Station 1 The Dust Bowl Station 2 Women

Station 1 The Dust Bowl Station 2 Women Station 3 Men Station 4 Children The Human Impact of the Great Depression Station 5 African Americans Station 6 Psychological Effects

Station 1: The Dust Bowl “Migrant Mother” photographed by Dorothea Lange

Optional: Watch a video about Dust Storms here (if you have headphones).

During the Depression, schools across the Plains sent students home because of the dust storms. Some school administrators were worried about what might happen to the students' health. There had been cases of "dust pneumonia" where dust clogged up the lungs just like the disease. Other administrators and teachers, especially in the southern Plains, knew that people had gotten lost in dust storms when visibility went to zero. “One of South Dakota’s Black Blizzards, 1934”

Some of the Dust Bowl refugees headed for nearby cities in hopes of finding work. However, with the unemployment rate still high, jobs were scarce, so many more people left the region entirely. Like the fictional Joad family in John Steinbeck’s novel about Dust Bowl migrants, The Grapes of Wrath, those who left often followed U. S. Route 66 to California appealed to migrants for its promise of farmwork in the fertile Central Valley. Californians nicknamed the newcomers Okies because many of them came from Oklahoma.

Station 2: Women Voice of a woman in the 30 s

In many ways men and women experienced the Depression differently. Men were socialized to think of themselves as breadwinners; when they lost their jobs or saw their incomes reduced, they felt like failures because they couldn’t take care of their families. Women, on the other hand, saw their roles in the household enhanced as they juggled to make ends meet. “ The Depression did little to alter the role of women in the American workplace. According to the 1930 census almost eleven million women, or 24. 3 percent of all women in the country, were gainfully employed. Three out of every ten of these working women were in domestic or personal service. Of professional women three-quarters were schoolteachers or nurses. The men, cut adrift from their usual routine, lost much of their sense of time and dawdled helplessly and dully about the streets; while in the homes the women’s world remained largely intact and the round of cooking, housecleaning, and mending became if anything more absorbing. ” To put it another way, no housewife lost her job in the Depression.

Station 3: Men Hoboes were mostly men who wandered the country, sleeping under bridges, and riding the tops of trains to go to a new place.

Hopping on a moving freight train was a dangerous act, but thousands of men and women did it. At least 6, 500 hoboes were killed in one year either in accidents or by “bulls, ” brutal guards hired to make sure the rails carried paid customers. Men finding themselves out of work now had to rely on their wives and children in some cases to help make ends meet. Many did not take this loss of power as the primary decision maker and breadwinner very well. Many stopped looking for work, paralyzed by their bleak chances and lack of self-respect. Some became so frustrated that they just walked out on their families completely.

Station 4: Children A school in Alabama during the Depression Families often played games to entertain themselves. Monopoly came out in 1933 as a family game – do you notice any ironies here?

Rather than watch their children starve, many families elected to send children to various relatives or friends in other places. Sometimes this was done out of a hope of a better existence, but in many cases it was simply to have one less mouth to feed. Children who were displaced or sent away from their parents and siblings often felt profoundly isolated, and many did not understand why they could not remain at home. This was particularly true when some, but not all, children were relocated. Those forced to leave often resented those who were allowed to stay, particularly if they perceived their new circumstances to be harsher.

IMPACT ON AFRICAN AMERICANS AND HISPANICS Station 5: African Americans Numerous racial concerns persisted through the Great Depression. One example can be seen through the Scottsboro Boys. The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers accused in Alabama of raping two white women on a train in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The cases included an angry lynch mob before the suspects had been indicted, all-white juries, rushed trials, and disruptive mobs. It is frequently cited as an example of an overall miscarriage of justice. Furthermore, African American organizations became split due t difference goals. Fighting poverty and discrimination simultaneously was a hard thing to do. Unemployment in African American families was about 30 -60% higher compared to white families. The conflict with the Scottsboro boys were just one example of the racism in the USA.

The KKK’s philosophy was that all white men should be employed before an African American 2 iron ore workers during the 1930 s In 1929, the Great Depression devastated the United States. Hard times came to people throughout the country, especially rural blacks. Cotton prices plunged from eighteen to six cents a pound. Two thirds of some two million black farmers earned nothing or went into debt. Hundreds of thousands of sharecroppers left the land for the cities, leaving behind abandoned fields and homes. Even "Negro jobs" -jobs traditionally held by blacks, such as busboys, elevator operators, garbage men, porters, maids, and cooks -- were sought by desperate unemployed whites.

Lynchings in America 1877 -1950 Notice the trends in the bar graph. What do you notice about the 1920 s and 1930 s compared to other years? What does this tell us about conditions in the South?

Station 6: Psychological Effects Positives - Sense of unity and brotherhood/sisterhood Strong sense of charity Kindness and generosity to strangers Negatives - Suicide rates rise - Mental institutions rise - Failed families The habits formed in the Depression shaped an entire generation.