The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic downturn that began in some countries as early as 1928 and lasted until about 1939. In the US, it was associated with the stock market crash of 1929. During the worst years of 1933-1934, the overall US jobless rate was 25% and another 25% had reduced wages and hours. With high unemployment and poverty, many families lost their homes and lived in shantytowns called "Hoovervilles." The Dust Bowl drought from 1930-1940 exacerbated the situation, causing many farmers to abandon their land and migrate west in search of work. Racial minorities such as African Americans were disproportionately affected by the Depression.

1. The Great Depression

2. • The Great Depression was a
dramatic, worldwide economic
downturn beginning in some
countries as early as 1928.
• The beginning of the Great
Depression in the United States is
associated with the stock market
crash on October 29, 1929.

3. During the worst years (1933 – 1934) the overall
jobless rate was 25%, with another 25% of
breadwinners having their wages and hours cut.

5. With increased joblessness, poverty increased. People had a
tough time paying for the basics, such as housing and food. In
the absence of substantial government relief programs during
1932, free food was distributed with private funds in some
urban centers to large numbers of the unemployed.

7. Even important holidays were affected.
This family is eating Christmas dinner.

8. Those who could not find jobs often took to the
roads, either alone or with their families.
Thousands of men regularly rode the rails.

9. Many people lost their homes, and were forced to set
up new homes in shantytowns throughout the nation
that became known as “Hoovervilles.”

11. The Dust Bowl
• Contributing to the woe, between 1930 and
1940, the southwestern Great Plains region
suffered a severe drought.
• With the onset of the drought, the land began
to blow away. Winds whipped across the
plains, raising billowing clouds of dust.
• The sky could darken for days, and even well-
sealed homes could have a thick layer of dust
on the furniture.

12. Dust Storm in Oklahoma

13. Dust Storm in South Dakota

14. Nineteen states in the heartland of the United States
became a vast dust bowl. With no chance of making a
living, farm families abandoned their homes and land,
fleeing westward to become migrant laborers.

18. John Steinbeck describes the flight of families from the Dust Bowl:
“And then the dispossessed were drawn west -- from
Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas; from Nevada and Arkansas,
families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads,
caravans, homeless and hungry: twenty thousand and two
hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains,
hungry and restless -- restless as ants, scurrying to find
work to do -- to lift, to push, to pick, to cut -- anything,
any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We
got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for
food, and most of all for land.”

22. Race Relations
During the Great Depression

23. Race Relations
• The problems of the Great Depression affected
virtually every group of Americans. African
Americans were hit the hardest
• By 1932, half of African Americans were out of
work.
• Racial violence became more common,
especially in the South. Lynchings, which had
declined to eight in 1932, surged to 28 in 1933.

24. Sharecropper and His Wife

25. Cotton Pickers