The 1920s & Great Depression
THE GREAT MIGRATION
The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West from about 1916 to 1970. Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregation laws, many Black Americans headed north, where they took advantage of the need for industrial workers that arose during the First World War. During the Great Migration, African Americans began to build a new place for themselves in public life, actively confronting racial prejudice as well as economic, political and social challenges to create a Black urban culture that would exert enormous influence in the decades to come.
Did you know? Around 1916, when the Great Migration began, a factory wage in the urban North was typically three times more than what Black people could expect to make working the land in the rural South.
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
The Harlem Renaissance was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art. In fact, the Harlem Renaissance was the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize "the Negro" apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced Black people' relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and reactionary shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. The Harlem Renaissance was a turning point in Black cultural history. It helped African American writers and artists gain more control over the representation of Black culture and experience, and it provided them a place in Western high culture.
Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous impact on subsequent Black literature and perception worldwide. While the renaissance was not confined to the Harlem district of New York City, Harlem attracted a remarkable strength of intellect and talent and served as the symbolic capitol of this cultural awakening. The movement is considered to have begun in 1918 and continued to 1937. However, its most productive period was in the 1920s, as the movement's spirit suffered during the Great Depression.
Notable African Americans of the Harlem Renaissance
Alain Locke
Educator, writer, and philosopher Alain Locke, is remembered as the leader and chief interpreter of the Harlem Renaissance. He is announced as the "Father of the era" for his publication in 1925 of The New Negro- an anthology of poetry, essays, plays, music and portraiture by white and black artists.
W.E.B. DuBois
American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist, W.E.B. DuBois was the most important Black protect leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and edited "The Crisis", its magazine, from 1910 to 1934. His collection of essays "The Souls of Black Folk," is a landmark of African American literature. During the Harlem Renaissance, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about the struggle for African American identity.
Marcus Garvey
Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, became the most important political leader of the Harlem Renaissance. With his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the largest black organization in US history, it stressed racial pride and self rule. Marcus sought to create an independent Black economy and planned to lead followers to the creation of the Empire of Africa, that would provide African Americans with liberties they were denied in the US. He wanted them to leave the US and create their own country in Africa where they could rule themselves independently.
Claude McKay
Jamaican-born poet and novelist Claude McKay, moved to Harlem, new York, after publishing his first books of poetry, and established himself as a literary voice for social justice during the Harlem Renaissance. He is known for his novels, essays and poems, including "If We Must Die" and "Harlem Shadows," both of which contributed to the era. He also wrote "Home to Harlem," which became the most popular novel written by an American black to that time.
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in Harlem, New York City, a primarily African American neighborhood. His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes, like others active during this era, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality.
Zora Neale Hurston
American folklorist and writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston celebrated the African American culture of the rural South. She was a scholar whose ethnographic research made her a pioneer writer of "folk fiction" about the black South, making her a prominent writer in the Harlem Renaissance. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is her most celebrated novel.
Cultural Change
FASHION
1920
1900
2021
Our society has changed many times over the years and so has fashion trends. In the Roaring 20's, fashion changed significantly because it gave women the freedom to express themselves after WW1. During this time, new and colorful fabrics appeared, and the population was coming out of its shell because the end of conflict has been reached. Women dressed in shorter dresses and skirts, cut their hair, and wore more make-up. Thus, the 1920's redefined womanhood. A new woman evolved and with this, future generations branched out. Nowadays, fashion trends, also referred to as fads, are especially unpredictable. The fashion industry is always on the hunt for what's new or what's "hot." During the winter, fall, spring, and summer seasons, fashion changes. Depending on what your style is, fashion has changed from the 20's to today.
Fashion is always changing and there are many reasons why fashion is different today that it was in the 20's and why they have similarities. In each fashion trend, men and women just want to show their individuality through their style whether it is through accessories or clothing in general. Designers, celebrities, fashion writing and so on, all change trends that go with the era. People feed off these fads and make them their own. All in all, fashion is one way to define an era because almost everyday styles are going in and out. Between the 20's and today, fashion has changed and will continue to change dramatically for decades to come.
