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.
The Roaring 20’s
• The new concept of
“credit”
• People were buying:
– Cars
– Appliances
– Clothes
• Fun times reigned:
– Dancing
– Flappers
– Drinking
Why was this bad?
• Credit system
– People didn’t really have
the money they were
spending
• WWI
– The U.S. was a major
credit lender to other
nations in need
– Many of these nations
could not pay back
The Stock Market
• People bought stocks
on margins
– If a stock is $100 you
can pay $10 now and
the rest later when the
stock rose
• Stocks fall
– Now the person has
less than $100 and no
money to pay back
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 employment
agency queues hoping for a job.
People in cities would queue up for
bread to take 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 on vacant
ground
• They were referred to
as “Hoovervilles”
because of President
Hoover’s lack of help
in the Depression.
A drought in the South lead to
dust storms that destroyed crops.
“The Dust Bowl”
The South Was Buried
• 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
Some families tried to make money by
selling useful craft items like baskets.
*FDR*
• When he was
inaugurated
unemployment had
increased by 7
million.
• Poor sections (like
Harlem) had 50% of
the pop. unemployed
• Instigated the “New
Deal”
• Conditions improved
• People everywhere were
affected by the 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…
– Schools
-- Hospitals
– Theatres
-- Water fountains
– Restaurants
– Hotels
– Public transport
– Some states forbid interracial marriages
• These laws were instituted in 1896 and
were not abolished till the late 1950s
(even then still not completely).
• 9 African-American
youths (13-20)
accused of raping 2
white girls in 1931
• Immediately
sentenced to death
• Trials went on for
nearly 15 years
before all the men
were acquitted
• Started on a train bound for
Memphis
• Several white men boarded and
picked a fight with 12 black youths
• Whites were forced off train by the
blacks. The white men reported to
the authorities that the blacks had
raped two white girls on the train
• They were immediately arrested and
tried in front of an all-white jury.
The trials caused a huge uproar
amongst the black community.
• 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
• The character of
“Dill,” Scout and Jem’s
playmate in the novel,
was based upon Lee’s
actual neighbour,
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.
• In 1962 the novel
was turned into a
film starring
Gregory Peck.
• It received a
humanitarian
award and several
Academy Award
nominations
The End (of The Depression)
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