Hoovervilles and Images of the Depression

Hoovervilles and Images of the Depression

The Depression cut across party lines, state lines, color lines, and life

lines.

Jobs & Documentation One way to get information to the Federal

Government about how communities were affected by the depression was to employ people themselves. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed out of work photographers and writers to document the following.

Displacement With many Americans having lost their

savings and their homes, they went on the move. Community numbers (old census data) was no good. Family members lost track of family members. Some road the rails, others took to the roads.

Woody Guthrie Guthrie was the voice of this generation;

singing songs about unionism, riots, unemployment, the great USA, the dust bowl, the depression, growing world fascism and other topics. He influenced many of the voices of the 50s and 60s civil rights movement and beyond from Bob Dylan to Billy Bragg to Steve Earle, the Dixie Chicks, and even Bob Marley and his son Damien Junior “Gong” Marley.

Roadside stand- Birmingham Alabama

Farm Foreclosures

Hoovervilles. Portland, Oregon.

Dwellers in Circleville- central Ohio

WPA Description- Written Report.

Average small Ohio city, depending upon surrounding rich farmlands for its livelihood. Because of its non-industrial surroundings, retains much of old-time flavor. Outstanding industries: Eshelman's Feed Mill. Employs 150-200 men the year 'round. Pay averages about eighty-five cents an hour. Container Corporation of America makes paper out of straw, can absorb by-product of all neighboring farms. In addition, a number of canneries and feed mills. During depression many farms of the district were foreclosed. People who lost homes naturally gravitated toward the town. A town of its character is unable to house new influx of population. Consequently there sprang up around it an extensive Hooverville. Circleville got its name through having been built in a circle as a better protection against the Indians.

Squatters' shacks- Willamette River in Portland, Oregon

Christmas Dinner

Bakersfield, California

WPA Description

Rapidly growing community of people living rent-free on the edge of the town dump in whatever kind of shelter available. Approximately one thousand people now living here and raising children

“Hobos”

On the Road Again

“Okies” headed to California

The Dust Storms

City Bread Lines and soup kitchens

Dorothea Lange

This Land Is Your Land- Woody Guthrie’s most famous song

“This land is your land, This land is my land. From California to the New York Island. From the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters, This land was made for you and me…In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief officer I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking: Is this made for you and me?…”