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Black Tuesday |
This is the name given to October 29, 1929. This date signaled a selling frenzy on Wall Street–days before stock prices had plunged to desperate levels. Investors were willing to sell their shares for pennies on the dollar or were simply holding on to the worthless certificates. |
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Banking Collapse |
Much of the banking system collapsed following the stock market crash. Money supply greatly decreased; causing deflation. |
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"Dust Bowl" |
This is the term given to the Great Plain where a severe drough hit, killing all of the crops of the region. The topsoil turned to a fine powdery dust that blew away with the severe, hot winds that wreaked havoc on the farmers who remained. The area earned this name because Plains farmers saw their land literally blow away. |
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"Okies" |
This ws the nickname given to farmers and their families who came from the panhandle regions of Oklahoma or Texas to California in search of the "Promised Land" |
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Scottsboro Case |
Nine black young men who were accused of raping two white women in a railway boxcar in Scottsboro, AZ, in 1931. Quick trials, surpressed evidence, and inadequate legal council made them symbols of the discrimination that faced blacks on a daily basis during this era. |
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Japanese American Citizens League |
Japenese-American businessmen and professionals formed the league in 1930. 1940- had nearly 6,000 members |
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Walt Disney |
United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. |
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Life Magazine |
Photographic journal starting in 1936 had largest reader group in US. It had some articles on politics and economics, but it was known for photos of sports and theater, natural landscapes and public projects. A popular feature was "Life goes to a party" showing the rich and famous. |
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Spanish Civil War |
In 1936 a rebellion erupted in Spain after a coalition of Republicans, Socialists, and Communists was elected. General Francisco Franco led the rebellion. The revolt quickly became a civil war. The Soviet Union provided arms and advisers to the government forces while Germany and Italy sent tanks, airplanes, and soldiers to help Franco. |
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Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) |
Biracial Arkansas sharecropper orgasnization who lobbied government in 1934 to halt tenant evictions and to force landowners to share payents with tenants. |
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The Grapes of Wrath |
Wrtitten by John Steinbeck, arguably the most successful chronicler of social conditions in the 1930s. Published in 1939; tells a story of a family who migrated to California due to the dust bowl. He offered a harsh portrait of the exploitive features of agrarian life in the West, but also a tribute to the endurance of its main characters–and to the spirit of the community they represent. |
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James T, Farrell |
Writer who portrayed the grim life of Chicago’s Irish immigrants in his Studs Lonigan trilogy |
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Popular Front |
Combination of Socialist and Communist political parties in France; won election in 1936; unable to take strong of social reform because of continuing strength of conservatives; fell from power in 1938 |
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Socialist Party |
Political parties formed in the unity of an international organization with a set beliefs inspired by the writings of Karl Marx. They desired economic and political philosophy favoring public or government control of property and income. Their goal was to end the capitalist system, distribute wealth more equally, and nationalize American industries. |
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Agricultural Marketing Act |
Provided subsidies to farmers to not grow crops, Established the first major government program to help farmers maintain crop prices with a federally sponsored Farm Board that would make loans to national marking cooperatives or set up corporations to buy surpluses and raise prices. This act failed to help American farmers. |
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Hawley-Smoot Tarif |
This 50 percent tarrif on imported goods, passed in 1930, hurt American farmers and resulted in retaliatory tariffs from the other nations around the world that then hurt manufacturers. |
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Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) |
Established in 1932 by Herbert Hoover to offset the effects of the Great Depression; the RFC was authorized to give federal creit to banks so that they could operate efficiently. Banks recieving these loans were expected to extend loans to businesses providing jobs or building low-cost housing. |
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Farmers’ Holiday Association |
(1932) formed by a group of unhappy Iowa farm owners, it endorsed the withholding of farm products from the market- in effect a farmers’ strike, which although blockading several markets ended in failure. |
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Bonus Expeditionary Force |
A self-proclaimed group of more than 20,000 WWI veterans that formed when Congress approved paying $1000 bonus to those who had fought in WWI with payments beginning in 1945 (approx. 20 years later); the "Bonus Army"; marched into DC and camped there, vowing to stay until Congress approved legislation to pay the bonus immediately; proposal voted down by Congress, causing only a small portion of the group to leave; those who remained were driven out of the city under order of Hoover by the police at first and then the Army |
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Bonus Army |
This group of World War I veterans marched on Washington in 1932 to demand early release of bonuses promised by Congress. They set up a makeshift encampment around the Capitol. Eventually the group was joined by thousands more veterans and their families. Demands were not met, and a clash ensued with police that resulted in the deaths of two marchers. President Hoover called in the US Army to quash the riot, which used tear gas and tanks on the unarmed protesters. The Army burned the encampment, driving the veterans from Washington, D.C. |
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Douglas MacArthur |
United States general who served as chief of staff and commanded Allied forces in the South Pacific during World War II. |
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Franklin Roosevelt |
Democratic candidate who won the 1932 election by a landslide. He refused to uphold any of Hoover’s policies with the intent on enacting his own. He pledged a present a "New Deal" (its specific meaning ambiguous at the time to the American people) to the American public. |
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Rugged Individualism |
This idea of President Hoover’s stated that anyone could become a success if he or she worked hard enough. |
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Bull Market |
This term describes a situation in which the value of stocks is rising quickly. This occurred in 1929 when the New York Stock Exchange had reached an all-time high, with stocks selling for more than 16 times their actual worth. Unfortunately, at this time, it was not a true bull market and it eventually crashed. |
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