Great Depression Dbq

In 1929, the stock market crashed, bringing economic devastation to all of America, and much of Europe. Many Americans were jobless and homeless, causing many problems all throughout America. The American citizens and people frantically tried to create coping methods fro life in poverty, and did what they had to survive, as our government was working to improve life for the American citizen. These fateful years would later be known as, “The Great Depression”, the greatest economic crisis in American History. The African American community faced many hardships; some might say, even worse then those faced by the rest of America. They found it harder to get jobs, and were fired before the Caucasian workers. Additionally, most new deal reparations didn’t apply to African Americans, so they did not get the jobs administered by the state to the unemployed. In order to be able to cope, the African Americans made their own charities, and their leaders urged them to unite for civil rights. Along side them helping each other, the government also tried to improve the poverty in African American communities. Even though Mrs. Roosevelt was sympathetic to the African Americans, the government did little to support them. They passed the FEPC, which was supposed to enforce non-racist work areas, but it was never enforced.

Now that they no longer needed to sustain the troops from WWI, they faced the difficulty overproduction, and debt that they were not able to pay back. Also, no one had the money to buy their produce, so they had much decreased income. They picketed highways in protest, and went on strike. They also raised the prices of their produce. The government did try to help the farmers through some new deal reparations. They made the REA (Rural Electrification Act), and the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act), which paid the farmers for disposing of excess