In the 1920's men and women wanted to express themselves after the war and women could choose beauty, individuality, functionality and express themselves in new creative ways. Breaking traditional ways and changing styles were what they were after. Designers created cloths that showed this, and the new fad was flapper dresses. Brighter, more colorful and shorter dresses were in style, and dark, long, tight dresses and corsets were out. The term "flapper" was used to describe young, fearless, bold, independent women who drank alcohol, smoked, dressed in shorter skirts and cut their hair. They embraced the 20's as they enjoyed a huge change in the amount of freedom they had. Women were not defined by their marriage or men anymore, they gained jobs, they gained the right to vote from the 19th amendment and they changed the whole style and tradition of women's fashion. This era was the beginning of modern dressing but today, fashion has been taken to another level. What was seen back then, is not seen today: however, today's clothing is inspired by all the expressive movement involved from the 20's. During the 1920's, style change depended on what was going on in the world, where as today it changes almost everyday, demanded on celebrities, seasons, etc.
Today's fashion has evolved tremendously. Back then, there was only a couple of solid fashion statements that everyone went by, but today there are enormous amounts of styles and trends. Today's fashion has many "do's" and "don'ts," and they change rapidly. In fact, back then it may have taken a few years to make it from red carpet to mass market, while today's manufactures have put the fashion cycle into hyper-speed. People today wear whatever they want, expressing themselves individually, just like how flappers expressed their individuality in the 20's. Fashion today can be defined as many things within each era, and fashion statements can be made with cloths, accessories, shoes, makeup, and even your cellphone.
The great depression
October
29th
1929
Black
Tuesday
The 1920's, known as the Roaring Twenties, was a time of many changes-sweeping economic, political, and social changes. In the early 1920's, consumer spending had reached an all-time high in the United States. American companies were mass-producing goods, and consumers were buying. Technology was constantly improving, providing consumers the opportunity to purchase items to make their lives easier. Radios, refrigerators, and washing machines were among the new consumer items being rapidly purchased. However, by the ending years of the 1920's, there was an economic crisis.
Event and Start of the Great Depression
On Thursday, October 24th, 1929, the market dropped sharply and a massive sell off began. Prices kept falling and investors were forced to sell their stocks at a loss. A couple days later on October 29th, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, the stock market crashed completely. The prices were too high, people were loaning too much, and countless investors lost all their money. This event marked the official start of the Great Depression, that would last for the next decade. From 1929 to 1939, the United States experienced one of the harshest economic downtowns in the history of the country. Initiated by the stock market crash of 1929, the decade that followed was marked by high unemployment rates and bank failures. Workers lost their jobs along with their homes and possessions. Many of those who were able to keep their jobs barely made enough to make ends meet. Money became very scare and you would be considered fortunate to have a couple of dimes. The agricultural market also spiraled downward. Panic spread throughout the country and lives were turned upside down.
Other Causes
Although the Great Depression began with the crash of the stock market in October of 1929, there were many other causes that contributed to this economic crisis.
Global Depression in Europe:
Arising in Germany, this Global Depression was caused by the German government printing money. In order to pay the massive reparations from WW1 and people working in industries, the German government printed more money. This printing of more money led to hyperinflation as the more money printed, the more prices rose. However, during periods of inflation when prices rise continuously and a lot of money is available, this also meant that the value of the currency dropped sharply. The money became almost worthless and children would play with it like it was a toy as others would make cloths or hang the money on walls. As a result of inflation, Germans who had their savings in banks or were living on pensions or disability checks, found themselves virtually bankrupt. Workers increasingly discovered that no matter how high their wages rose, they could not keep up with the rapidly soaring prices.
Installment Buying/Buying on Credit:
Buying on credit was a huge problem in the 1920's. Since the 20s was a period of great economic boom, not many people took the future into consideration. Overspending, also know as Sense of Falsa Prosperity, was a big issue that many people didn't even realize. Many people bought refrigerators, cars, etc. with money that they did not have. This system was called installment buying. Installment- Purchasing a commodity over a period of time, the buyer gains the use of the commodity immediately and then pays for it in periodic payments called installments. With this system, people could make a monthly, weekly, or yearly payment on the item. This happened until Black Tuesday, when the stock market crashed. The two systems, installment buying and buying on credit, left millions of people in debt and when many lost their jobs, they could not pay back the debts they had incurred. Often people found that they didn't have the money to pay what was owed on credit and the longer they took to pay it back, the more they were charged.
