1. Suffering, Determination and Humor
Crash and Depression Learning Unit
Mrs. Deming
Crash and Depression Learning Unit
Mrs. Deming

2. Great Depression
Wage cuts and unemployment affected all levels of society, making many people homeless.
The Depression affected people’s mental and physical health.
Conditions for farmers and African Americans worsened during the Depression.

3. Life Examples Savings account gone due to bank closing
Parent’s lose job—can’t pay rent, evicted
Eating nothing but soup for weeks

4. “Hoovervilles” Shanty towns made out of cardboard and scrap material
Built for the homeless—see pg. 487
Mocked President Hoover

5. Farming Community Lost farms to the banks
Landowners expelled sharecroppers
Dust Bowl = drought and dust storms that hit the Great Plains

6. Psychological Problems
Anxiety over losing job or unemployment
Depression, suicide rates increased
Easily became sick due to poor nutrition—children really affected
Begging for food
Overcrowded living conditions
Working women accused of taking jobs away from men--fired

7. Discrimination African American unemployment soared to 56%
Relief programs refused to help African Americans
Black churches & organizations gave private help

8. How did people respond?
The Great Depression left a lasting impression on those who lived through it.
People had good memories of working together and helping each other.
The Depression ended the era of the 1920s.

9. Reaction People pulled together to help each other.
Tenant groups formed to protest rent increases and evictions.
Religious, political and charitable groups set up soup kitchens and breadlines to feed the hungry.
“Penny Auctions”—Bid pennies on land and machinery--returned them to their original owners.

10. Teenagers?
Left homes out of necessity or a desire to seek a better life
Roughly 250,000 teens riding on freight trains looking for work or thrills
“I wanted to stay home and fight poverty with my family. But my father told me I had to leave….But I didn’t have it in my mind to leave until he told me, “Go fend for yourself. I cannot afford to have you around any longer.” Clarence Lee

11. Depression Humor
Jokes and cartoons kept people laughing through their troubles
“Hoover Blankets”—people huddled under newspapers
“Hoover Flags”—pockets turned inside out

12. Prohibition Repealed (overturned)
21st Amendment = eliminated the ban on alcoholic beverages
Stimulated the economy---grain growing, breweries, pretzel industry
End to a failed social experiment & gangsters profiting on bootlegging

13. Hope? The Empire State Building was a symbol of hope
people worked on the world’s tallest building

14. Monopoly Charles B. Darrow—unemployed, created a compelling board game
Fantasy of acquiring land, houses and hotels they could rent or sell
Parker Brothers rejected at first due to design failures
Estimated over 500 million have played Monopoly