THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930

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THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930S

• Brother can you
• spare a dime?

Son of farmer in dust bowl area. April, 1936
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What was the Great Depression?

• The worst economic crisis of the century
• Over 13 million people unemployed
• Dust bowl as a result of drought
• Farmers lost crops
• Many lost their homes

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What caused the Great Depression?

• Unequal distribution of wealth
• Stock market crash of 1929
• Black Thursday,
• October 24, 1929
• Black Tuesday,
• October 29, 1929

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Stock Market Crash

• Many stocks purchased
• Stock prices fell
• Huge sums of money lost

Thursday, October 24, 1929
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STRUCTURE OF AMERICAN SOCIETY DISINTEGRATES

• Factories and mines close
• Banks are worthless
• Consumer buying comes
• to a standstill

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The Results

• Bank Failure

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• Unemployment

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• Loss of homes
• Hoovervilles

Here were all these people living in old
rusted-out car bodies. ... One family ... was
living in a piano box. This wasn't just a little
section, this was maybe 10 miles wide and 10
miles long. People living in whatever they could
junk together. ..."
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• Dustbowls

A traveler noticed a nice new hat by the side of
the road, and he stopped to pick it up. Under
the hat was a man, buried up to his neck in the
dust! As he dug the poor fellow out, the
traveler asked if he wanted a ride into town.
"No, I'll get there myself," the man replied,
"I'm on a horse." (Excerpt from THE DUST BOWL by
Tricia Andryszewski, p. 33.)
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• Depression

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1932 AMERICAN DREAMS ARE SHATTERED

• 14 million Americans are jobless (almost 1/3 the
  workforce)
• Banks foreclose on houses and farms
• No food, no clothes, no jobs
• Recycled lifestyle

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DUST BOWL (DUST STORMS) OF THE SOUTHERN PLAINS
1934-1935
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Black SundayApril 14, 1935

• 24 hours of a blinding dust storm
• Dreaded black-blizzard covers entire disaster
  area
• Drought adds further devastation

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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

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DUST BOWL ORPHANS

• Mass exodus to California
• Opportunities in Russia
• Migrant workers become source of cheap labor

Forty families from the dust bowl have been
camped here for months on the edge of the pea
fields. There has been no work because the crop
was frozen. March, 1937. photograph Dorothea
Lange, photographer.
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Construction worker with wife and neighbors
child in tent home near Alexandria, Louisiana.
Ten men, two women, and two children live here.
December, 1940.
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So What?