Effects of the Great Depression. 24% unemployment rate Cities were harder hit— some cities 50-80% unemployment Hoovervilles-shantytowns on the outskirts.

Effects of the Great Depression

• 24% unemployment rate

• Cities were harder hit—some cities 50-80% unemployment

• Hoovervilles-shantytowns on the outskirts of cities

• Soup Kitchens & Breadlines—provided some food

• Men demoralized—could not support their families

• 30% increase in suicide rate• Children sent from home• Men abandoned families• Malnutrition increases• Schools closed or school year

shortened

• Rural Areas—one advantage—could grow food or hunt.

• Used to poverty

• Dust Bowl—1933-1936—environmental disaster on Great Plains

• Poor farming practices---overusing soil, plow deeper

• Drought

• Huge windstorms carried the topsoil– hundreds of miles

• Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas hardest hit

• Thousands left & headed for California

• Called Okies