• The Dust Bowl• States from Texas to the Dakotas suffered a severe drought• The central Great Plains were hit especially hard• Topsoil dried out & high winds carried the soil away in

blinding dust storms• This area became known as the Dust Bowl

The Nation in Hard Times

• Dust storms buried farmhouses, fences, trees over large areas of the plains

• Shutters over doors & windows couldn’t keep it out• The cause: years of overgrazing by cattle/ plowing had destroyed

the grasses that once held soil • The drought & high winds did the rest

Buried Under Dust

• Hardest hit were poor farmers in Oklahoma & other Great Plains states (known as “Okies”)

• These families packed all belongings in cars/ trucks & headed west• They became migrant workers: people who move from one region to

another in search of work

Migrant Workers

Migrant Workers

• Once they reached the west coast, they were not welcomed

• Locals feared migrant workers would take away their jobs

• Many were attacked by mobs & sent away

• Those who found jobs were paid very little

• Homemakers had to stretch family budgets to make ends meet• Women took in laundry to earn extra $$• Some took in boarders to help pay rent

Women Face the Depression

Women Face the Depression• Women realized unemployed

husbands needed more nurturing to feel worthwhile

• Working women literally worked to death

• In order to spread jobs around, federal gov’t refused to hire a woman if her husband had a job

• # of married women in the workforce increased by 52%• Educated women took jobs as teachers, secretaries, & social workers• Other jobs: maids, factory workers, seamstresses

Women in the Workplace

An Active First Lady

• Eleanor Roosevelt acted as the President’s eyes & ears, touring the country• Visited farms & traveled deep into coal mines• Studied the condition of homemakers & lives of every day people• Used her position to speak out for women’s rights & social injustices

• Af. Ams were usually the first to lose their jobs when the depression hit• 1934 – blacks were suffering a 50% unemployment rate (more than twice the

national average)• Denied public works jobs• FDR tried to help them by providing jobs for them via the CCC

African Americans

African Americans• The President invited black

leaders to the White House to advise him – these unofficial advisers became known as the Black Cabinet

• He followed their wishes BUT denied an anti-lynching law as he feared that by doing so he’d lose the support of the southerners in Congress for his New Deal program

African Americans

• Many black leaders called on Af. Ams to unite and obtain their civil rights: rights due to all citizens

• Blacks voted & used those numbers to keep up pressure for equal treatment

• Fear & insecurity caused by the depression caused violence & discrimination to spread

Other Americans Face the Depression

Mexican Americans• MA’s worked in many cities around the country• Many were farmers in the West & SW• They faced discrimination in education & jobs• Many Americans wanted Mexicans to be sent back (400,000

sent back to Mexico)

Asian Americans

• Americans resented Chinese, Japanese & Filipino workers who competed with them for scarce jobs

• Violence against Asians erupted• The gov’t tried to eliminate violence by reducing the number of Asians in the U.S.• 1935 – FDR signed a law that provided free transportation for Filipinos who agreed

to return to the Philippines & not return

• 1924 – Congress had granted all Nat. Americans citizenship• Still, most Indians continued to live in deep poverty• FDR encouraged new policies towards Native Americans

Native Americans

Indian New Deal: laws that gave Native American nations greater control over their own affairs

• 1934 Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA): Protected & expanded the landholdings of Native American reservations

• FDR also allowed reservations organize corporations & develop their own business projects

To provide jobs during the depression, the gov’t set up the Indian Emergency Conservation Work Group: employed Native Americans in programs of soil-

erosion control, irrigation & land development