10. The Great Depression

Dorothea Lange

A famous photographer who wanted to be one at a young age, and, when the Depression started, landed a job to photograph the Dust Bowl, which have been recognized as showing the desperation and bravery during this time. She didn't stop documenting the suffering of people until her 1965 death, but her 1930s pictures are the most well-known.

John Steinbeck

American novelist who wrote "The Grapes of Wrath". (1939) A story of Dust Bowl victims who travel to California to look for a better life.

Oakies

Farmers who moved to the west after they lost their farm during the severe drought called the Dust Bowl. Lived in shantytowns in California.

Mexican Repatriation

Forced migration of approximately one million Mexicans and Mexican Americans to Mexico between 1929-1937. 60% of people deported were actually children born in the United States. It emerged out of the Great Depression and was a widespread assumption that Mexican Americans were usurpers of American Jobs. Many opted to leave in light of the anti-Mexican climate, but others were coerced to leave. Many accumulated in border towns. In 2005, California passed an apology act in which it officially recognized unconstitutional tactics of coerced deportation of Mexican Americans.

Human Impact of the Great Depression

Homelessness; hunger; overwhelmed private charities; lost farms; failed businesses; high unemployment.

Black Thursday

October 24, 1929, the day the stock market crashed an astounding 9 percent (after a decade of great prosperity); a signal (though not the only cause) of the Great Depression.

Causes of the Great Depression

Overproduction; speculation in the stock market and real estate; tariff barriers that reduced international trade.

Buying on margin

Purchasing stock with a little money down with the promise of paying the balance at sometime in the future.

Dust Bowl

Region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought in 1930 lasting for a decade, leaving many farmers without work or substantial wages. Caused mainly by over-farming and a severe drought.

Hoovervilles

Shanty towns that the unemployed built in the cities during the early years of the Depression; the name given to them shows that the people blamed Hoover directly for the Depression.

The Grapes of Wrath

The story follows the fortunes of a poor family as they travel from the Dust Bowl region to California - based on the Great Depression and written by John Steinbeck.