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Song about the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.

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Bryant, Jack - Voices From the Dust Bowl

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The Dust Bowl refers to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period in the 1930s. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and crops failed across the entire region. The Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression and drove many farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions.

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The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period in the 1930s. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and crops failed across the entire region. The Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression and drove many farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions.

What Caused the Dust Bowl?

The Dust Bowl was caused by several economic and agricultural factors, including federal land policies, changes in regional weather, farm economics and other cultural factors. After the Civil War, a series of federal land acts coaxed pioneers westward by incentivizing farming in the Great Plains.

The Homestead Act of 1862, which provided settlers with 160 acres of public land, was followed by the Kinkaid Act of 1904 and the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909. These acts led to a massive influx of new and inexperienced farmers across the Great Plains.

Many of these late nineteenth and early twentieth century settlers lived by the superstition "rain follows the plow." Emigrants, land speculators, politicians and even some scientists believed that homesteading and agriculture would permanently affect the climate of the semi-arid Great Plains region, making it more conducive to farming.

This false belief was linked to Manifest Destiny -an attitude that Americans had a sacred duty to expand west. A series of wet years during the period created further misunderstanding of the region's ecology and led to the intensive cultivation of increasingly marginal lands that couldn't be reached by irrigation.

Rising wheat prices in the 1910s and 1920s and increased demand for wheat from Europe during World War I encouraged farmers to plow up millions of acres of native grassland to plant wheat, corn and other row crops. But as the United States entered the Great Depression, wheat prices plummeted. Farmers tore up even more grassland in an attempt to harvest a bumper crop and break even.

Crops began to fail with the onset of drought in 1931, exposing the bare, over-plowed farmland. Without deep-rooted prairie grasses to hold the soil in place, it began to blow away. Eroding soil led to massive dust storms and economic devastation-especially in the Southern Plains.

When Was The Dust Bowl?

The Dust Bowl, also known as "the Dirty Thirties," started in 1930 and lasted for about a decade, but its long-term economic impacts on the region lingered much longer.

Severe drought hit the Midwest and Southern Great Plains in 1930. Massive dust storms began in 1931. A series of drought years followed, further exacerbating the environmental disaster.

By 1934, an estimated 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land had been rendered useless for farming, while another 125 million acres-an area roughly three-quarters the size of Texas-was rapidly losing its topsoil.

Regular rainfall returned to the region by the end of 1939, bringing the Dust Bowl years to a close. The economic effects, however, persisted. Population declines in the worst-hit counties-where the agricultural value of the land failed to recover-continued well into the 1950s.

'Black Blizzards' Strike America

During the Dust Bowl period, severe dust storms, often called "black blizzards" swept the Great Plains. Some of these carried Great Plains topsoil as far east as Washington, D.C. and New York City, and coated ships in the Atlantic Ocean with dust.

Billowing clouds of dust would darken the sky, sometimes for days at a time. In many places, the dust drifted like snow and residents had to clear it with shovels. Dust worked its way through the cracks of even well-sealed homes, leaving a coating on food, skin and furniture.

Some people developed "dust pneumonia" and experienced chest pain and difficulty breathing. It's unclear exactly how many people may have died from the condition. Estimates range from hundreds to several thousand people.

On May 11, 1934, a massive dust storm two miles high traveled 2,000 miles to the East Coast, blotting out monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and the U.S. Capitol.

The worst dust storm occurred on April 14, 1935. News reports called the event Black Sunday. A wall of blowing sand and dust started in the Oklahoma Panhandle and spread east. As many as three million tons of topsoil are estimated to have blown off the Great Plains during Black Sunday.

An Associated Press news report coined the term "Dust Bowl" after the Black Sunday dust storm.

New Deal Programs

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a number of measures to help alleviate the plight of poor and displaced farmers. He also addressed the environmental degradation that had led to the Dust Bowl in the first place.

