Unit 2 Lesson 3: Effects of the Great Depression

Question 1

Desperation and frustration often create emotional responses. Throughout 1931 and 1932, companies trying to stay afloat sharply cut workers’ wages. What happened in resposne to this?

Answer 1

In response, workers protested by staging increasingly bitter strikes.

Question 2

As the Depression unfolded, more than ? percent of automotive workers lost their jobs. Even the typically prosperous Ford Motor Company laid off ? of its workforce.

Answer 2

As the Depression unfolded, more than 80 percent of automotive workers lost their jobs. Even the typically prosperous Ford Motor Company laid off two-thirds of its workforce.

Question 2

How many were arrested in the Ford Hunger March?

Answer 2

Police arrested 50 protestors.

Question 2

In 1932, a major strike at the Ford Motor Company factory near Detroit erupted into deadly violence. What is this stike called?

Answer 2

Often referred to as the Ford Hunger March, the event began as a planned demonstration.

Question 2

In the Ford Hunger March where did they march

Answer 2

Approximately 3,000 unemployed Ford workers marched nine miles from Detroit to the company’s River Rouge plant in Dearborn.

Question 3

At the gates of the plant, protestors faced more police, as well as firefighters and private security guards. What happened there?

Answer 3

The firefighters turned hoses on the protestors, and the police and security guards opened fire, killing four marchers and injuring more than 60 others.

Question 4

/what happened when the people of the Ford Hunger March reached the Dearbon city limits?

Answer 4

At the Dearborn city limits, local police launched tear gas at the protestors, who responded by throwing stones and clods of dirt.

Question 5

What as the outcome of the Ford Hunger March?

Answer 5

One week later, 60,000 mourners attended the public funerals of the slain protestors. The desperation of the strikers and the brutality of the response set the tone for worsening labor relations in the United States.

Question 6

Farmers also organized and protested, often violently. The most notable example was the

Answer 6

Farm Holiday Association

Question 7

Who led the Farm Holiday Association

Answer 7

Led by Milo Reno

Question 8

What countries did the Farm Holiday Association have most influence

Answer 8

this group held significant sway among farmers in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.

Question 9

What wad the goal of the Farm Holiday Association

Answer 9

The association wanted the federal government to set agricultural prices artificially high enough to cover the farmers’ costs, as well as to commit to selling any farm surpluses on the world market.

Question 10

What did the Farm Holiday Association want to aceheive their goals

Answer 10

To achieve their goals, the group called for farm holidays

Question 11

(Farm Holiday Association) To achieve their goals, the group called for farm holidays; What are farm holidays?

Answer 11

To achieve their goals, the group called for farm holidays, during which farmers would neither sell their produce nor purchase any other goods.

Question 12

(Farm Holiday Association) However, the greatest strength of the association came from the unexpected and seldom-planned actions of its members, including the following:

Answer 12

• barricading roads into markets
• attacking nonmember farmers and destroying their produce
• raiding small town stores and destroying produce on the shelves
• holding penny auctions where they bid pennies on foreclosed farms and threatened bodily harm to competing bidders. Once they won the auction, the association returned the land to the original owner.

Question 13

From 1930 through 1932, Herbert Hoover maintained a course of limited government intervention, little of which gave aid directly to Americans. What did Congress do?

Answer 13

Congress tried a more direct approach, attempting to pass a $60 million bill to provide relief to drought victims.

Question 14

What would the 60 millon bill by congress allow them to do?

Answer 14

The bill allowed them access to food, fertilizer, and animal feed.

Question 15

What was the finallized version of Congress’s 60 million bill?

Answer 15

The final bill was cut back to $47 million and included everything except food. Still, this did not come close to addressing the crisis.

Question 16

By late 1931, as the economy continued to decline, Hoover recognized the need for some government intervention. What is the President’s Emergency Committee for Employment (PECE), later renamed the President’s Organization of Unemployment Relief (POUR).

Answer 16

In keeping with Hoover’s distaste of what he viewed as handouts, this organization did not offer direct federal relief to people in need. Instead, it provided assistance to state and private relief agencies, such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, YMCA, and Community Chest. Hoover also strongly urged people of means to donate funds to help the poor, just as he gave significant private donations to worthy causes. But these private efforts could not ease the widespread effects of poverty.

Question 17

As conditions worsened, Hoover relaxed his opposition to federal relief and formed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in 1932. What was the purpose of the RFC

Answer 17

The RFC sought to boost confidence in the country’s banking institutions by setting aside $2 billion in taxpayer money to rescue banks, credit unions, and insurance companies.

Question 18

Hoover also endorsed Senator Robert F. Wagner’s 1932 Emergency Relief and Construction Act. What is that act?

Answer 18

This act expanded the RFC and allotted $1.5 billion to states to fund local public works and construction projects.

Question 19

Were the RFC and Emergency RElief Consturcion Act susseccful? If not why?

Answer 19

But this program failed to deliver the kind of help needed. Hoover severely limited the types of projects the RFC could fund to those that were ultimately self-paying (such as toll bridges and public housing) and to those that required skilled workers.

Question 20

Most African Americans did not participate in the land boom and stock market speculation that preceded the crash of 1929. How did the Great Depression affect Afican Americans

Answer 20

Most African Americans did not participate in the land boom and stock market speculation that preceded the crash of 1929, but that did not keep them from feeling the effects of the Great Depression particularly hard. Subject to continuing racial discrimination, blacks nationwide fared even worse than their white counterparts.

