1. Suffering During the Depression
How did urban and rural people get by in
the Great Depression?

2. Suffering at Home
Financial collapse causes people to lose their homes
People wind up on the streets and made makeshift shelters out of what they could find
“Homeless” towns called Shantytowns or Hoovervilles
begin sprouting up in many cities

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

5. Struggles for African Americans and Latinos
Af-Am unemployment is double that of Eur-Ams
Unemployed Whites compete with Blacks for traditionally low paying jobs
1933: Greatest number of lynchings since Reconstruction
In the west, White Americans compete with Hispanics for jobs, demand Hispanics be deported (13K deported to Mexico)

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.
“Migrant Mother”, by Dorothea Lange

7. Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado become the “Dust Bowl”.
Families unable to pay back debt to banks, 400k farms foreclosed upon ( )
Hundreds of thousands of families forced to migrate West along Route 66 (many to California)
Migrants collectively known as “Okies” (derogatory) were discriminated against in jobs, housing, etc

9. “…the riders of freight trains, the thumbers of rides on highways, the
Wanderers
As many as 300,000 “hoboes” (transients) wandered the country
“…the riders of freight
trains, the thumbers of
rides on highways, the
uprooted, unwanted
male population of
America”
Thomas Wolfe,
novelist
What is ironic about this picture?

10. American Family: Effects on Men
Many men became so discouraged they abandoned their families
“Men who have been sturdy
and self-respecting workers
can take unemployment
without flinching for a few
weeks, a few months, even if
they have to see their families
suffer; but it is different after
a year…two years…three
years.”-Frederick Lewis Allen .

11. American Family: Women Struggle to Survive
Women tried to stretch food as far as possible, tried to find work outside of the home but couldn’t be hired if a man needed work
Others were too ashamed to face reality:
“I’ve lived in cities for many
months, broke, without help,
too timid to get in bread lines.
I’ve known many women to
live like this until they simply
faint in the street.”
– Meridel Le Seuer

12. American Family: Children of the Great Depression
-Poor diets and lack of health
care = malnutrition & disease
-Many schools are closed =uneducated future population
-Many teens jump freight trains to “travel the country” = rampant crime by teens & against teens

13. Social and Psychological Effects
-From , suicide rate rose more than 30%
-3X as many people were admitted to state mental hospitals
-Achieving financial stability became the main goal in life
“Ever since I was 12 years old there was
one major goal in my life…and that was to never
be poor again.” - anonymous