The Great Depression
was included in the 1933 Inaugural Address of FDR
"This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and prosper. So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
Bonus Army
1932 - Facing the financial crisis of the Depression, WW I veterans tried to pressure Congress to pay them their retirement bonuses early. Congress considered a bill authorizing immediate assurance of $2.4 billion, but it was not approved. Angry veterans marched on Washington, D.C., and Hoover called in the army to get the veterans out of there.
Indian Reorganization Act (IRA)
1934 act that ended the Dawes Act, authorized, but failed to bring self-government for those living on reservations, extended tribal landholdings, and pledged to uphold native customs and language.
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
A New Deal agency that hired jobless people to repair/build public buildings and parks such as schools, government offices, post offices, AND pave roads, build bridges and airports AND support artists and writers. It employed people while improving/expanding the country's infrastructure.
Huey Long
A New Deal critic, Democratic senator from Louisiana who proposed to tax the wealthy and distribute their wealth to the poor
Mary McLeod Bethune
A leader in the struggle for women's and black equality. An educator, she founded a school for African American students that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University. She also served as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
A major public works program in the New Deal that employed workers for national parks, forests, wilderness areas to build reservoirs, parks, irrigation canals and plant trees. It provided jobs while conserving natural resources.
migrant worker
A person who moves from place to place to find work usually in agriculture harvesting fruits and vegetables
Francis Townsend
A retired physician who proposed an Old Age Revolving Pension Plan to give every retiree over age 60 $200 per month (using money from a 2% federal sales tax), provided that the person spend the money each month in order to receive their next payment. The object of Townsend's plan was to help retired workers as well as stimulate spending. This plan helped to craft the Social Security System.
overproduction
A situation in which production/supply of goods exceeds the demand for them
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.
Thomas Hart Benton
An American (an Missouri born) painter and muralist who depicted everyday Americans in their ordinary daily lives. Benton's murals grace the walls of the House Lounge in the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City, MO.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
An agency created in 1933 to insure individuals' bank accounts, protecting people against losses due to bank failures by guaranteeing individual deposits up to a set level. Restored confidence in banks.
Stock Market Crash
As consumer buying of homes, cars, appliances slowed down (once they already owned them), industries started to fail, unemployment rose, investors who had bought stock on margin defaulted on their loans and stock prices of failing industries began to drop, eventually causing the
lay-offs, unemployment, business closing
Bankruptcy leads to
Charles Coughlin
Catholic priest who used his popular radio program to criticize the New Deal; he grew increasingly anti-Roosevelt and anti-Semitic until the Catholic Church pulled him off the air.
overproduction, less consumer purchasing, loan defaults causing banking crisis/closures, margin buying of overpriced (inflated) stocks that resulted in the stock market crash when businesses/industries failed, etc.
Causes of the Great Depression included
claimed that the New Deal went too far in federal regulation of businesses and restricted individual freedom.
Conservative critics of the New Deal
Dust Bowl
Devastated region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought combined with poor farming methods in 1930 lasting for a decade, leaving many farmers without work, who then often headed as far west as California to find work and land
"a new deal for the American people"
During his presidential campaign, FDR promised ..........
Bank Holiday
FDR ordered all banks closed for 4 days until new laws could be passed. An Emergency Banking Relief Act was rushed through Congress. The law set up new ways for the federal government to regulate banks and restore public confidence in banks.
refused to support a federal anti-lynching bill because he didn't want to lose southern voters while on the other hand appointing over 100 African Americans to government positions, including a panel of African American experts advising the president on civil rights issues. These advisors were called his Black Cabinet.
FDR's record on civil rights was mixed, for example he
Federal Emergency Relief Administration - FERA
Granted funds to states so they could reopen their relief agencies to provide aid for the unemployed
Brain Trust
Group of expert policy advisers who worked with FDR in the 1930s to end the great depression
John Collier
Head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs who introduced the Indian New Deal and pushed congress to pass Indian Reorganization Act
urging business leaders, private charities, and local governments to take the lead in creating jobs and providing emergency relief (soup kitchens, etc) rather than the federal government.
Hoover's first plan for "voluntary" economic recovery included
thought that it did not go far enough to help the poor.
Liberal critics of the New Deal
did not know
Most Americans ...................... that FDR was paralyzed as he never allowed photos to be taken of him in the wheelchair.
