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.

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.

Some families were forced to relocate because they had no money.

People in cities would wait in line for bread to bring to their family.

“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 Dust Bowl

For American farmers, hard times began well before the start of theGreat Depression. Despite the widespread prosperity of the 1920s,prices for farm products remained low. The Depression worsenedthis already bad situation. Conditions worsened again when a severe drought hit the Great Plains in the early 1930s and lasted most of the decade. From North Dakota to Texas, crops withered away. With no roots to hold it in place, topsoil began to blow away.Massive dust storms swept the region, turning parts of theGreat Plains into the Dust Bowl . “These storms were like rollingblack smoke,” recalled one Texas schoolboy. “We had to keep thelights on all day. We went to school with the headlights on, andwith dust masks on.” A woman from Kansas remembered duststorms “covering everything—including ourselves—in a thick,brownish gray blanket . . . Our faces were as dirty as if we had rolled in the dirt; our hair was gray and stiff and we ground dirt between our teeth.”

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

THE VICTIMS OF THE DUST BOWL

• Colorado• Kansas• Oklahoma• New Mexico• Texas

• Devastation of their cropland

• Respiratory health issues

• Unsanitary living

• Rampant crime

• Debt-ridden families

KS Rainfall 1895-2002

Dry Year

s

Dry Year

s

Severe drought during the 1930s destroyed the livelihood of manyGreat Plains farmers.

Two Families During the Depression

DUST BOWL ORPHANS

• Mass exodus to California

• Opportunities in Russia

• Migrant workers become source of cheap labor

A Farm Foreclosure

Some families tried to make money by selling useful crafts like baskets.

All over the country, Americans struggled to survive the Great Depression.

*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 African-American men (13-20) 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.