24.4: The New Deal in the South and West

A. Southern Farming and Landholding 1.In 1930, less than ½ of all southern farmer owned their land; over ¾ of the region’s African-American farmers and nearly ½ of its white farmers were sharecroppers or tenants. 2.The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) was able to boost prices by paying farmers to “plow under— take their land out of production. 3.Many of the subsidies went to large landowners who used the money to buy labor-saving machinery, which put many out of work. 4.Those who were put out of work were forced to migrate to industrial centers such as Memphis, Chicago, Birmingham, and Detroit.

B. The Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl, caused by farmers’ methods that stripped the landscape of its natural vegetation and left nothing behind to hold down the topsoil, swept through parts of the region.

MAP 24.2 The Dust Bowl, 1935–40 This map shows the extent of the Dust Bowl in the Southern Great Plains. Federal programs designed to improve soil conservation, water management, and farming practices could not prevent a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands out of the Great Plains.

Years of Dust. This 1936 poster by the artist and photographer Ben Shahn, served to publicize the work of the Resettlement Administration, which offered aid to destitute farm families hit hard by the Dust Bowl. Shahn’s stark imagery here was typical of the documentary aesthetic associated with Depression-era art and photography. SOURCE:The Granger Collection.

C. The Government and the Dust Bowl 1.Farmers were encouraged to plant soil-enriching crops. 2.The Soil Conservation Service provided assistance to farmers engaged in conservation work. 3.The AAA provided subsidies to farmers who reduced their acreage. 4.As landowners reduced acreage by evicting their tenants and sharecroppers, these families became part of a stream of “Okies.” 5.Responding to rising racial hostility, officials carried out an aggressive deportation campaign against Mexicans and Mexican Americans.