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The Depression & American Society

The Depression & American Society. Mr. Ermer U.S. History Miami Beach Senior High. African Americans & The Depression. 1930: More than half of African-Americans live in the South as farmers Decline in cotton prices leave many African-Americans without sufficient incomes

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The Depression & American Society

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  1. The Depression & American Society Mr. Ermer U.S. History Miami Beach Senior High

  2. African Americans & The Depression • 1930: More than half of African-Americans live in the South as farmers • Decline in cotton prices leave many African-Americans without sufficient incomes • African-Americans forced to leave rural areas for cities, whites occupy jobs formerly for blacks • Black Shirts • 1932: More than half of southern African-Americans unemployed • Even in northern cities, African-American unemployment at 50% or more • The Scottsboro Case, illustrates survival of racism and segregation in South • NAACP defends African-American rights, and argues for membership in unions

  3. Mexican-Americans & The Depression • Mexican-Americans experience similar discrimination as African-Americans • Many had filled the same types of menial labor jobs in the West as blacks in the South • Many rural families become migrant agricultural workers • Most Mex-Americans live in cities, fill the low skill industrial jobs, high unemployment • Many relief programs exclude Mexicans from their rolls • Many Mexicans & Mexican-Americans leave for Mexico, or deported (including citizens) • Latinos generally had no access to schools, many hospitals refused to treat them

  4. Women &The Depression • Reinforces belief that women’s place was in the home, not workplace • Women whose husbands were employed commonly refused work • Many women, however, were employed and worked through 1930s • By the end of the Depression 20% more women worked than before the crash • Still, women more likely to be denied professional work and to be laid off • Traditionally female service jobs less likely to decline as male dominated heavy industry • Even unemployed men do not seek out “women’s work” • African-American women suffer the most during the depression

  5. The Depression, Families, & American values • Retreat from consumerism • Women return to sewing clothes for families, selves • Home businesses like laundry service, baked goods, boarding on rise • Divorce rate declines because of high cost of court fees, informal family breakups • Men leave home to find work in far off places, or to escape humiliation of unemployment • Birth rates and marriage rates decline, some traditional family values/roles resurge • Persistence of the “Success Ethic” • Some criticize the economic system in general, many blame selves • Social unrest not as high as expected due to passivity of unemployed • Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)

  6. The Left & The Popular Front • Popular Front: coalition of “antifascist” groups, including Communist Party • Paint the Great Depression as the failure of the capitalist system • Spanish Civil-War being fought between Franco’s fascists (supported by Hitler & Mussolini) and the republican government, many Americans fight against Franco • Under directions of the Soviet Union, American Communist Party joins with other groups • Support for FDR and the New Deal, FDR seen as possible Soviet ally versus Hitler • Southern Tenant Farmers Union • Being part of the Political Left becomes more acceptable, even conventional

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