study - Chapter 5 - effects of the depression on different groups in society

Question 1

Impact of the depression on African Americans
What was the rate of African American unemployment in 1932 in Harlem?

Answer 1

Approx. 50%

Question 2

Impact of the depression on African Americans
What did Langston Hughes say about the depression and the experience of African Americans during that time?

Answer 2

Langston Hughes: “The Depression brought everybody down a peg or two, and the Negroes had but few pegs to fall”

Question 3

Impact of the depression on African Americans

Did African Americans generally benefit from the AAA scheme

Answer 3

No

African American sharecroppers were not granted the benefits under the AAA initiative

funds to support farms in reducing overproduction went towards the owners of the farms themselves, a benefit that was more often than not, not passed on to the black farmers themselves.

Question 4

Impact of the depression on African Americans
By 1931, the no. of African Americans out of work was ___ than white Americans

Answer 4

4 to 6 times higher

As job losses occurred following the Depression, lower paid jobs, typically reserved for black Americans, were increasingly being filled in preference of white Americans.

Question 5

Impact of the depression on African Americans
After the Depression, was lynching made into a federal crime?

Answer 5

No, due to FDR’s need for support from Southern democrats.

Question 6

Impact of the depression on African Americans
Chicago: African Americans make up ___% of population but ___% of the unemployed

According to historian Greenberg, black unemployment rates in the South were up to ___ that or the white population

In 1934, Atlanta, nearly___ of black workers were jobless

In 1932 (Northern cities), the unemployment rate for white workers was ______

1932 (Northern cities), the unemployment rate for black workers was _____ in ____ and ____and
____ in Philadelphia and Detroit.

Answer 6

4%

16%
________________

3 times
_________

70%
__________
25%
__________
50%

Chicago, Pittsburgh

60%

Question 7

Impact of the depression on African Americans
What was the impact of the resulting migration arising from the worsening conditions due to the Great Depression?

Answer 7

Migration into Northern cities

Harlem race riots
March 1935 Harlem Race Riots:
125 people had been arrested, more than 100 people had been injured, and 3 individuals were dead—all of them Black. Property damage to some 200 stores was in excess of $2 million.

Question 8

Impact of the depression on African Americans
Black Americans faced discrimination in ___ and ___ due to ___

The depression closed ___ as jobs reduced and companies hired ___ over their African American counterparts

Answer 8

housing

employment

due to the depression reducing jobs and employers preferring white American employees

employment opportunities

white Americans

Question 9

Impact of the Depression on all sectors of society in terms of starvations

Answer 9

All sectors, other than the farmers themselves starved/went hungry as farm prices were so low that food could not be profitably harvested, resutling in sheep and cattle being slauhtered (6 million pigs too), as well as wheat left to rot.

Question 10

Impact of the depression on African Americans
Did NRA codes protect African Americans?

Answer 10

No

Question 11

Impact of the depression on Farmers
Farm prices fell by __% from ___ to ____

Total income of ___ to ___ (1932)

Answer 11

61% (1929-31).

Total income $13b to $5.5b (1932)

Question 12

Impact of the depression on Farmers
The AAA scheme ___ the price of ___, ___ and ___ by ___

increasing farmer incomes by ___

Answer 12

doubles

wheat, corn and cotton

1935

53%

Question 13

Impact of the depression on Farmers
The AAA scheme killed ___ pigs, returning ___ to the agricultural sector

Answer 13

6 million

6 billion

Question 14

Impact of the depression on Farmers
According to Badger, the AAA ___

Answer 14

“enabled farmers to survive”

Question 15

Impact of the depression on Farmers
According to Henretta, the AAA scheme had ___

Answer 15

“racial overtones” due to the disparity in earnings as the subsidies obtained by farmers were often used to purchase capital that displaced sharecroppers and tenant farmers, a majority of whom were African Americans.

As a result, many African Americans in the rural South became redundant with no other vocational skills.

Question 16

Impact of the depression on Farmers
The AAA scheme and agricultural reforms cut ___ and led to farm income rising from ___ in 1932 to ___ in 1935.