Buying Stock on Margin:
Buying on margin is the practice of buying stock without paying the full price. A person who is buying on margin pays a small percentage of the price of the stock and borrows the money to pay for the rest. The person hopes that the stock's price increases so that they will be able to pay off the loan. It was a very risky way to gain money quickly as you could either make a lot of money really fast or lose a lot of money really fast. Many people bought stocks on the margin in the late 1920s because they thought stock prices would keep going up forever. Because people were buying on the margin and because they were overconfident about the prospects for the stocks, they were willing to pay inflated prices for the stocks. This made stock prices go up more than they should have and eventually, the bubble bursted and stock prices dropped sharply. When the stock prices dropped, all the people who had borrowed to buy on the margin were in trouble. They could nit repay their loans because the stock prices had not risen, and they were left broke. Because so many people could not repay loans, banks failed.
Bank Failures:
After the stock market crashed, people panicked and rushed to withdraw their funds from the banks. Prior to the crash, banks participated in the practice of speculation buying, in which they often used investors funds and lent money to individuals for the purpose of buying stocks. Investors could not repay what they had borrowed, and banks could not repay the investors from whom they had borrowed. After the stock market crashed, Americans feared that banks would soon fail. People immediately began to withdraw funds from their accounts, causing thousands of banks to close. As the panic of the bank runs continued to spread, more banks closed, and by 1933, nearly half of the banks in the United States had failed.
US Presidents During the Great Depression
Herbert Hoover
(1928-1932)
Before Elected President
Herbert Hoover, America's 31st President, was known as one of the most experienced yet most ineffectual men on the planet. As a young man, Hoover was a famous mining engineer, organizing around the world and was an amazing contributor. When the US entered WW1 in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration. He encouraged Americans to reduce their consumption of wheat, meat and other commodities in order to ensure a steady supply of food and clothing for the Allied troops. Once the war ended, Hoover, as head of the American Relief Administration, arranged shipments of food and aid to war-ravaged Europe. He earned worldwide acclaim for his humanitarian efforts, as well as thousands of appreciative letters from people across Europe ho benefited from the free meals known as "Hoover lunches." His success earned him an appointment as secretary of commerce, and the economy boomed. Hoover, during the fast-paced modernization of the 1920s, played an active role in organizing the fledgling radio broadcasting and civilian aviation industries, and also laid the groundwork for the construction of a huge dam on the Colorado River, which would later open and be called the Hoover Dam.
After Elected President
Considering all of his successes, he was the easy choice for President in 1928, however this is when things get negative and go wrong for him. Only seven months after Hoover took office, on October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed and signaled the start of the Great Depression. Hoover resisted federal response to this crisis and didn't want the federal government to help. He believed in a limited role for government and worried that excessive federal intervention posed a threat to capitalism and individualism. He felt that assistance should be handled on a local, voluntary basis, and tried to collect data and coordinate the efforts of states, charities, and companies to turn things around. As the Depression deepened, Hoover failed to recognize the severity of the situation or leverage the power of the federal government to squarely address it. A successful man before entering politics, was now widely viewed as callous and insensitive toward the suffering of millions of desperate Americans. As a result, hoover was defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
(1932-1944)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States, was the only president elected to the office four times. Roosevelt led the United States through two of the greatest crisis's of the 20th century- the Great Depression and World War 1. In 1932, the Great Depression was in full swing. Banks failing, millions were unemployed, and farms were turning into dust. People wanted help fighting poverty and President Roosevelt didn't disappoint. In the first 100 days of his presidency, he worked with Congress to enact 15 major laws to stabilize the economy, pour money into the states, and create infrastructure programs to boost employment. He wanted the federal government to get involved and help during the Great Depression unlike Herbert Hoover. In doing so, he greatly expanded the powers of the federal government through a series of programs and reforms known as the New Deal. Roosevelt didn't want the government to just protect people, he wanted it to provide basic economic stability for all. Even in the face of disaster, President Franklin D. Roosevelt showed confidence and Americans loved him for it.
