Human Misery in the Dirty Thirties
Workers: By 1932, twelve million people, or 25% of the labor force, were unemployed. Those workers who kept their jobs were forced to work for low wages. Many of the unemployed lived in “Hoovervilles,” or rundown towns, whose makeshift houses were made of cardboard and tin collected from dumps. For millions of Americans, soup kitchens offered their only meals.
Minorities: African Americans and women were extremely hard hit by the depression since they were the first to lose their jobs. Both lost jobs at a more rapid rate than white males. In fact, the unemployment rate for them was twice that of whites.
Bonus Army: In the summer of 1932, thousands of World War I veterans, many of whom were unemployed, marched to Washington, D.C. They set up camp and vowed to stay until they received their war service bonuses due to be paid to them in 1945. When a bill in Congress to provide early payment was defeated, all but 2,000 of the veterans grudgingly left the Capital. President Hoover sent in the U.S. Army to forcibly remove the remaining veterans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiMuzkpT8Xs
Farmers: Farmers of the Great Plain’s faced several years of drought during the early 1930”s. Dust storms swept across the plains removing much needed topsoil. Many “Okies,” or migrant farmers, moved westward to find work. Such hardships were depicted in John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Due to problems such as the Dust Bowl and surplus food stuffs, over one-half million farmers lost their farms during the Great Depression.
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