WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION ? Eliseo Lugo III

TODAY’S OBJECTIVES: By the end of class, students will be able to: Describe how the Great Depression and the New Deal affected women, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Native-Americans. Explain the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl Express how art, radio and movies informed and entertained people during the Depression

WOMEN DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION By the end of the Great Depression, more women were working outside the home than when it began. Women faced little competition from men as salesclerks or secretaries. Women who were schoolteachers or librarians found themselves competing with men who had lost their jobs. Female factory workers were more likely than their male counterparts to lose their jobs or have their wages cut. Many women lost their jobs as domestic workers (maids, housekeepers, or seamstresses) because fewer people could afford these luxuries. Eleanor Roosevelt was a famous woman during the Great Depression. She used her position as First Lady to fight for women’s rights. She was influential in obtaining more government jobs for women. Eleanor Roosevelt

AFRICAN AMERICANS DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION African-Americans suffered more unemployment, homelessness, illness and hunger than whites. African-American sharecroppers were forced off their lands. African-Americans were usually the first fired and last hired for factory jobs. In New York, almost 50% of the African-American population was unemployed.

MEXICAN AND NATIVE- AMERICANS DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION During the Great Depression hundreds of thousands of Mexican. Americans were deported to Mexico. This was a result of white migrant workers now encroaching upon jobs that Mexican-Americans had done during good times. When the Great Depression struck, 170, 000 Native-Americans lived in poverty on Reservations. John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs worked out an Indian New Deal that provided funding for many improvements needed for the lives of Native-Americans. Collier also put reservations under Native-American control. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 helped restrict tribal land sales to non. Native-Americans. John Collier with Native-Americans

THE DUST BOWL The Dust Bowl was created by a drought that occurred in the South West Plains. The drought caused crop failure and sent storms of dust all over the land. These dust storms lasted for five years. Millions of acres of farmland had been converted into what we now call the Dust Bowl

One of the westward highways migrants drove, 1938

Former Missouri farmers, now migrant workers in California, 1936

Children of migrant workers, California, 1937

Migrant pea pickers, and all their worldly possessions, 1936

Man in Maryville migrant camp, figuring his year’s earnings, 1935

Oklahoman family vehicle, stranded by side of the road in California, 1936

Squatters along a highway camp (Hooverville) near Bakersfield, 1935

Migrant family outfit on U. S. 99 between Bakersfield, California, and the Ridge, 1939

Migratory family in auto camp, California, 1936

Migrant laborers, Brawley, Imperial Valley, California

Motherless children, cotton pickers, California, 1935

Drought refugees in migrant camp, California

Eighteen year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California migrant, 1937

Destitute family of pea pickers; mother of seven, California, 1936

LET’S RE-ENFORCE WHAT WE’VE LEARNED TODAY Now that we have covered how life was like during the Great Depression, its time to see how much you’ve retained. Please open your textbooks to page 782 and complete the five checkpoint questions on pages : 783 -787. Feel free to refer back to your notes when completing the checkpoint questions. Don’t forget to complete your Exit Ticket Question!!