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

2. Suffering at Home
Financial collapse causes people to lose their homes
People live in makeshift shelters, “homeless” towns called Shantytowns or Hoovervilles spring up

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 (50%) is double that of Eur-Ams (25%)
Unemployed Whites now 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 called “Dust Bowl”
“Migrant Mother”, by Dorothea Lange

7. Dust Bowl affects Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado
Families cant farm, 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
Men: many became so discouraged they abandoned their families
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 jump freight trains to “travel the country” = rampant crime by teens & against teens

11. 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
Video Questions:
Which major US company also suffered during the Depression?
How many savings accounts were wiped out?
How many families had no support?