Life During the Depression

Hard Times in America • Women go to work – Large numbers of women entered the workforce

out of desperation• Tension towards working women • Women earned less than men

– New doors opened for women in public life • First women ever to serve in the President’s Cabinet

– Mrs. Roosevelt • Many Americans sought relief by from the pain of the

Great Depression by writing her letters• Campaigned vigorously for women and families in need

• The Dust Bowl – Kansas, Oklahoma,

Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico

– Thousands of farmers went bankrupt and had to give up their farms. • 400,000 farmers migrated

to California and became migrant workers

The Plight of Minorities

• African Americans – More than half of the African American population

were unemployed in the south • Their jobs were often taken and given to white people

– Social and political gains• NAACP worked to lessen discrimination in the labor

movement – Political life • FDR appointed a number of African Americans to

federal posts

• Native Americans – Indian New Deal Would help restore Native

American culture and heritage • Halted the sale of reservation land • Civilian Conservation Corps put 77,000 Native

Americans to work • New reservation schools• Indian Reorganization Act

– Restored traditional tribal government a– Enlarge some reservations

• Latinos – 1930 2million people of Latino or Hispanic descent

lived in the United States • Worked as small farmers, laborers, migrant workers • Great Depression deepened resentment against Mexican

Americans and many lost their jobs – Government

• The government encourage Mexican immigrant to return to Mexico • Keep from getting relief of offered benefits far below those

given to whites

• Hard times helped radical political groups gain ground in the United States during the Great Depression

• Radical political movements – Socialists and Communists vied the Great Depression

as the death of a failed system and proposed dramatic changes

– As fascism grew in Europe it gained some attention in America and placed blame on Jews, Communists, and liberals for the country’s troubles

Entertainment and the Arts • Radio and Movies

– Radio continued to grow in popularity

– Weekly 85 million people went to the movie theater to escape their troubles • Snow White and the Seven

Dwarfs, and The Wizard of OZ

• Images of the times – Many artists and painters

portrayed the grim realities of the times