1. Effects of the Depression
How did urban and rural people survive during
the Great Depression?

2. Suffering at Home
Financial collapse causes people to lose their homes
People live in makeshift shelters (Hoover hotels) creating Shantytowns known as “Hoovervilles”

3. Soup Kitchens & Bread Lines
To eat people dug through garbage cans. Charities started setting up soup kitchen & bread lines to feed people

5. Racial Issues in 1930s
Af-Am unemployment is 50%, double what the rest of US is
1933: Due to racial competition over traditionally low paying jobs, greatest number of lynchings occur since Reconstruction
In the SW, White Americans compete with Hispanics for jobs, demand Hispanics be deported (13K deported, 200 lynched)
Scottsboro Boys
Nine black teens accused of rape, despite lack evidence all nine are found guilty – Supreme Court rules Alabama must retry case
7 of the 9 were found guilty again in re-trial

6. Depression in Rural America & The Dust Bowl
Rural America hit hard by the Depression & natural catastrophe
Because native plants were removed and the land was overused, top soil blew away during big wind storms known as “Dust Bowl”
“Migrant Mother”, by Dorothea Lange

7. Families can’t farm, unable to pay back debt to banks, 400k farms foreclosed upon (1929-1932)
Hundreds of thousands of families forced to migrate West
Migrants collectively known as “Okies” (derogatory) and were discriminated against in jobs, housing, etc
1. What type of “front” drives dust storms?
2. How much top soil is in the dust storm?
3. How much are farmers losing and how many are fleeing?

9. Effects on the American Family
Men: many became so discouraged they abandoned their families, becomes hoboes “riding the rails”
2. Women: had to stretch food/clothes as far as possible, need jobs but couldn’t be hired if a man needed work
3. Young Children: Poor diets/lack of health care = malnutrition & disease, schools are closed=uneducated future population
4. Teenagers: Many also “ride the rails” to travel the country, results in rampant crime by teens & against teens

10. Social and Psychological Effects
-From , suicide rate rose more than 30%
-3X as many people were admitted to state mental hospitals
-Life becomes “how not to be poor”
“Ever since I was 12 years old there was one major goal in my life…and that was to never be poor again.” - anonymous
Video Questions:
Which major US company also suffered during the Depression?
How many savings accounts were wiped out?
How many families had no support?