The Great Depression
The Horrifying Great Depression
Hard Times
The Great Depression was a hard time for everyone, stock prices went down making everything became very expensive, and no one could find work.
The Great Depression Summery
On October 24, Black Thursday, stock prices plummet, soon after on October 29, 30 billion dollars will "disappear" leaving 3.2 million people unemployed. Riots would break out from all the loose of money and all the increase of prices in basic items. In May 1934 a three day dust storm blows 350 million tons of soil killing 7,000 people, this event was known as the dust bowl. Finally in April 1935 8.5 million individuals in 3,000 counties across the natuin got jobs, causing the counties to improve. The Great Depression was a very hard time for everyone.
Wanda Bridgeforth
Wanda Bridgeforth, who is from the Bronzeville area known as the "Black Metropolis," says she has rich memories of those years. Her neighborhood was great, unit the hard times hit. “No men could get jobs” she said. Her Dad had a degree in chemistry and he couldn’t even get a job. “Bridgeforth’s father was humiliated, she says.” He fell apart, so her mother looked for any work she could find. Bridgeforth was in grade school, was boarded out. She was later sent away to live with relatives and sometimes she lived with strangers.
People had to line up to get their food
Henry Martinez
Near Lake Michigan in South Chicago, Henry Martinez says the winters were so cold, they huddled around the potbelly stove.
Martinez's parents had 13 children, and they lived in a flat with shared bathrooms.
"You wanted to take a bath, you heat up the water in these big cans," Martinez says. "It was always hard to stay warm, and we would hug each other on the floor. We had little beds that open and close. Garbage was just left in the alley, causing many people to come down with TB [tuberculosis]. I know my sister came down with TB. Sometimes I like to block that out and just say, 'Thanks God you're here.' "