Price of cotton increased from ___ in 1932 to ___ in 1933 per round

Ethan notes

Answer 16

overproduction

(2.4bn increase from 32’ to 25’)

$4.5bn in 1932
$6.9bn in 1935

(3.5c increase from 32’ to 33’)

6.5c in 1932 to 10c in 1933

Question 17

Impact of the depression on Farmers
How many farms were lost due to foreclosure during the depression from 1930 to 1935?

Answer 17

750,000 farms went under from 1930 to 1935, either through bankruptcy or foreclosure.

forced foreclosures
19.5/thousand 1929 - farmers failed to pay mortgages
41.7/thousand 1936 - farmers failed to pay mortgages

Question 18

Did the new deal programs as a result of the Depression improve conditions for women?

Answer 18

“Despite the vocal support of a female political network, grave flaws still marred the treatment of women in New Deal programs” - Shannon

simple: Women were still misrepresented in the workforce and discriminated against in a number of alphabet agencies.

Question 19

What was the effect of the depression on women?

Answer 19

Women’s sense of self-importance increased as they struggled to keep their families afloat (James Henretta)

1930

• over 75% of American school authorities refused to employ married women.
• 150 female dentists
• fewer than 100 female accountants

1931

• 3.8 million one parent families headed by women, of which 19,280 received any aid.

1940: 11 million women worked (¼ workforce). Discrimination.
1936 Gallup Poll- 82% said women shouldn’t work if husband did.
1930: women in industry earned an average of only $10.57/ week vs $24.44 for men.”

Marriage rate: 10.14/ 1000 (1929) to 7.87/ 1000 (1932)
Birth rate 21.3 live births/ 1000 (1930) to 18.4 (1932). 14% fall

Question 20

As a result of the Depression, how many workers were slashed from the coal industry in 1932

Answer 20

By 1932, the workforce fell by 300 000

Question 21

From May 1929 to Spring 1932, car manufacturer Willis Overland, cut ______ jobs

Answer 21

22 000

Question 22

The number of workers that were cut as a result of the Depression in General Electric and Westerhous (electrical appliances) was ___

Answer 22

more than half of the jobs were cut

Question 23

As a result of the depression, the number of units fell by _____ between 1929 and 1932. Consequently, the value of contracts fell by _________

Answer 23

82%

$5.3 billion from 1929 to 1932.

Question 24

Identify the consequences of the Depression on birth rates, marriages and suicides

Answer 24

1929: birth rate 21.2/thousand
1932: birth rate 19.5/thousand

marriages fell by 248 000 from 1929 to 1932

suicide rates increased from 14/10,000 in 1929 to 17.4/10,000 in 1932.

Question 25

As a result of the Depression, how many people became hoboes by 1932?

Answer 25

1 to 2 million

Question 26

As a result of the Depression, unemployment rose 12 million (1932), what was the impact on all groups of society?

Answer 26

As unemployment rose, state governments received less in taxes, welfare benefits were cut. In Michigan, reduced funds from $2 million in 1931 to $832,000 in 1932. –> people went hungry. By 1932, as much as 28% of the population was receiving no income, not including the 11 million farm-workers, many of who “were in acute difficulties” - Clements
1929, 19.5 farms/thousand were forced sales due to banks repossessing farms as a result of non-payment mortgages.
By 1936, this had risen to 41.7/thousand

Question 27

Unemployment stats + consequences

Answer 27

Unemployment 4 mil (1930) -> 12 mil (1932). ~25% pop (1933)

marriage declined

• 1.23 million in 1929 to 982 000 in 1932

birth rate

• 21.2/thousand 1929
• 19.5/thousand in 1932

suicide rate

• 14/10 000 in 1929
• 17.4/10 000 in 1932

Clements “psychological effects of mass unemployment were devastating”

Clements: “many of the unemployed became hoboes”
1932 1 to 2 million
- went on trains and 68, 300 were thrown off by the Southern Pacific Railroad company.

charities faltered –> could only supply 6% of needs –> starvation 1934, 110 recorded starvation cases.