Eleanor Roosevelt
First lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt- the U.S. President from 1933 to 1945, was a leader in her own right and involved in numerous humanitarian causes throughout her life. By the 1920s, Roosevelt, who raised five children, was involved in Democratic Party politics and numerous social reform organizations. In the White House, she was one of the most active first ladies in history and worked for political, racial, and social justice. After Franklin Roosevelt was sworn in as president in March 1933, Eleanor began to transform the conventional role of first lady from social hostess to that of a more visible, active participant in her husband's administration. She changed the role of the First Lady by being a link to the people. From 1933 to 1945, in her role as First Lady, she supported and promoted the choices and the political line of her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, known as the New Deal. During the New Deal, Eleanor Roosevelt became a key voice inside the White House for appointing women to positions in the administration, improving the plight of the unemployed and addressing the concerns of youth. She traveled across the United States, acting as her husband's eyes and ears and reporting back to him after she visited government institutions, programs and numerous other facilities. Eleanor was an early champion of civil rights for African Americans as well as an advocate for American workers, the poor, young people, and women during the Great Depression. She also supported government-funded programs for artists and writers. Moreover, Roosevelt encouraged her husband to appoint more women to federal positions, and she held hundreds of press conferences for female reporters. She also wrote a syndicated newspaper column entitled "My Day" and used it to share information about her activities and communicate her positions on a wide range of social and political issues.
New Deal
New Deal, domestic program of the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939, which took action to bring about immediate economic relief as well as reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, waterpower, labor, and housing, vastly increasing the extent of the federal government's activities. The term was taken from Roosevelt's speech accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Reacting to the ineffectness of the administration of President Hoover in meeting the ruin of the Great Depression, American voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Democratic promise of a "new deal" for the "forgotten man." Opposed to the traditional American political philosophy of laissez-faire, the New Deal generally embraced the concept of a government-regulated economy aimed at achieving a balance between conflicting economic interests. The New Deal programs were known as the three "R's"...Relief, Recovery, and Reform. Roosevelt believed that together they could bring economic stability to the nation.
**Laissez-faire is an economic theory from the 18th century that opposed any government intervention in business affairs.
Relief
Relief programs were implemented to immediately stop the continued economic freefall and gave relief checks and jobs to lower unemployment. They gave people something so they could survive.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), one of the earliest New Deal programs, established to relieve unemployment during the Great Depression by providing national conservation work primarily for young unmarried men. Projects included planting trees, building flood barriers, fighting forest fires, and maintaining forest roads and trails.
Public Works Administration (PWA), in U.S. history, New Deal government agency designed to reduce unemployment and increase purchasing power through the construction of highways and public buildings. It provided public-work jobs for many of those needing relief. Authorized by the National Industrial Recovery Act, the PWA was set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt under the administration of his secretary of the interior, Harold L. Ickes.
Recovery
Recovery programs worked to stimulate agriculture, industry, and the economy to end the depression. These programs helped to try to get things like farms and businesses, back on their feet.
Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), in U.S. history, major New Deal program to restore agricultural prosperity during the Great Depression by curtailing farm production, reducing export surpluses, and raising prices. The AAA set voluntary guidelines and gave incentive payments to farmers to restrict production in hopes of raising agricultural prices.
National Recovery Administration (NRA), U.S. government agency established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to stimulate business recovery through fair-practice codes during the Great Depression. The NRA was an essential element in the National Industrial Recovery Act, (NIRA), which authorized the president to institute industry-wide codes intended to elimiate unfair trade practices, reduce unemployment, establish minimum wages and maximum hours, and guarantee the right of labor to bargain collectively.
Reform
Reform programs, still around today, focused specifically on methods for ensuring that depressions like that in the 1920s would never affect the American public again.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), independent U.S. government corporation created under authority of the Banking Act of 1933, with the responsibility to insure bank deposits in eligible banks against loss in the event of a bank failure and to regulate certain banking practices. Established after the collapse of many American banks during the initial years of the Great Depression, the FDIC became a permanent government agency through the Banking Act.
Social Security Administration (SSA). The Social Security Act, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, created Social Security, a federal safety net for elderly, unemployed and disadvantaged Americans. The main stipulation of the original Social Security Act was to pay financial benefits to retirees over age 65 based on lifetime payroll tax contributions. The Act also established the Social Security Board, which later became the Social Security Administration, to structure the Social Security Act and figure out the logistics of implementing it. Money was given to people who retired (over age 55+, 62+) which opens up more jobs for younger people, especially for ones who have families to take care of and provide for.
The Great Depression:
Effects on Americans lives
Statistics such as the unemployment rate tell only part of the story of the Great Depression. More important was the impact that it had on people's lives. The Depression brought hardship, homelessness, and hunger to millions.
