the great depression
DESCRIPTION
The Great Depression. The Roaring 20’s. The new concept of “credit” People were buying: Automobiles Appliances Clothes Fun times reigned Dancing Flappers Drinking. Why was this bad?. Credit system People didn’t really have the money they were spending WWI - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The Roaring 20’s• The new concept of
“credit” • People were buying:
– Automobiles
– Appliances
– Clothes
• Fun times reigned– Dancing
– Flappers
– Drinking
Why was this bad?• Credit system
– People didn’t really have the money they were spending
• WWI– The U.S. was a major
credit loaner to other nations in need
– Many of these nations could not pay us back
The Stock Market• People bought stocks
on margins– If a stock is $100 you
can pay $10 now and the rest later when the stock rose
• Stocks fall– Now the person has
less than $100 and no money to pay back
And then….
• With people panicking about their money investors tried to sell their stocks– This leads to a huge decline
in stocks– Stocks were worthless now
• People who bought on “margins” now could not pay
• Investors were average people that were now broke
1929-1939• Stock market
crash
• Didn’t realize the effect it would have
• No money to replenish what was borrowed
Many found being broke humiliating.
• Herbert Hoover was president at the start
• Philosophy: We’ll make it!
• What He Did: Nothing
• The poor were looking for help and no ideas on how to correct or help were coming
• Farmers were already feeling the effects– Prices of crops went down– Many farms foreclosed
• People could not afford luxuries– Factories shut down– Businesses went out
• Banks could not pay out money• People could not pay their taxes
– Schools shut down due to lack of funds
• Many families became homeless and had to live in shanties
“Hooverville”• Some families were
forced to live in shanty towns– A grouping of shacks
and tents in vacant lots
• They were referred to as “Hooverville” because of President Hoover’s lack of help during the depression.
The South Was Buried
• Crops turned to dust=No food to be sent out
• Homes buried
• Fields blown away
• South in state of emergency
• Dust Bowl the #1 weather crisis of the 20th century
*FDR*• When he was
inaugurated unemployment had increased by 7 million.
• Poor sections (like Harlem) had 50% of the pop. unemployed
• Instated the “New Deal”
• Yea! Frankie!
• People everywhere were effected by the depression
• It wasn’t till President Roosevelt took over and tried to put the economy back together that people even saw a glimmer of hope
Major Historical Happenings...
• Jim Crow Laws
• Scottsboro Trials
• Recovering from the Great Depression
• Racial Injustice
• Poor South
Jim Crow Laws• After the American Civil War most
states in the South passed anti-African American legislation. These became known as Jim Crow laws.
• These laws included segregation in…– Schools -- Hospitals
– Theaters -- Water fountains
– Restaurants
– Hotels
– Public transportation
– Some states forbid inter-racial marriages
• These laws were instituted in 1896 and were not abolished till the late 1950’s (even then still not completely).
• 9 young African-American men (13-20) accused of raping 2 white girls in 1931
• Immediately sentenced to death
• Trials went on for nearly 15 years before all the men were dismissed
• Started on a train bound for Memphis
• Several white men boarded and picked a fight with the black men
• Whites were forced off train by the 12 black men. The white men reported the the black men had raped two white girls on the train to authorities
• They were immediately arrested and tried in front of an all-white jury.
• Wrote To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960
• Based the story on her life growing up in Monroeville, Alabama
• TKAM was the only novel she ever wrote
• The character of “Dill,” Scout and Jem’s playmate in the novel was based upon Lee’s actual neighbor, Truman Capote
• Capote is famous for amongst other things, In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
• It has been said that he gave Lee Mockingbird as a gift.
• In 1962 the novel was turned into a film starring Gregory Peck.
• It received a humanitarian award and several Academy Award nominations