Chapter+25+Life+During+the+Depression

= Unemployment  = = Relief = = Farm Life =
 * Many believed in personal responsibility for one's own fate ( [|unemployment] /poverty were signs of failure)
 * Examples:
 * Cleveland, Ohio in 1932 had unemployment rate of 50%
 * Akron had rate of 60%
 * Toledo had rate of 80%
 * Number of families that turned to state/local public relief increased but the relief systems were not equipped for the high demands that were placed on them
 * private charities tried to supplement public efforts but also could not face the demands
 * state govts. felt pressured to expand assistance to unemployed but could not place more strain on the budget
 * breadlines stretched for blocks outside of soup kitchens at Red Cross and Salvation Army
 * thousands looked through trash cans for food
 * almost 2 million young men became nomads by riding freight trains from city to city
 * farm income decreased by 60% between 1929 and 1932 [[image:dust_bowl.jpg width="203" height="158" align="right"]]
 * 1/3 of all American farmers lost their land
 * Great Plains of the South and West suffered from horrific decade long drought
 * Texas to the Dakotas became known as the [|Dust Bowl] starting in 1930
 * decline in rainfall and increase in heat
 * swarms of grashoppers destroyed what crops were left
 * dust storms or "black blizzards" blocked out sun and suffocated any living creatures left outside
 * "Okies" or families from the Dust Bowl usually from Oklahoma moved to CA looking for better conditions but usually not found

= African Americans = = Mexican Americans (called Chicanos) = = Asian Americans = = Women = = Families = = = = =
 * suffered from more malnutrition, disease, unemployment, and homelessness than most whites
 * more than half still lived in South at beginning of depression
 * since price of cotton fell so dramatically many were left unemployed (but unemployed whites felt they had first claim to any available jobs)
 * whites created organizations and intimidation to drive African Americans from jobs (ex. Black Shirts in Atlanta had the slogan "No Jobs for Niggers Until Every White Man has a Job!")
 * many migrate to the North which had conditions not much better then the South but were less blatantly discriminated against
 * [|Scottsboro Case] of 1931
 * 9 black teens were kicked off a freight train and arrested for vagrancy and disorder and later accused of raping two white women (although all medical evidence showed that the women had not been raped)
 * all-white jury in the Alabama courthouse found all 9 guilty and sentenced to death
 * case was overturned in 1932 by Supreme Court
 * new trials began and the International Labor Defense and NAACP help defend the accused
 * all eventually gained freedom although never acquitted (4 because charges were dropped, 4 because they got early parole, and 1 because he escaped)
 * NAACP worked to help break racial barriers that were in labor unions, form Congress of Industrial Organizations, and gain spot for blacks in labor movement
 * mostly lived in urban areas of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Detroit, Chicago, and New York
 * some were farming migrantsa or held menial jobs
 * like blacks the whites demanded jobs over Mexican Americans
 * unemployment levels rose quickly and some were forced to leave country by officials (about half a million left US for Mexico in the first years of Depression)
 * discriminated against and not included in most relief programs, no access to American schools, and refused admission to hospitals [[image:VP19CANOGS8JCA7SV62RCA399ZM3CAWMNGO1CAOHQ5ERCAXO1M22CADORKZFCA9QZ1FYCAB8065JCAY7FH3ECA9R8YVWCA24712JCANK6M1SCA196W4BCAJPEA8MCASM08UNCARZGKMLCA7A3E2FCA4DMSJB.jpg width="174" height="131" align="center"]]
 * some organized in California as a union of migrant farmers but never had much impact because of the harsh repression
 * also discriminated against
 * largest pop. of Japanese-Americans and Chinese-Americans was in California where even for those that were educated it was hard/impossible to get major profession
 * most Japanese-Americans worked at family fruit stands including college graduates
 * Japanese American Democratic Clubs created to get laws protecting racial/ethnic minorities from discrimination passed
 * Japanese American Citizens League was created in 1930 to encourage assimilation of the Nisei
 * Chinese-Americans continued to suffer as well and still worked in family owned laundries/restaurants
 * in 1930s single + married women worked outside the home because they were in need of money even though it was publicly frowned upon
 * 20% more women working at end of Depression than at the beginning
 * nonprofessional jobs (salesclerks, stenographers and other service jobs) held by women were less likely to disappear than the industrial jobs of men
 * black women suffered greatly from unemployment but still by the end 38% of black wome [[image:Great_Depression_Woman_and_Children.jpg width="252" height="320" align="right"]] n were working and only 24% if white women
 * went from increasing standard of living in 1920s to the uncertainty of the Depression
 * retreat from consumerism
 * women sewed clothes for family and preserved their own food
 * some started home businesses (ex. taking laundry, selling baked goods, or accepting boarders)
 * distant relatives/entire families lived together
 * decline in divorce rate but mostly because it was too expensive instead [|families] just broke apart
 * marriage and birth rates also declined

Sources/Extra Information: Textbook, [|Pictures]