Congress established the Soil Erosion Service and the Prairie States Forestry Project in 1935. These programs put local farmers to work planting trees as windbreaks on farms across the Great Plains. The Soil Erosion Service, now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) implemented new farming techniques to combat the problem of soil erosion.
READ MORE: Did New Deal Program Help End the Great Depression?
Okie Migration

Roughly 2.5 million people left the Dust Bowl states- Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma-during the 1930s. It was one of the largest migrations in American history.

Oklahoma alone lost 440,000 people to migration. Many of them, poverty-stricken, traveled west looking for work. From 1935 to 1940, roughly 250,000 Oklahoma migrants moved to California. A third settled in the state's agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley.

These Dust Bowl refugees were called "Okies." Okies faced discrimination, menial labor and pitiable wages upon reaching California. Many of them lived in shantytowns and tents along irrigation ditches. "Okie" soon became a term of disdain used to refer to any poor Dust Bowl migrant, regardless of their state of origin.
READ MORE: How the Dust Bowl Made Americans Refugees in Their Own Country

Dust Bowl in Arts and Culture

The Dust Bowl captured the imagination of the nation's artists, musicians and writers.

John Steinbeck memorialized the plight of the Okies in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. Photographer Dorothea Lange documented rural poverty with a series of photographs for FDR's Farm Securities Administration. Artist Alexander Hogue painted Dust Bowl landscapes.

Folk musician Woody Guthrie's semi-autobiographical first album Dust Bowl Ballads in 1940, told stories of economic hardship faced by Okies in California. Guthrie, an Oklahoma native, left his home state with thousands of others looking for work during the Dust Bowl.

SOURCES

FDR and the New Deal Response to an Environmental Catastrophe. Roosevelt Institute.
About The Dust Bowl. English Department; University of Illinois.
Dust Bowl Migration. University of California at Davis.
The Great Okie Migration. Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Okie Migrations. Oklahoma Historical Society.
What we learned from the Dust Bowl: lessons in science, policy, and adaptation. Population and Environment.
The Dust Bowl. Library of Congress.
Dust Bowl Ballads: Woody Guthrie. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
The Dust Bowl. Ken Burns; PBS.

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The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period in the 1930s. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and crops failed across the entire region.

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Great Depression - Soup Kitchen

President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover was the 31st US President who served in office from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933. One of the most important events during his presidency was the beginning of the period in US history known as the Great Depression.

Great Depression Facts: Fast Fact Sheet
Fast, fun facts and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) about the Great Depression.

When did the Great Depression start? The Great Depression started with the Wall Street Crash which occurred on October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday)

When did the Great Depression end? The Great Depression lasted for ten years and ended in 1939 as WW2 broke out. The worst year of the Great Depression was 1933.

What was the Unemployment Rate during the Great Depression: The Unemployment Rate during the Great Depression in 1933 was 25%. Over 12 million people were unemployed with over 12,000 people being made unemployed every single day at the height of the Great Depression.

What Caused the Great Depression?
The Great Depression was caused by many different factors including false sense of prosperity in America, the 1929 Stock Market Crash, Bank failures, lack of credit, bankruptcies, unemployment, reduction in purchasing, American economic policy and failures by the Federal Reserve, loss of exports, drought conditions and the Dust Bowl. For comprehensive facts and information refer to the Causes and effects of the Great Depression.

Great Depression Facts for kids The following fact sheet contains interesting facts and information on Great Depression and what happened to the American people during this devastating period in American history.

Facts about the Great Depression for kids

The Great Depression Fact 1: Roaring Twenties had been an exciting period in America with new inventions, technical innovations and changing lifestyles. The feeling of exuberance and invincibility disappeared almost overnight triggered by the 1929 Wall Street Crash and economic collapse in the United States.
Great Depression Fact 2: The Great Depression was aptly named reflecting both the long and severe recession in the American economy and the feelings of dejection and despair experienced by the American people. Great Depression Fact 4: His sense of optimism, shared by so many Americans before the economic collapse, was conveyed in one of his campaign speeches on the potential of America towards ever greater economic prosperity. Great Depression Fact 6: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.
We shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation." Ordinary, Middle Class Americans had invested in the Stock Market. By 1929 nearly 4 million Americans (about 10% of US households) had invested in the stock market " Buying on Margin" meaning that they were buying shares with loans. Great Depression Fact 8: There was an uneven distribution of income in America. Lower class, poor Americans were in the majority (60%) - these people were suffering even before the Great Depression and had limited spendable income. Great Depression Fact 10: The federal government did not insure bank deposits. If a bank collapsed its customers lost all their savings. During 1929-1931 over 3000 banks went bankrupt - over 10% of the nation's total and more followed as the Great Depression deepened. Great Depression Fact 12: Rumors would circulate that a bank was about to collapse. People scrambled to withdraw their money. As a bank run progressed, it generated its own momentum in a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. As people withdrew their money, even more people made withdrawals. The bank would run out of cash and become bankrupt.
Continued...