Question 21

What was it like for African Americans who worked in cotton feilds?

Answer 21

In rural areas, as the price of cotton and other agricultural products plummeted, farm owners cut their workers’ pay or simply laid them off

Question 22

What was it like for sharecropper farmer african americans

Answer 22

Landlords evicted sharecroppers, and many African Americans who owned their land outright had to abandon it when there was no longer any way to earn an income from it.

Question 23

What was it like for African Americans in cities

Answer 23

Unemployment was rampant, and many available jobs were given to whites first. In some northern cities, white workers would even conspire to have African American workers fired to allow them access to those jobs.

Question 24

By 1932 how many African Americans were unemployed

Answer 24

By 1932, approximately one-half of all African Americans were unemployed.

Question 25

Racial violence began to rise. Elaboarte

Answer 25

. In the South, lynching became common again. Since communities were preoccupied with their own hardships, many resigned themselves to, or even ignored, this culture of racism and violence. Occasionally, however, an incident was notorious enough to gain national attention.

Question 26

What is the case of the **Scottsboro Boys**

Answer 26

In 1931, nine young African American teenagers were arrested for vagrancy and disorderly conduct after a run-in with some white travelers on a train. Two young white women claimed the young men had assaulted them

Question 27

Why was the casew of the Scottsboro Boys so controversial?

Answer 27

There was significant evidence that the women had not been assaulted at all, and one of the women even retracted her testimony, but the all-white jury quickly convicted the defendants and sentenced all but one of them to death.

Question 28

The Scottsboro Boys case was tried 3 seperate times, what did this show?

Answer 28

The case was tried three separate times. The series of trials and retrials, appeals, and overturned convictions shone a spotlight on a system that provided poor legal counsel and relied on all-white juries.

Question 29

In October 1932, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the defense attorneys that the defendants had been ..

Answer 29

In October 1932, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the defense attorneys that the defendants had been denied adequate legal representation at the original trial and that due process had been denied.

Question 30

What happened at the end of the case of the Scottsboro Boys

Answer 30

Eventually, most of the accused received lengthy prison terms and eventually parole. All avoided the death penalty.

Question 31

Anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jews, was another major issue of the time. What was happening during this time

Answer 31

The Nazi rise to power in 1933 led to the active persecution of Jews by the German government. Many fled Germany, and some sought refuge in the United States.

Question 32

How were Jews viewed in America

Answer 32

Some politicians and other public figures blamed the Depression on a Jewish conspiracy and promoted the myth that Jews controlled the banking system. Additionally, some anti-German sentiment still lingered from World War I.

Question 33

Waht was it like for Mexicans

Answer 33

Mexicans in particular had the additional risk of being deported. The American government actively worked to send hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers back to Mexico

Question 34

What was the Meriam Report

Answer 34

The Meriam Report, presented to the Department of the Interior in 1928, indicated that government policies over the years had been quite damaging to Native Americans as a whole. They had lost vast tracts of land that had rightfully been theirs, and many were left impoverished.

Question 35

What's the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934

Answer 35

While the problems caused by harmful government policies did not go away, Congress enacted the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934 in part to lend tribes money for purchasing land and providing education.

Question 36

What was a popular Depression-era movie theme

Answer 36

One popular Depression-era movie theme was that of the hardworking everyman against greedy banks and corporations. This was often portrayed in the movies of director Frank Capra

Question 37

What is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Answer 37

on. In this 1939 film, Jimmy Stewart plays a local legislator sent to Washington to finish out the term of a deceased senator. While there, he fights corruption to ensure the construction of a boys’ camp in his hometown rather than a dam project that would only serve to line the pockets of a few. O

Question 38

. Other popular 1930s movies addressed the problems of the day in a humorous, yet pointed manner. What ha[pens in the comedy film My Man Godfrey

Answer 38

rich scavenger hunters search for a “Forgotten Man” as part of a charity benefit. In a Hooverville, they find a homeless but surprisingly cultured man who helps them win the contest and becomes their butler. He teaches them compassion and common sense through his actions. There is much more to him than his impoverished situation.

Question 39

How did unemployed workers and farmers respond to the deepening depression? What was the effect of their responses?

Answer 39

Many unemployed workers and farmers responded to the deepening depression by protesting or striking. The effect of their responses was a worsening relationship between labor and management and increased incidences of violence

Question 40

What relief efforts were made to help impoverished Americans? Were they effective?

Answer 40

Several efforts were made to help impoverished Americans, including the creation of the Emergency Relief and Construction Act to provide funds to the states. Other relief efforts were made by private organizations, like the Red Cross. Unfortunately, many of these efforts were too little, too late and did not provide adequate aid where needed.

Question 41

How did the Great Depression impact African Americans relative to their white counterparts?

Answer 41

People of all races were adversely affected by the economic woes of the Great Depression, but African Americans had to face racial discrimination as well as financial hardships. For example, since many employers were white, they tended to hire white workers, so it was even harder for African Americans to find jobs to support their families.

Question 42

Who were the Scottsboro Boys? How did their experience reflect the African American experience during the Great Depression?

Answer 42

The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teens falsely accused of raping two white women. Their case was appealed and retried several times before most of them were convicted. Their trial represented growing racist sentiments and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles facing the black community, economically and otherwise.