The Great Depression
How the depression started
On October 24, 1929 12.9 million shares were traded, this day is known as black Thursday. Five days later was black Tuesday 16 million shares were traded in a wave of panic. Millions of shares ended up worthless and investors who'd bought stocks with borrowed money ended up with nothing. The downturn in spending and investing led factories and other businesses to slow down production and many people were fired. despite President Hoovers reassurance that the crisis would run its course matters continued to get worse over the next three years, 4 million Americans were unemployed and in 1931 6 million were unemployed. Also the country's industrial production dropped by half, farmers couldn't even afford to pick their crops so they were forced to leave them to rot while people starved
How the depression effected people
African Americans suffered more than whites during the great depression. Their jobs were often taken away from them and given to whites. by 1930 50 percent of all African Americans were unemployed. But Elenor Roosevelt championed black rights and the New Deal programs prohibited discrimination. the south continued to discriminate however a large number of black voters were turned to democrats. Hoovervilles became a common term during the great depression, a Hooverville was a shacktown a place where homeless people lived. They reason it was called a Hooverville is because people believed it was president Hoover and the Republicans were responsible for the Great Depression
The end to the Great depression
People usually say the World war 2 marks the end to the great depression, because more then 12 million men went to serve in the military and 17 million went to work in defense related jobs like building tanks, jeeps, weapons, and planes. but that is not true the war would only postpone the depression. What fixed the great depression was in fact the New Deal issued by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. the new deal created a liberal alliance of labor unions, blacks, other minorities, some farmers, and others receiving government relief. When the president died his plan fell through and instead they cut tax rates to encourage people to start creating there own businesses for returning veterans. With freer markets, balanced budgets, and lower taxes the depression was over
The Crash of 1929 & The Great Depression (PBS) 1of6