Americas Great Depression and Dust Bowl 1

America’s Great Depression & the Dust Bowl IMPACT ON AMERICANS’ LIVES The Great Depression The Roaring Twenties ◦ Economic boom ◦ Jazz Age ◦ A huge Gatsby Party ! Black Tuesday : Oct. 29,1929 • Stock Market crashed • “An estimated $30 billion in stock values will ‘disappear’ by mid-November ” (PBS) • Banks and businesses were forced to close their doors • Many Americans lost life savings • “More than 15 million Americans were unemployed (about one quarter of the American workforce)” (PBS) The Great Drought 1930 marked the start of a devastating drought to the Great Plains region ◦ Caused by over-plowing – what was once rich soil turned to dust ◦ No water + fields of dust + high winds = constant dust storms ◦ Storms and severe weather conditions last about a decade ◦ The worst storm, known as Black Sunday, occurred on April 14, 1935 Effects of the Dust Bowl Unable to survive the economic plight and severe weather conditions, many families migrated to the West looking for work: “In all, one-quarter of the population left, packing everything they owned into their cars and trucks, and headed west toward California. Although overall three out of four farmers stayed on their land, the mass exodus depleted the population drastically in certain areas. In the rural area outside Boise City, Oklahoma, the population dropped 40% with 1,642 small farmers and their families pulling up stakes” (PBS). Effects on African-Americans The Great Depression ◦ Only worsened the economic disadvantages ◦ Cotton prices dropped dramatically within a few years of the stock market crash • Most rural blacks migrated to the northern cities looking for work • Became targets of more racial violence • Lynching increased 28 percent (Library of Congress) • Denied unemployment (PBS) • Denied local access to social assistance programs under the New Deal (PBS Effects on Migrant Workers: Migrant Labor in California CA’s moderate climate = fertile ground and long growing seasons to variety of crops Mexican and Asian, mostly Filipino, workers migrated to CA for work, especially in agriculture in the late 1800s-early 1900s. US Farm owners recruited them. Would work for less $ and under worse conditions than white Americans. 1920s - ¾ of CA farm workers were Mexican or Mexican-American. 1930 - ⅔ of Filipinos in USA lived in CA Work was difficult, but conditions were improving, until... Life is hard. Then it gets worse. Working and living conditions were steadily improving until Americans from the Plains states (Midwest and SW) migrated to CA in search of work. This resulted in competition for scarce jobs. Effects on Mexican Americans The migration began and with it came heated racism: ◦ Newly segregated schools ◦ A government-sponsored action plan was put into place to deport over 400,000 Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans back to Mexico in order to give jobs to white men ◦ The increase of supply in work force drove wages down, sparking white unions to protest working conditions and low wages Okies and Arkies 200,000 Dust Bowl victims fled to CA via Route 66 (no interstate system!) from Mid and Southwest. Migrant labor was concentrated in San Joaquin Valley where corporate, modernized farms ruled. Pay: 75 cents - $1.25 per DAY. 25 cents off the top for housing. Big ranches: Required to buy food from expensive company store. How bad was it? The sheer number of migrants camped out, desperate for work, led to scenes such as that described by John Steinbeck in his novel “The Grapes of Wrath”: “Maybe he needs two hunderd men, so he talks to five hunderd, an’ they tell other folks, an’ when you get to the place, they’s a thousan’ men. This here fella says, “I’m payin’ twenty cents an hour.” An’ maybe half a the men walk off. But they’s still five hunderd that’s so goddamn hungry they’ll work for nothin’ but biscuits. Well, this here fella’s got a contract to pick them peaches or — chop that cotton. You see now? The more fella’s he can get, less he’s gonna pay. An’ he’ll get a fella with kids if he can.” (PBS) Broke, desperate, and unwelcome Demand for jobs outpaced supply – workers followed the harvests and lived transient lifestyle. Racism, prejudice, and anger fueled conflicts between old workers and new. Many gave up farmwork, living in shack-towns without plumbing or electricity. They were outsiders looked down on by “native” Californians. “Okies” was an insult used to describe any of the migrants from OK, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. This prejudice continued for many years, even after the “Okies” were wellestablished in CA.