The Depression in the Cities:
In the cities across the country, people lost their jobs, were evicted from their homes and ended up in the streets. Some slept in parks or sewer pipes, wrapping themselves in newspapers to fend off the cold. Others built makeshift shacks out of scrap materials, and people were living in whatever they could junk together. Everyday the poor dug through garbage cans or begged and soup kitchens offering free or low-cost food and bread lines, or lines of people waiting to receive food provided by charitable organizations or public agencies, became a common sight.
The Depression in Rural Areas:
Life in rural areas was hard, but it did have one advantage over city life: most farmers could grow food for their families. However, with falling prices and rising debt, thousands of farmers lost their land. In the face of the suffering caused by the Great Depression, the family stood as a source of strength for most Americans. Although some people feared that hard times would undermine moral values, those fears were largely unfounded. In general, Americans believed in traditional values and emphasized the importance of family unity. At the time when money was tight, many families entertained themselves and were stuck together at home. Nevertheless, the economic difficulties of the Great Depression put severe pressure on family life and in some cases, making ends meet was a daily struggle, thus families broke apart.
Children Suffer Hardships:
Children also suffered during the 1930s as they had poor diets and a lack of money for health care, leading to serious health problems. Milk consumption declined across the country, and clinics and hospitals reported a dramatic rise in malnutrition and diet-related diseases. falling tax revenues also caused school boards to shorten the school year and even close schools, thus effecting their access to education. Instead, many children went to work, often laboring in sweatshops under horrendous conditions.
Social and Psychological Effects:
The hardships of the Great Depression had a tremendous social and psychological impact on Americans. Some people were so demoralized by hard times that they lost their will to survive. The economic problems forced many Americans to accept compromises and make sacrifices that affected them for the rest of their lives. Some put off getting married, raising large families, or having children at all. For many people, the stigma of poverty and of having to scrimp and save, never disappeared completely, and for some, achieving financial security became the primary focus. However, during the Great Depression many people showed great kindness to strangers who were down on their luck. People often gave food, clothing,, and a place to stay to the needy. Families helped other families and shared resources and strengthened the bonds within their communities. In addition, many people developed habits of saving and thriftiness, habits they would need, to see themselves through the dark days ahead as the nation struggled with the Great Depression. In fact, these habits shaped a whole generation of Americans.
The Dust Bowl
During the Great Depression, a series of droughts combined with non-sustainable agricultural practices led to devastating dust storms, famine, diseases and deaths related to breathing dust. The most visible evidence of how dry the 1930s became, was the dust storm. Tons of topsoil was blown off barren fields and carried in storm clouds for hundreds of miles. Technically, the driest region of the Great Plains- southern Colorado, southwest Kansas, the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, and northeastern New Mexico, became known as the Dust Bowl states. This area of the Great Plains suffered the most from the Dust Bowl, where dust storms hit the hardest. The Dust Bowl was a man-made environmental disaster and was the name given to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period in the 1930s.
For over ten years, severe drought and severe wind erosion haunted the Great Plains, creating horrible dust storms that killed people, plants and animals, while destroying the air quality of the nation. Because of this extreme drought and extreme high temperatures, it was the worst ten year period in recordered history on the Plains. The Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression and drove many farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions. It brought ecological, economical, and human misery to America during a time when it was already suffering under the Great Depression. While the economic decline caused by the Great Depression played a role, it was hardly the only guilty part.
Eroding soil led to massive dust storms and economic devastation. When winds blew, raising enormous clouds of dust and depositing mounts of dirt on everything, it left houses covered and the dust suffocated livestock and caused pneumonia in children. By 1933, the number of reported dust storms, also known as black blizzards, increased to nearly 40. The Dust Bowl greatly impacted people and livestock as well as the environment. It brought desperation as they could see their lives being completely ruined. The dust storms blocked out the sun, created drifts against their homes, ruined their crops, choked their livestock and took the lives of children. Farmers were left with almost nothing due to the loss of their crops, livelihoods, homes and the decrease in prices for the crops they could grow, falling below subsistence levels. In fact, when the drought hit the Great Plains, roughly one-third of the farmers left their homes and headed to the mild climate of California in search of migrant work.
