Chapter 25 The Depression and FDR

Section 3

Life During the Depression

Women Go to Work

The New Deal opened doors for women in public life.

Frances Perkins was appointed by President Roosevelt as the 1st woman ever to serve in the cabinet.

Cont.d

In 1932, Hattie Caraway of Arkansas became the 1st woman to be elected to the U.S Senate.

Cont.d

Eleanor Roosevelt acted as her husband’s (FDR) “eyes and ears.”

She made many fact-finding trips for the presidents because polio limited his mobility.

The Dust Bowl of the Southern Great Plains

What caused the Dust Bowl?

New technology such as tractors and disc plows were used by farmers to clear the sod for wheat farming.

Farmers did not realize that the roots of the grass had held the soil in place.

A severe drought in 1931 dried out the soil and crops died.

Strong prairie winds blew the soil away – dust storms.

The Dust Bowl

The hardest hit:

Kansas

Oklahoma

Northern Texas

Eastern Colorado

New Mexico

Dorothea Lange

Took photographs of migrant workers

Migrant Workers

Thousands of Dust bowl farmers went bankrupt and had to give up their farms.

About 400, 000 migrated to California.

Those from Oklahoma were called “Okies.”

The Plight of the Minorities

The Depression fell especially hard on the minority groups who were already on the lower end of the American economic ladder (p737).

African Americans

About 400,000 men, women, and children migrated to the north during the 1930s.

The jobless rate remained high even after migration

There were some gains politically.

Robert Weaver, a college professor, and Ralph Bunche, who worked for the State Dept. were members of Roosevelt’s Black Cabinet.

Mary McLeod Bethune

Established Bethune-Cookman College in Florida.

Also served as an advisor to the Black Cabinet.

Native Americans

John Collier headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

He halted the sale of reservation land, got jobs for 77,000 Native Americans in the CCC.

He pushed Congress to pass the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

Hispanic Americans

Many migrant workers and farmers were from Mexico.

As the Great Depression deepened, resentment against Mexicans grew.

More than 500,000 Mexican Americans left the U.S. during the early years of the Depression, often involuntarily.

Radical Political Movements

Socialist and Communists viewed the Depression not as a temporary economic problem but as the death of a failed system.

Entertainment and the Arts

Daytime dramas sponsored by laundry detergents earned the nickname “soap operas.”

Gracie Allen and George Burns were comedians in variety shows.

At the Movies

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Images of the Times

Richard Wrights novel – Native Son Painter Grant Wood showed ordinary

people confronting hardships of Depression life.