The Grapes of Wrath, The Public Enemy, Mickey Mouse, King Kong, Shirley Temple, Little Orphan Annie, The Shadow, and other soap operas (continuing radio shows sponsored by soap companies)
Movies and radio brought entertainment and a realistic portrayal of social problems through such works and people as
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
New Deal agency that promoted economic recovery by regulating production, prices, and wages (set minimum wage, stop hiring children, etc.) to stabilize prices and wages.
Public Works Administration (PWA)
New Deal agency that provided millions of jobs constructing large public works projects such as the Lincoln Tunnel, Florida's Key West Highway, Grand Coulee Dam, etc. Almost every county in the country had at least one public works project.
Tenessee Valley Authority (TVA)
New deal program to build dams on the Tenessee River to control flooding, conserve soil, provide jobs, and bring hydroelectric power to the mid-south
the Supreme Court declaring several New Deal agencies to be unconstitutional, the NRA and the first version of the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
Obstacles to FDR's New Deal included
Marian Anderson
One of the greatest concert singers of her time. First African-American to perform at the White House. The DAR refused her use of Constitution Hall for a concert, so Eleanor Roosevelt set her up to perform at the Lincoln Memorial.
Court Packing Plan
President FDR's failed 1937 attempt to increase the number of US Supreme Court Justices from 9 to 15 in order to save his 2nd New Deal programs from constitutional challenges
Hoover's federal plan to fund critical businesses such as banks and railroads, and provide money to local governments after his first plan of voluntary action was not enough
Reconstruction Finance Corporation was created as
Federal Power Commission (FPC)
Regulates rates and sales of oil and natural gas producers, thereby affecting the supply and price of oil and gas available to consumers; also regulates wholesale rates for electricity and gas, pipeline construction, and U.S. imports and exports of natural gas and electricity
Herbert Hoover
Republican candidate who assumed the presidency in March 1929 promising the American people prosperity and attempted to deal with the Great Depression without success
relief for the jobless, economic recovery, and reforms to prevent future depressions
The 3 main goals of FDR's New Deal were
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
The 32nd president of the United States, distant relative of Theodore Roosevelt, elected in 1932. He was president from 1933 until his death in 1945 during both the Great Depression and World War II. He is the only president to have been elected 4 times, a feat no longer permissible due to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.
Eleanor Roosevelt
The First Lady and New Deal supporter who was a great supporter of civil rights and opposed the Jim Crow laws. She also worked for women's rights and better conditions for working women. She transformed the role of the First Lady.
Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929)
The day the stock market crashed completely: traders looking to sell with no buyers, stock prices plummeted as companies were failing, stocks became worthless, investors lost everything overnight
African Americans, Mexican Americans, Mexican migrant farm workers, and Native Americans
The groups of people who suffered the most under the Great Depression were
Polio
The highly contagious infectious disease of the spinal cord caused by a virus. FDR was afflicted by this virus during his adult life causing paralysis and forcing him to be in a wheelchair.
Fireside Chats
The informal radio conversations Roosevelt had with the people to keep spirits up. It was a means of communicating with the people on how he would take on the depression.
borrowed money/installment buying and buying stock on margin (purchasing stock with borrowed money)
The stock market boom and economic prosperity of the 1920's was largely based on
Human cost of the Great Depression
Unemployment, poverty, homelessness/Hoovervilles, people migrated to try to find jobs, families were broken up, children suffered malnutrition and health problems, children were unable to attend school
banking crisis
When farmers, businesses, and investors cannot repay their loans, individuals and companies lose confidence in the banking system and withdraw their deposits in what is called a 'run on banks', forcing banks to close causing a
found themselves competing with men in the workforce when great numbers of men lost their jobs; many women in domestic jobs were now unemployed because people couldn't afford domestic help; many women had to find jobs outside the home when husbands became unemployed
Women during the Depression
pension
a regular payment made during a person's retirement from an investment fund to which that person or their employer has contributed during their working life.
default
failure to pay back a loan
bankruptcy
financial failure in which a person or corporation is declared unable to pay debts
Truth in Securities Act of 1933
required corporations issuing new securities to provide full and accurate information about them to the public
civil rights
the rights of citizens guaranteed in the Constitution of political (voting), social freedom, and equality.