Economic depression connected with extended drought, unusually high temperatures, poor agricultural practices and the resulting wind erosion all contributed to making the Dust Bowl. The seeds of the Dust Bowl may have been planted during the early 1920's. Rising wheat prices in the 1910s and 1920s and increased demand for wheat from Europe during World War 1, encouraged farmers to plow up millions of acres of native grasslands to plant wheat, corn and other raw crops. A post WW1 downturn led farmers to try new mechanized farming techniques as a way to increase production as well as increase profits. Many bought plows and other farming equipment, and between 1925 and 1930 more than 5 million acres of previously unfarmed land was plowed. With the help of mechanized farming, farmers produced record crops during the 1931 season. However, overproduction of wheat coupled with the Great Depression led to severely reduced market prices. The wheat market was flooded, and people were too poor to buy. Farmers were unable to earn back their production costs and expanded their fields in an effort to turn a profit. They covered the prairie with wheat in place of the natural drought-resistant grasses and left any unused fields bare. When farmers tore up even more grassland in an attempt to harvest a bumper crop and break even, crops began to fail with the onset drought in 1931, exposing the bare, over-plowed farmland. Without deep-rooted prairie grasses to hold the soil in place, it began to blow away. The loss of fertile topsoil that blew away in the winds, left the land vulnerable to drought and difficult for growing crops.
The Great Depression was going on during this time period and caused food and money to be even more scarce. Families would consider themselves lucky if they found a couple of dimes laying around that could possibly get them some type of food. Others would be left with no choice but to kill any livestock still alive. When times got really bad, families were forced to apply for relief. In addition, people's mental and physical health was greatly affected as many lost hope and had mental breakdowns. Black Sunday, the biggest dust storm of all that hit April 14, 1935, left survivors worried that they had become the forgotten people in a forgotten land. Children were underweight and lost access to education. During the Depression, schools across the Plains sent students home because of the dust storms and fears of what might happen to their health. All in all, the dust bowl impacted the lives of people, forcing them to survive off of hope and willpower. Destroying their mental health, physical health, jobs, access to education, livestock, crops and abundance of food, the dust bowl will forever leave a mark in history.
Unemployment
In 1929, before the crash of the stock market that marked the beginning of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate in the United States was 3.14%. In 1933, in the depths of the Depression, 24.75% of the labor force was unemployed.
With unemployment going up so drastically during the Great Depression in the 1930s, it greatly impacted the American people. Some of the hardest impacts of unemployment on the American people include the loss of their job, home, access and availability of material goods, and the effects on their health, both mentally and physically. Each one of these impacts could cause a domino effect. If you lost your job due, you would then have no income, which could then lead to homelessness and starvation because you couldn't afford to pay for it. Starvation and unsanitary conditions led to many health problems mentally and physically. Often families would use cotton flour bags and feed sacks to make clothing and other household items. Some families, due to homelessness, were forced to live in “Hoovervilles.” They were hundreds of makeshift homeless encampments built near large cities across the United States during the Great Depression. As you can see, unemployment caused a domino effect, leading one problem into another. The effects were often devastating, leaving American people in misery.
Men in the Streets:
Many men had difficulty coping with unemployment because they were so accustomed to working and supporting their families. Everyday, they would set out to walk the streets in search of jobs. Some men, however, became so discouraged that they simply stopped trying and even abandoned their families.
Great Depression Ends
What Eventually Caused the Great Depression to End?
The Great Depression was a worldwide economic depression that lasted about 10 years. In 1932, the country elected Franklin D. Roosevelt as president and he promised to create federal government programs to end the Great Depression. Within 100 days, he signed the New Deal into law, creating 42 new agencies throughout its lifetime. They were designed to create jobs, allow unionization, and provide unemployment insurance. Many of these programs still exist, as they help safeguard the economy and prevent another depression. The Great Depression didn't just end one day and everything was all better. The exact date when the Great Depression ended is much debated by historians and economists, while most people put the "start of the end" at the beginning of World War 11. When the war began, factories went back to full production building war supplies such as tanks, airplanes, ships, guns, and ammunition. Unemployment dropped as young men joined the army and people went to work in the factories. Other people give credit to the New Deal programs of the 1930s for ending the depression. No doubt, there were a lot of factors that helped to get the U.S. economy going again. World War 11, government regulations, a new banking system, and the end of the drought in the Midwest all contributed to the recovery of the economy. The Great Depression will forever leave a lasting legacy on the people and the government of the United States.