Racism in the 1930s

In the 1930s California was one of the most liberal (open-minded) states. It was never a slave state, therefore black people were treated slightly better than in the south. In the south more than two or so thousand blacks had been lynched since the end of the Civil War by the 1930s. This meant that a lot of black people were trying to move further north. Segregation was strong in the North too, just not as heavily enforced.

Black people did terribly in the 1930s because many were living under the poverty line, and the government refused to help them. So life was hard everywhere for blacks, just some places were worse than others.

The Great Depression of the 1930s resulted in fighting for the very few jobs that became available. Consequently, the mistrust and dislike between black and white people (which had existed ever since the Civil War) intensified, as each group competed with the other for the few available jobs. One result was that incidents of lynchings--primarily of African-Americans in the southern states--continued.

America in the 1920s

In 1928 the new Republican president Herbert Hoover confidently stated, 'We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.' Hoover, was claiming that America had almost completely removed poverty.

In the 1920s, the economy boomed and America began the age of consumerism - many Americans bought cars, radios, fridges etc. Major cities such as New York and Chicago grew rapidly and the building of skyscrapers like the Empire State Building, which was completed in 1931, seemed to show the self-confidence of American society.

The 1920s were prosperous for some

At the same time, many Americans wanted to enjoy themselves as much as they could by perhaps listening to the new jazz music, or doing the new dances such as the charleston and the black bottom. Crowds flocked to watch film stars like Charlie Chaplin and baseball stars like Babe Ruth. The emphasis on having fun and spending money has led to the 1920s being called the Roaring Twenties.

However, for many Americans, the 1920s was a decade of poverty. Generally, groups such as African-Americans, women and farmers did not enjoy the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties. More than 60 per cent of Americans lived just below the poverty line. Life was particularly hard for African-Americans in the Deep South states where the majority of black people endured a combination of poverty and racism. Although some women were able to enjoy more independence and wear the latest fashions, this was not the case for the majority.

Wall Street Crash

When the Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929, the world economy was plunged into the Great Depression. Millions of people lost their jobs, their homes, their businesses, or their land.

People lost their life savings when firms and banks went bust, and 12-15 million men and women (one third of America's population) were unemployed. In every American city of any size, long "bread lines" of the unemployed formed to receive basic foodstuffs for themselves and their families, their only means of subsistence. There was then no dole to fall back on, so food was short and the unemployed in cities couldn't pay their rent. By the winter of 1932, America was in the depths of the greatest economic depression in its history.

The number of unemployed people reached upwards of 13 million. One New York family moved into a cave in Central Park.

Effects of the Depression

1. Unemployment - 13 million people were out of work.

2. Industrial production dropped by 45 per cent between 1929 and 1932.

3. House-building fell by 80 per cent between 1929 and 1932.

4. The entire American banking system reached the brink of collapse.

5. From 1929 to 1932, 5,000 banks went out of business.

6. Although many people went hungry, the number of recorded deaths from starvation during the Depression was 110, although many other illnesses and deaths were probably related to a lack of nutrition.

The American Dream

The term American Dream has had many meanings throughout American history. Today, it generally refers to the idea that being rich and successful depends upon one's own abilities and hard work, not on social class.

In general, the American Dream can be defined as having the opportunity and freedom that allows all citizens to achieve their goals in life through hard work and determination alone.

From 1900 to the "Roaring 20s", the American people had been spending more and by the end of the 1920s had got into massive amounts of debt as they followed the American Dream.

By the Great Depression in the 1930s, the American dream was becoming a very distant dream. The American people were questioning all the rules on which they had based their lives - democracy, capitalism, individualism.

The American dream was a goal that many Americans where trying to accomplish in the 1930s. The idea of it was that a person would save up enough money and with it, buy a house with some land and tend to the land and animals and live off the ‘Fatta the land!’ The American dream was important to people back then as in the hard times people needed a dream or a goal to try and archive; otherwise they would soon get dragged down in the great depression.

The best hope for a better life was California – it was here that the American dream was the strongest.

Women

After the initial surge of support for women's rights with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, feminist fervour reduced in the later 1920s and almost disappeared completely during the Depression. There was a renewed promotion of the traditional belief that women belonged in the home, not in the workplace.

In the 1930s, women were not seen as equal to men: they had fewer rights than men. They were paid less and most of them were only allowed to take care of domestic chores.

Most single women worked for a living, and so did a lot of married women. The number of married women going out to work increased during the 1930s because many women were trying to keep their families afloat. Some people objected to married women working, because they thought they were taking jobs from single women who needed to support themselves. Many school boards for instance refused to hire married women teachers. But in spite of this, the number of working married women increased steadily throughout the 1930s.

During the Great Depression, women made up 25% of the work force, but their jobs were more unstable, temporary or seasonal then men, and the unemployment rate was much greater. There was also the cultural view that “women should not work”, which made things tough for women.

Migrant Workers

Following World War I, a recession led to a drop in the market price of farm crops, which meant that farmers were forced to produce more goods in order to earn the same amount of money. To meet this demand for increased productivity, many farmers bought more land and invested in expensive agricultural equipment, which plunged them into debt. The stock market crash of 1929 only made matters worse. Banks were forced to foreclose on mortgages and collect debts. Unable to pay their creditors, many farmers lost their property and were forced to find other work. But doing so proved very difficult, since the nation’s unemployment rate was so high.

The increase in farming activity caused the precious soil to erode. This erosion, along with a seven-year drought that began in 1931, turned once fertile grasslands into a desert like region known as the Dust Bowl.

Hundreds of thousands of farmers packed up their families and few belongings, and headed for ‘Golden’ California. The state’s mild climate promised a longer growing season and, with soil favourable to a wider range of crops, it offered more opportunities to harvest. The Californians turned many back, fearing they would be over-run. The migrants were often met with scorn by California farmers and natives, which only made their dislocation and poverty even more unpleasant. The refuges had nowhere to go back to, so they set up home in huge camps in the California valleys - living in shacks of cardboard and old metal - and sought work as casual farmhands.