1. The Stock Market Crash
October 29, 1929 is known as Black Tuesday. On this day the stock market crashed, prices began to drop and the Great Depression began. Banks were forced to close and people lost all their savings. Many businesses started cutting back wages, laying off their employees, and closing their doors. On the eve of the Great Depression, most Texans lived on farms, ranches or in small towns. Though the previous decade saw successes in oil, the economy was still dominated by agriculture – cotton in the north, and livestock in the west. When the stock market crashed in 1929, many Texans believed the state’s rural nature would protect the region from the worst of the depression. As the nation’s economy collapsed, it became clear that Texas would suffer, too. Across the state, agriculture and oil and suffered from the growing economic depression.

2. Squatters During The Great Depression
Description: Squatters (homeless people) in San Antonio, Texas. This house was built of scrap material in vacant (empty) lot in San Antonio, Texas.
March Photographer: Russell Lee.

3. Migrant Mother
Lange, Dorothea, photographer Date Created/Published: 1936 Feb. or Mar.
Description: Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother," shows a jobless mother and her children. These people had just sold their tent in order to buy food. Most of the 2,500 people in this camp were homeless. By the end of the decade there were still 4 million migrants on the road.