Transcript Document

1929-1939
• Stock market
crash
• Didn’t realize
the effect it
would have
• No money to
replenish what
was borrowed
Many found being broke
humiliating.
And then….
• With people panicking
about their money
investors tried to sell
their stocks
– This leads to a huge decline
in stocks
– Stocks were worthless now
• People who bought on
“margins” now could not
pay
• Investors were average
people that were now broke
• Herbert Hoover was
president at the start
• Philosophy: We’ll
make it!
• What He Did: Nothing
• The poor were looking
for help and no ideas
on how to correct or
help were coming
• Farmers were already feeling the effects
– Prices of crops went down
– Many farms foreclosed
• People could not afford luxuries
– Factories shut down
– Businesses went out
• Banks could not pay out money
• People could not pay their taxes
– Schools shut down due to lack of funds
• Many families became homeless and had
to live in shanties
Many waited in unemployment
lines hoping for a job.
People in cities would wait in line for
bread to bring to their family.
Some families were forced to relocate
because they had no money.
“Hooverville”
• Some families were
forced to live in
shanty towns
– A grouping of shacks
and tents in vacant
lots
• They were referred to
as “Hooverville”
because of President
Hoover’s lack of help
during the depression.
Dust Bowl Buried the South
• Crops turned to dust=No food to
be sent out
• Homes buried
• Fields blown away
• South in state of emergency
• Dust Bowl the #1 weather crisis
of the 20th century
Two Families During
the Depression
A Farm Foreclosure
*FDR*
• When he was
inaugurated
unemployment had
increased by 7
million.
• Poor sections (like
Harlem) had 50% of
the pop. unemployed
• Instated the “New
Deal”
• Yea! Frankie!
• New Deal helped recover
from Great Depression
• It wasn’t till President
Roosevelt took over and tried
to put the economy back
together that people even saw
a glimmer of hope
Major Historical Happenings...
• Jim Crow Laws
• Scottsboro
Trials
• Recovering
from the Great
Depression
• Racial Injustice
• Poor South
Jim Crow Laws
• After the American Civil War
most states in the South
passed anti-African
American legislation. These
became known as Jim Crow
laws.
• These laws included
segregation in public places
and even in marriage.
• These laws were instituted in 1896 and
were not abolished till the late 1950’s
(even then still not completely).
More about Jim Crow Laws
Most American states enforced segregation through
"Jim Crow" laws (so called after a black character
in minstrel shows).
From Delaware to California, and from North
Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could
impose legal punishments on people for mingling
with members of another race.
The most common types of laws forbade
intermarriage and ordered business owners and
public institutions to keep blacks and whites
separated.
Some Facilities that Were Separate:
Bus station waiting rooms and ticket windows
Railroad cars or coaches
Restaurants and lunch counters
Schools and public parks
Restrooms and water fountains
Sections of movie theaters
There were even separate cemeteries
At the bus station, Durham, North Carolina, 1940.
Greyhound bus terminal, Memphis, Tennessee. 1943.
A rest stop for bus passengers on the way from
Louisville, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, with
separate entrance for Blacks. 1943.
A sign at bus station, Rome, Georgia. 1943.
A highway sign advertising tourist cabins for
Blacks, South Carolina. 1939.
Cafe, Durham, North Carolina. 1939.
Drinking fountain on the courthouse lawn, Halifax,
North Carolina. 1938.
Movie theater’s "Colored" entrance, Belzoni,
Mississippi. 1939.
The Rex theater for colored people,
Leland, Mississippi. June 1937.
Restaurant, Lancaster, Ohio. 1938.
Water cooler in the street car terminal, Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. 1939.
Sign above movie theater, Waco, Texas. 1939.
Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee. 1939.
• 9 young AfricanAmerican men (13-20)
accused of raping 2
white girls in 1931
• Immediately sentenced
to death by an all
white jury
• Trials went on for
nearly 15 years before
all the men were
dismissed
The trials caused a huge uproar
amongst the black community.
HARPER LEE
•
•
•
•
(Nellie) Harper Lee
BORN: April 28, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH: Monroe, Alabama
PARENTS: Amasa C. and Frances
(Finch) Lee
Related to Robert E. Lee
EDUCATION
• Monroe, Alabama Public School
• Huntington College in
Montgomery, Alabama
(1944)
• attended Oxford College one year
as a Fullbright scholar
• Wrote To Kill a
Mockingbird in
1960
• Based the story on
her life growing
up in Monroeville,
Alabama
• TKAM was the
only novel she
ever wrote
OVERVIEW OF THE
NOVEL
• AUTHOR: Harper Lee
• PUBLICATION DATE: 1960
• SETTING: Maycomb, Alabama
1933-1935
• THEMES: Lack of and need for human
compassion
Need for individual conscience
Discrimination in various forms
POINT OF VIEW: First person narrative by
elder Scout (that’s why she sounds smart)
•
Finch Family
• JEAN LOUISE “SCOUT” FINCH – adult
narrator as story begins; narrates
story in retrospect; relates events that
begin when she is 6 years old.
• ATTICUS FINCH – lawyer, father of Scout
and Jem; widower
• JEM FINCH – Scout’s brother, who is 4
years older than she.
• CHARLES BAKER “DILL” HARRIS –
MORE CHARACTERS
• ARTHUR “BOO” RADLEY –
• CHARLES BAKER “DILL” HARRIS • CALPURNIA –
• TOM ROBINSON –
• MAYELLA EWELL –
• The character of
“Dill,” Scout and Jem’s
playmate in the novel
was based upon Lee’s
actual neighbor,
Truman Capote
• Capote is famous for
amongst other things,
In Cold Blood and
Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
• It has been said that he
gave Lee Mockingbird
as a gift.
AUTHOR’S LINKS TO THE
NOVEL’S PLOT AND
CHARACTERS
• Harper Lee’s father was a Southern lawyer. He
served as the prototype for Atticus Finch.
• Harper Lee’s age (6 to 8) correlates with Scout’s
age during 1933-1935, the time period of the
book.
• The courtroom in Maycomb is patterned after
the one in Monroeville where Harper Lee
observed her father in courtroom proceedings.
• Tom Robinson’s trial appears to be a composite
of many trials in the South, specifically the
Scottsboro trials.
• Some of the novel’s characters are composites of
people Harper Lee knew personally; for example,
the author Truman Capote as Dill.
• In 1962 the novel
was turned into a
film starring
Gregory Peck.
• It received a
humanitarian
award and several
Academy Award
nominations