi leader; began rebuilding
military forces, persecuting Jews,
and silencing opponents
Built up industry and military,
forced peasants into collective
farms, eliminated opponents
World War II Begins
• 1938: Hitler’s Germany attacks France to
“take back” land lost in WWI (Rhineland)
• Sent troops to take over Austria,
Czechoslovakia, and Poland
• Great Britain and France declared war
• Soviet Union invaded nearby countries
and agreed to split Poland with Germany
• By 1940, Hitler controlled Denmark,
Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg
and a large part of France and began
bombing Great Britain
A Neutral United States
• Most Americans did not want to get
involved in the war, but Roosevelt wanted
to help Britain
• Hitler turned on Stalin in 1941 and invaded
the Soviet Union
• Lend-lease: policy to lend or lease (rent)
weapons to Great Britain and the Soviet
Union
• American ships began escorting British
ships in convoys
“A Day that Will Live in
Infamy”
• President Roosevelt stopped exports to Japan to
protest its expansion into other countries
• Exports of oil, airplanes, aviation gasoline and
metals were stopped
• The Japanese attacked the U.S. Navy fleet at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941
• Japan hoped to destroy the fleet giving them
control of the Pacific Ocean
• The USA declared war on Japan
• Allied Powers: USA, Great Britain, Soviet Union
• Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK8gYGg0dkE
• December 8, 1941:
Pearl
Harbor
Congress voted for
war with Japan
American Military Forces
• Millions of Americans enlisted after the attack on
Pearl Harbor
• 330,000 women joined – could not serve in
combat roles
• Segregation in the military kept African American
and white service men in different units
• Tuskegee Airmen: famous African American
flyers of the Army Air Force
• After the war, women and African Americans did
not want to go back to the kind of life they had
before the war
The War in Europe
• 1942-1943: British and American troops won
control of Africa
• 1943: Mussolini overthrown and Italy joined the
Allies
• American general Dwight D. Eisenhower
coordinated plan to recapture Europe
• D-Day: June 6, 1944 – Allied forces land in
northern France at Normandy
• Early 1945: Germans pushed out of France
• April 1945: Soviet and American troops meet
and Germany surrenders – Hitler commits
suicide
Allied Troops Enter
• In the Spring of 1945, as Allied troops pushed
into Poland, Austria, and Germany, nothing
could have prepared them for what they
found...
The Holocaust
• The Holocaust: name given to the Nazi
plan to kill all Jewish people, and others
deemed “undesirable”
• Auschwitz, Buckenwald, Dachau,
Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen infamous
concentration camps where Jews and
others were executed
• 6 million Jewish people killed in the
Holocaust; approximately 5 million other
“undesirables” also killed
•
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/worldhistory/holocaust/
Concentration Camps
• People who were
sick or unable to
work were killed
immediately .
• Many others died
in these camps
from the hard
work and poor
living conditions.
Many Were Murdered
• Systematically murdered in gas chambers, firing
squads, and in other inhuman ways. Prisoners
were gassed in chambers they thought were
showers.
• Their bodies were incinerated in huge ovens or
thrown into mass graves.
The deaths of these Jews, Poles, Czechs, Russians,
Gypsies, homosexuals, and the mentally or
physically disabled all fit Hitler’s plan to rid
Europe of what he called “inferior” people.
Smoke rises as the
bodies are burnt.
Between 1939 and 1945
six million Jews were
murdered, along with
hundreds of thousands of
others, such as Gypsies,
Jehovah’s Witnesses,
disabled and the
mentally ill.
Some Survived
• Battled
Disease,
Starvation,
Mistreatment,
Medical
Experiments
and Brutal
Conditions
Branded
• Those who survived the German
concentration camps had a daily reminder of
the horrors they experienced... A number
branded into their arms.
Reaction in the US
• In the 1940s, news
did not travel as fast
as it does today.
• People in the US did
not know about the
Holocaust until the
end of the war.
Roosevelt’s Ties to GA
• President Roosevelt visited Georgia often
at his “Little White House” in Warm
Springs
• His polio symptoms were eased in the
mineral springs
• April 12, 1945: President Roosevelt died at
Warm Springs
• Millions of Georgians and Americans
mourned
• Vice President Harry Truman became
president
•
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/franklindroosevelt/
The War in the Pacific
• 1942: Japan expanded its territory throughout the
Asian Pacific region
• 1945: Allied forces began to retake Japanese
controlled lands
• Japan refused to surrender
• President Truman authorized the use of atomic bombs
to force Japan’s surrender
• Enola Gay: plane that dropped first atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, Japan (between 70,000 and 100,000
people died)
• Japan surrendered after a second atomic bomb
dropped on Nagasaki (killed approximately 40,000
people and injured 40,000 additional people)
• August 15, 1945 – Japan surrenders ending WWII
• Over 50 million people died in the war
Georgia During World War II
• 320,000 Georgians joined the armed forces – over 7,000
killed
• Military bases (such as Fort Benning) were built in the
state which improved the economy
• Farmers grew needed crops – income tripled for the
average farmer
• Limits were put on the consumption of goods such as
gasoline, meat, butter, and sugar (rationing)
• Students were encouraged to buy war bonds and
defense stamps to pay for the war
• POW (prisoner of war) camps were made in Georgia at
some military bases
• Brunswick and Savannah Shipyards supplied ships for
the US Navy and Bell Aircraft helped to create planes.
Georgia Industries
• Factories and mills switched to production of
military equipment and supplies.
• Car makers changed to building tanks, jeeps, and
other military vehicles.
Fort Benning (Columbus)
Largest infantry training school in the world.
Place where soldiers trained to become officers
in the Army.
Fort Stewart (Savannah)
Began as one of the
Civilian Conservation
Corps projects.
Soldiers trained
here.
Also used as a
prisoner of war camp
Robins Air Force Base (Warner Robins)
Military Base added during the war.
City of Macon and Bibb County gave 3,000 acres of land to the
federal government
Government used the land to build the base.
Maintained airplanes for the war
Distributed war supplies.
Glynco Naval Air Station (Savannah)
Flew blimps along the
Atlantic coast in search of
German submarines
Fort McPherson (Atlanta)
• Major induction center
for newly drafted
soldiers from all over
the country.
• Major shipping point
for military vehicles.
• Important medical site.
• Military doctors studied
tropical disease and
ways to kill harmful
insects.
Fort Gillem (Forest Park)
• Army and storage facility and railroad yard.
Fort Oglethorpe
• Women trained to become postal workers,
clerks, typists, switchboard operators, code
clerks, and aides.
Bell Aircraft Plant (Marietta)
• Also known as the Bell Bomber Plant.
• Private business where men and women built B29 bombers.
• Lockheed took over the Bell Aircraft plant in
1951.
Shipyards
• Both Savannah and Brunswick had shipyards
(places where ships are built).
• These ports were important to the war. They
had water deep enough so that very large ships
could take supplies directly from Georgia to
Europe.
• Launched 1,235
Liberty Ships
• Lend-lease goods
were shipped
through Savannah.
Richard Russell and
Carl Vinson
• Richard Russell – Governor during the depression
and US Senator from GA; worked to bring over a
dozen military bases to GA. These military bases
helped to bring jobs and resources to the state.
• Carl Vinson – US Representative from GA; helped
to build the US Navy in the years leading up to
World War II. Believed in a strong Navy and air
defense. Vinson wrote many bills that expanded the
US Navy and helped to supply our allies during the
Lend-Lease Act and to overcome the damages of
Pearl Harbor. Many of the ships were built at the
Savannah and Brunswick shipyards.
•
http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/stories/carl_vinson
Richard Russell
Carl Vinson