Only Bad Times Create Great Generations

"Black Tuesday" Institutes Great Depression

In October of 1929, on what would be later dubbed "Black Tuesday", the stock market in New York would suffer a catastrophic crash unlike anyone had ever seen. This involved a massive unloading of stocks by stockholders following a sharp decrease in stock prices. This crash would nearly destroy not only the economy in the United States but the entire world would soon follow. The DOW Jones, the entire stock market value, would lose close to ninety percent of its value. There was no business that went unaffected. This devastating crash would be the launching period for what was known as the Great Depression. Which would last until World War II. During this time, the unemployment rates for the country would reach nearly twenty-five percent. Suffering was abounded as people and families would be out of work and starving. Migrations to shabby encampments known as Hoovervilles would be common place in urban areas. Named in blame of President Hoover, whom citizens blamed for not offering solutions or aid to the American people at the time. Others chose to head to major cities in states like California in search of employment. This hardship was one of the factors that lead to those whom lived through it to be dubbed “the Greatest Generation”.

History.com Editors. Stock Market Crash of 1929, History.com. 28 Mar. 2022, https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/1929-stock-market-crash.

investopia.com. Accessed 28 Mar. 2022, https://www.investopedia.com/investing/1929-stock-market-crash-could-ha…

Great Depression Facts, FDRLibrary.org. 28 Mar.2022, https://www.fdrlibrary.org/great-depression-facts.

Midwest Haze Leaves US Eating Dust

The Dust Bowl, as it became known, was an environmental disaster caused by people that would last from 1930-1936. Incentives such as the Homestead Act created opportunity and influx of farmers to the Midwest. Many of whom did not possess the correct level of experience. Over-farming of the land would lead to topsoil drying up to a moondust consistency. Americas bread basket would be turned useless in a matter of decades. This caused many farmers to abandon the land in search of greater farmland. Around 1930, weather patterns would experience large gusts of harsh winds. These winds would lift and carry the newly formed dust across the Midwest and much of the country. The dust was so thick that families would have to often tie ropes to places outside of their homes, lest they get lost from their front door to their cars. The dust was attributed to loss in agriculture as well as major health problems to those living in the conditions. Often being pneumonia from lungs filling with dust. Homes would experience thick dust levels as well despite using wet rags on the borders of door and windows. It would take the dust blowing to Washington D.C. to convince those in power to help those experiencing the dust bowl and its effects.

History.com Editors. Dust Bowl. 28 Mar. 2022. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/dust-bowl

"A Huge Dust Storm". USDA.gov. 28 Mar. 2022. https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/11/16/pbs-film-explores-history-du…

FDR Wastes No Time and Institutes "New Deal"

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thirty-second President of the United States, took office in 1933. A time when America was broken by the Depression and needed help more than ever. Taking office, he declared that “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. With that inspiring speech, he began to move to massive reforms that he had promised during his candidacy run. He began by closing banks in what was called The Emergency Bank Act and urged Americans to return savings to the banks. This reopened nearly two thirds of the banks within only a month’s time. Then, the real time of reform that would be known as the “New Deal” would begin in Roosevelt’s “First Hundred Days” of office. FDR began by repealing prohibition allowing alcohol sales to be legal once again. Reducing crime and increasing revenue. He also signed bills that would pay farmers to rotate their crops to boost prices as well as many other laws to help home owners and businesses. This New Deal met with moderate success but did not propel the American economy like it was expected to. So, FDR implemented a second round of policies called “Second New Deal”. This would be focused more so on unemployment and workers unions. FDR was winning by sheer volume of policies implemented alone. Ultimately, the economy would begin to recover and then explode with the beginning of American involvement in WW2 in 1941.

History.com Editors. New Deal. 28 Mar. 2022. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/new-deal

"FDR 1936". wbur.org. 28 Mar. 2022. https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/05/27/what-we-learn-from-fdrs-new-deal

The reason I included each of these events was because the subject of the photo, Florence Owens Thompson, could’ve been affected by all of them. She was a farmer. Originally from a Native reservation in Oklahoma and in the 1920s, moved with her family to California. This is significant because the land in the Midwest was drying up and farmland was beginning to form into the conditions that would contribute to the dust bowl later in 1930. I included FDR and the New Deal because she was a migrant farmer whom didn’t have stable employment at this time. The plans in the new deal affected farmers as well as those unemployed by finding them jobs. She may have been able to reap the rewards of such programs. Another major event during this time is the market crash and the following depression. The country as a whole was struggling to find work and to survive. Florence was no exception. When the market crashed, it was often minorities that were fired first. She was a Native American and a woman and could’ve been the first let go if a company could no longer support their employees. Overall, I believe this time period is an amalgamation of all of these events combined and interacting simultaneously to produce the suffering endured by Thompson. She would endure these troubling times and raise seven children as a widow. This historical background will help those observing the image feel the desperation and hardship of the times I believe.