Texas History Part Four

11: The Great Depression, New Deal and World War II

Dr. Butler

All images used in this slideshow are either in the Public Domain

or used under the “Fair Use” provision of U.S. Copyright law.

Texas and the Great Depression

1929-1941

During the Great Depression, which began in 1929, following 8 years of Republican

rule, the United States suffered an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate was 25%. Although Texas was also hard hit, its

jobless rate was lower than the national average.

In 1928, before the Depression began (and for

the first time ever), Texas had given its electoral

votes to a Republican, former Secretary of

Commerce, Herbert Hoover.

But in 1932, after nearly four years of a

crisis that Hoover seemed unable to

handle, Texans, and the nation, voted

overwhelmingly for the Democratic

nominee, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Texas and the Dust Bowl

1933-1941

Texas was one of the hardest hit of the “Dust Bowl” Drought states.

3 min. 02 sec.

Dust Bowl Refugee

Oklahoma-born Woody Guthrie was living in Pampa,

Texas when the Dust Bowl drought began. It inspired him

to write an entire record album of music called “Dust

Bowl Ballads,” which were also inspired by the plight of

the people whose lives were impacted by the drought.

Guthrie is best known as the

writer (and first performer) of

the song “This Land is Your

Land.”

Texas and the New Deal

1933-1941

FDR, who promised Americans a ”New Deal,

chose John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner of

Texas to serve as vice-president during his first

two terms.

Congressman Sam Rayburn of Bonham, Texas,

who later became Speaker of the House, was

another FDR ally during the New Deal years.

During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps put 3 million young

men to work, providing jobs, and saving and improving America’s natural resources.

The CCC helped improve city, state and national parks all across Texas during

the New Deal era. Many of their improvements are still being used today.

8 min. 41 sec.

CCC Company 2896 at Camp White Rock was one

of several such camps in Texas.

Statute at

White Rock

Lake Park

honoring

the CCC

A historical marker overlooking the site of the

White Rock CCC camp was erected in 2006.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) built this

picnic shelter at White Rock Lake Park.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built bridges

at White Rock Lake Park and other places.

The WPA also built the decorative peristyle

overlooking the so-called “grassy knoll” in

Dealey Plaza, near the spot where President

Kennedy was killed in 1963.

The National Youth Administration

(NYA) built the reflecting pools and

fountains at Dealey Plaza.

In Texas, the NYA was administered by a

young director named Lyndon B. Johnson.

2 min. 38 sec.

As a freshman Congressman, Johnson was also

instrumental in bringing jobs, money, and

electricity to his Hill Country district.

Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow of Dallas were two of the most notorious

outlaws in American history. In their lifetime and in the years since their

deaths, these two murderous robbers have become folk heroes.

Bonnie and Clyde first met in 1930. Their crime spree, which lasted only

two years (1932-1934) took them all over Texas and the Midwest. Their

accomplices included Clyde’s brother Buck and his wife Blanche and

partners like Henry Methvin and W.D. Jones.

On May 23, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were shot and killed in a roadside

ambush, near Gibsland, Louisiana, by Texas and Louisiana lawmen,

Their car was sprayed with 130 rounds of bullets, about 50 of

which hit Bonnie and Clyde.

Bonnie Parker is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, just off Webb’s

Chapel Road in NW Dallas.

Clyde and “Buck” Barrow are buried in Western Heights

Cemetery, on Fort Worth Avenue, in Oak Cliff.

2 min. 38 sec.

In 1967 a movie about Bonnie & Clyde, starring Warren

Beatty and Faye Dunaway was filmed in and near Dallas.

2 min. 54 sec.

The Texas Centennial Exposition

and Pan American Exposition

1936-1937

In the 1930s expositions

were held in Chicago

(1933), San Diego (1935),

Cleveland ( 1936-1937),

New York (1939-1940)

and San Francisco (1939)

In 1936 Dallas hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition at Fair Park.

The Centennial Exposition was a world’s fair.

Construction for it provided jobs for thousands of

unemployed Dallasites.

FDR and his wife Eleanor visited the Texas Centennial Exposition, June 12, 1936

At the Cotton Bowl, President Roosevelt gave a

nationally broadcast radio address.

“You are 100 years young!”

declared FDR.

2 min. 38 sec.

In 1937, Dallas hosted the Greater Texas and

Pan American Exposition.

Texas and World War II

1941-1945

General Dwight D.

Eisenhower, Supreme Allied

Commander in Europe (and

future U.S. President), was a

native of Texas, born 1890 in

Denison. He survived the war

and then went on to become

President of the United States.

During the Second World War,

750,000 Texans served in the

military, not only as combat troops

but also at the highest levels of

command.7 min. 39 sec.

Rear Admiral Chester Nimitz, who

commanded the entire U.S. Pacific

Fleet, was also a native of Texas,

born in the Hill Country town of

Fredericksburg in 1885.

6 min. 00 sec.

1 min. 46 sec.

Texas-born Audie Murphy was the most highly-decorated American soldier of WWII.

He won the Congressional medal of honor and 23 other medals. After the war he starred

in motion pictures, including the biographical “To Hell and Back.”

3 min. 22 sec.

Doris “Dorie” Miller, of Waco,

Texas, received the Navy Cross for

valor during the Japanese sneak

attack on Pearl Harbor, December

7, 1941. He died two years later,

after a Japanese submarine sank the

ship on which he was serving.

3 min. 13 sec.

Thousand of German soldiers, captured in North Africa and

elsewhere, were sent to Prisoner-of-War camps in the United

States. 45,000 P.OW.s were imprisoned in camps in Texas.

In 1944, 300 of Rommel’s

men were incarcerated at

the old CCC camp at White

Rock Lake Park in Dallas.

During their imprisonment,

the Germans were put to

work repairing U.S. Army

equipment in a rented

exposition building at Fair

Park.

During the Second World War, Royal Air Force

pilots were trained at an airfield near Terrell,

Texas. Here is a photo of the graves of RAF

pilots who died in accidents while in training.43 sec.