The Depression & American Society
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Transcript of The Depression & American Society
Mr. ErmerU.S. History
Miami Beach Senior High
THE DEPRESSION & AMERICAN SOCIETY
• 1930: More than half of African-Americans live in the South as farmers
• Decline in cotton prices leave many African-Americans without sufficient incomes
• African-Americans forced to leave rural areas for cities, whites occupy jobs formerly for blacks
• Black Shirts• 1932: More than half of southern African-Americans
unemployed• Even in northern cities, African-American unemployment at 50% or
more• The Scottsboro Case, illustrates survival of racism and
segregation in South• NAACP defends African-American rights, and argues for
membership in unions
AFRICAN AMERICANS & THE DEPRESSION
• Mexican-Americans experience similar discrimination as African-Americans
• Many had filled the same types of menial labor jobs in the West as blacks in the South
• Many rural families become migrant agricultural workers• Most Mex-Americans live in cities, fill the low skill industrial jobs, high
unemployment• Many relief programs exclude Mexicans from their rolls• Many Mexicans & Mexican-Americans leave for Mexico, or deported
(including citizens)• Latinos generally had no access to schools, many hospitals refused to
treat them
MEXICAN-AMERICANS & THE DEPRESSION
• Reinforces belief that women’s place was in the home, not workplace
• Women whose husbands were employed commonly refused work• Many women, however, were employed and worked through 1930s• By the end of the Depression 20% more women worked than before the crash
• Still, women more likely to be denied professional work and to be laid off
• Traditionally female service jobs less likely to decline as male dominated heavy industry
• Even unemployed men do not seek out “women’s work”
• African-American women suffer the most during the depression
WOMEN &THE DEPRESSION
• Retreat from consumerism• Women return to sewing clothes for families, selves• Home businesses like laundry service, baked goods, boarding on rise• Divorce rate declines because of high cost of court fees, informal
family breakups• Men leave home to find work in far off places, or to escape humiliation
of unemployment• Birth rates and marriage rates decline, some traditional family
values/roles resurge • Persistence of the “Success Ethic”• Some criticize the economic system in general, many
blame selves• Social unrest not as high as expected due to passivity of unemployed• Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)
THE DEPRESSION, FAMILIES, & AMERICAN VALUES
• Popular Front: coalition of “antifascist” groups, including Communist Party
• Paint the Great Depression as the failure of the capitalist system• Spanish Civil-War being fought between Franco’s fascists (supported by
Hitler & Mussolini) and the republican government, many Americans fight against Franco
• Under directions of the Soviet Union, American Communist Party joins with other groups
• Support for FDR and the New Deal, FDR seen as possible Soviet ally versus Hitler
• Southern Tenant Farmers Union• Being part of the Political Left becomes more acceptable,
even conventional
THE LEFT & THE POPULAR FRONT