Social Effects

• Urban areas– Shantytowns (“Hoovervilles”)• Metal, tarpaper, crates, boxes, car bodies

• According to a basic estimate, the unemployment rate in 1932 at the height of the Depression was

A) 15 percent B) 20 percent C) 25 percent D) 30 percent

• During 1930 and 1931, Hoover’s situation deteriorated even further because

A) all of the answers below B) the Democrats lost heavily in the 1930 elections C) many Americans held Congress responsible for the crisis instead of himD) Americans began using the term “Hoovervilles” to describe shanty towns of the unemployed

• “Here were all these people living in old, rusted-out car bodies, shacks made of orange crates. One entire family lived in a piano box. People lived in whatever they could junk together.” These living quarters refer to

a. Homeless sheltersb. Whoville c. Shantytownsd. Freight trains

September 2008: Homeless encampments are springing up around the country, including this one next to the homeless shelter in downtown Reno, Nev.

In hard times, tent cities rise across the country:Since foreclosure mess, homeless advocates report rise in encampments

Hoboken Shantytown

Tent City of Lakewood

– Hoover• “a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage”• No direct relief

– Soup kitchens and breadlines– Apple selling / pencil selling– “Relief gardens”

• “Two or three blocks along Times Square, you’d see these men, silent, shuffling along. Getting this handout of coffee and doughnuts, dealt out from great trucks. I’d watch their faces and see the flat, expressionless look which spelled disaster.” This eyewitness to history described

a. The Dust Bowlb. A breadlinec. An increase in suicidesd. Eagerness to see a new musical show

Unemployed vying for jobs

• Rural areas– Advantage in depressions lost– Dust Bowl• Grassland plowed up, then “exhausted”• Drought, then wind storms• “Okies” exodus along Rt. 66 to California

Social Effects

• Between 1929 and 1932, farmers in the Dust Bowl experienced all of the following problems except

A) high winds B) a decline in rainfall C) rapidly rising prices D) overproduction in agriculture

• Of the nearly half a million people who fled the Dust Bowl region, almost all moved

a. north b. east c. west d. south

• “They were the wanderers from town to town, the riders of freight trains, the thumbers of rides on highways, the unwanted male population of America.” These men were

a. Traveling salesmenb. Big business leadersc. Hoboesd. Dust Bowl families

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-c6GphpAeY Springsteen and Morello version

Impact on Minorities

• African-Americans– Even higher unemployment %– Increase in racial violence• “Scottsboro boys”

• Mexican-Americans / Asian-Americans– Targets of hostility– Deportations, even for native born

• During the Depression, black Americans suffered special hardships, which were caused by

A) all of the answers below B) unemployed whites seeking positions formerly held by blacks C) the sharecropping system becoming unprofitable D) continuing racial prejudice in the nation

• All of the following are true about African-Americans during this period EXCEPT

a. The “Scottsboro boys” were unfairly tried and convictedb. Their unemployment rate was double the overall ratec. They experienced an increase in racial violenced. They were the only minorities to be targets of hostility

Families

• Men– Most visible

• Searching for work, rise of the hobo

• Women– Suffering in silence

• Targets of resentment, especially if married

• Children– Malnutrition, less school

• Psychological effects– Suicides, mental illness rose

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfylLnHjcu0– Stop at 4:00 general summary

• Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_nh7AKgRTs 0:55 Minorities during the Depression