note page 37 life during the great depression by morgan j. burris lexington middle school us history

Note Page 37“Life During the Great

Depression”

By Morgan J. Burris Lexington Middle School

US History

Struggling to Get By:

Bread lines / Soup KitchensFree Handouts – Churches…

YMCA’s - Young Men’s Christian Assc.

Bailiffs –Police boot non-paying renters

Hoovervilles – Shantytowns of homeless and broke

Hobos – hitching wanderers, mostly single men

The Dust Bowl:

Lost of Native Grasses

Fields abandoned, uncovered.

Terrible Drought 1930’s strikes

- Vast “Dust Bowl”

Huge dust storms, suffocating people

& livestock

Buried crops, equipment, buildings.

Mortgaged farms lost to banks

US actually paid

photographers to go out west and document the effects

on America.

“Okies” – thousands migrate to CA

Hollywood:

Shirley Temple – Child star

Groucho Marx – Comedian

Walt Disney – Animation

Jimmy Stewart – Mr. Nice GuyFamous Actor

Clark Gable - Mr. HandsomeFamous Actor

On the Air:

Daily Radio Broadcast

- Jack Benny

- George Burns & Gracie Allen

Jack Benny

- Green Hornet

- Lone Ranger!

Soap Operas – are born

Literature and Art:

John Steinbeck – The Grape of Wrath – Family fleeing Dust Bowl for California.

Literature and Art:

William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury- Used stream of Consciousness technique- Hear what character is thinking…

Literature and Art:

Photography - Time & Life Magazines- Best selling immediately, photo documentary

The difference between black and

white during this time….

Gordon Parks (first Black photographer for Life) most famous photograph, “American Gothic” (1942) shows a black woman posed in front of an American flag with a

broom and mop at hand, illustrating the social divide and inequality of not only America, but the hierarchy of gender.

Literature and Art:

American Gothic Art Style - Regional Style,Rural no-nonsense Midwesterners….

Little help for the minorities…

• Louisville Flood Victims 1937 by Margeret Bourke-White• Over 400 killed, thousands displaced, little financial help for

very poor blacks living in Ohio River Valley

Note Page 37“Life During the Great

Depression”

By Morgan J. Burris Lexington Middle School

The End