Stock Market 1 in 20 families bought stock Dow Jones up 350% in 5 years # of investors drive up prices
Many people speculate on prices of stock “Buy on the margin”
Black Tuesday October 29, 1929
Causes of the Great Depression 1. Lack of Diversity 2. Poor distribution of Purchasing Power 3. Credit Structure 4. International Debt
During the Depression: *9000 banks fail *Depositors lose $2. 5 billion *GNP drops 25% *2 million take to the roads
1929 3% unemployment 1932 24% By 1933 13 million or 1/3 of Americans out of work NO
Wages drop from 1929 $25 per week to $17 in 1932
Farm income drops 60% 1/3 of farmers lose their land Farm prices too low to make money
Farmers dump milk
Kansas 1935
African-American and the Depression Drop in farm prices force many off the land Go to towns
50% unemployment for Southern Blacks Some whites in the South demanded that all Blacks be dismissed so white could have the jobs
Black Shirts – Atlanta “No jobs for Blacks until every white man has a job”
Scottsboro Boys 9 teens arrested in Alabama for rape Convicted despite evidence
Powell v. Alabama Supreme Court overturns conviction th 14 Denied Amendment rights Not given competent legal counsel
Busby Berkeley Musical
Radio
Ed Wynn on the Radio
Abbott & Costello
Hindenburg
John Steinbeck
Erskine Caldwell
Hoover and advisors think country just in a recession Asks business not to lay off workers and labor not to ask for raises No one listens
Hoover wants to avoid government helping – wants private charities to do the job Will later try to help with government spending, but too conservative to spend enough
Reconstruction Finance Company Federal loans to banks Only large banks that are not in too much trouble
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Willis Hawley Reed Smoot
Bread line NYC
Farm Auction
Hoovervilles
PROTESTS
Farmers upset about low crop prices and bank foreclosures *try to keep crops from market *disrupt farm auctions
1924 Congress votes bonus to WWI vets, to be paid in 1945 1932 vets want the money now
Bonus Army Bonus Expeditionary Force 20, 000 veterans and families March on Washington-say they will stay until bonus is passed
Hoover calls out the Army led by Chief of Staff Douglas Mc. Arthur
Camp Marks
Over 100 injured including a 7 year old boy bayoneted in the leg 2 babies killed by gas
1932 Election What do the Republicans do about Hoover?
FDR Happy Days Are Here Again
“I pledge you. . . A New Deal for the American People”