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Great Depression Impact “The American People in Hard Times” Employment African Americas Minorities Women Most Pl saw unemployment/poverty as signs of personal failures Men= ashamed of being Jobless Relief eventually collapsed Thousands sifted through garbage cans for scraps of food or waited outside restaurants Nearly 2 million men (few women) road freight trains living as nomads Farm income declined 60% 1/3 of farmers lost their land “Dust Bowl”- worst drought in nations’ history (spreading through Texas into Dakota) Farm industries produce more than consumers buy Skies” families from the Dust Bowl travel to CA and other states -many worked as agricultural migrants Increase in deaths from starvation Experienced more unemployment, homelessness, malnutrition, and disease h of all blacks lived in South; mostly farmers Collapse of prices of cotton/ other crops -> no income -> left land Some migrated to Southern cities
Mexican Americans: Apron. 2 million in the sass’s Some farmed/ were agricultural migrants Most lived in urban areas Some= forced to leave country h a million Chicanes left the U. S to Mexico Faced discrimination Relief programs excluded Mexicans from their roles No access to American schools Hospitals refused them admission Migrated to cities such as L. A. Ere they lived in poverty 2. Asian Americans- Japanese: Great Depression By swellheads Often worked in fruit strands, 20% of all Nisei in L. A. Worked there in sass’s Often lost jobs to white Americans Suffered from increasing competition for Jobs Japanese American citizens League, 6000 members 3.
Asian Americans-Chinese: Those who moved outside the Asian community could rarely find Jobs above entry level Educated Chinese men/women has no hope for professional opportunities outside the world of Chinatown Belief that a women’s proper place was at home If they had a husband who was employed they should not accept a Job Wives/ others= ;largest group of female workers By the end of the Depression 20% more women were working Professional opportunities declined due to men Female industrial workers= more likely to be laid off or experience wage reductions Paid less than men Advantage: nonprofessional Jobs they usually help were less likely to disappear Black women suffered massive unemployment because of a great reduction of domestic service Jobs h of all black women lose Jobs in sass’s 38% of black women= employed vs.. 25% of white women Women often returned to sewing clothes for families and preserving their own foods, rather than buying in stores