Facts about the Great Depression for kids

Facts about the Great Depression for kids The following fact sheet continues with facts about Great Depression

Facts about Great Depression for kids

● 1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff created protective tariffs (taxes) and increased rates on imported goods Hoover Dam
● 1931 Federal Home Loan Act was passed creating the Home Loan Board and the creation of banks to handle home mortgages. The Federal Home Loan Banks received $125 million in capital
● In October 1931 the National Credit Corporation was created to encourage the largest banks in the country to establish lending agencies to lend money to small banks on the brink of foreclosure, that could be used for loans
● 1931 Wagner-Graham Stabilization Act was passed to set up the Federal Stabilization Board to initiate public works such as dams and highways
● The 1931 Keyes-Elliott Acts appropriated an additional $330 million for Federal buildings and construction projects in order to aid employment
● Congress passed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act of 1932 to create the Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC). The RFC was designed to give out loans to banks, railroads, and companies in order to pump money back into the economy
● The Emergency Committee for Employment was set up August 19, 1931 in an attempt to mobilize private charity and encouraged states and cities to increase public works spending. It ended on June 30, 1932 because the government was not willing to help the agencies with the aid of money
● Public Works Programs were initiated, such as the construction of the

The Great Depression Fact 17: Bonus Army March took place in the summer of 1932 as WW1 veterans marched to Washington to lobby Congress to pass legislation authorizing the early payment of $1000 veterans bonuses. The bill was not passed. Some veterans, with no where else to go, stayed in Washington living in unoccupied building and makeshift camps. The government called in the army to remove the veterans. The US Army, under Douglas MacArthur, used extreme and violent tactics to remove the veterans.

Others lined up at ' Soup Kitchens', established by charities, where food was served to the hungry. The picture illustrates a typical Soup Kitchen in the 1930's.
"The fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities,
is on a sound and prosperous basis.."
Great Depression Fact 22: Shanty towns (Hoovervilles): Due to unemployment Americans were unable to pay their bills. Many unfortunate tenants were evicted by bailiffs. Homeless Americans had no alternative but to set up shacks on unused or public lands. The photograph of the children living in a 1930's shantytown conveys the plight and the living conditions forced on American citizens who had been made homeless, through no fault of their own, during the Great Depression. Nearly 50% of children did not have adequate food, shelter, or medical care. For more facts refer to Shantytowns and Hoovervilles

Great Depression Fact 24: Dust Bowl: Farmers had experienced a difficult time in the 1920s. It got worse in the 1930s. In 1932 a devastating drought hit the farmers in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. With no rainfall the soil turned to dust. Violent winds whipped the dry soil creating terrifying dust storms. The dust got everywhere, crops were ruined and livestock were killed. Farmers lost their lands and homes to the foreclosures by the banks. The dust bowl and the dust storms destroyed 100 million acres of land. Over 3 million impoverished people became homeless and many had no alternative but to head west to California away from the devastation of the prairie states.

Crime increased during the Great Depression. Amongst the Americans, who followed in the path of Great Depression Fact 28: Al Capone, turned to crime during the period were Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd and the Ma Barker gang.

The period in American history known as the New Deal was about to begin.

In the ' Great Depression Fact 34: First 100 Days' the Roosevelt presidency started with intensive legislative activity and Congress passed 15 important acts to combat the economic crisis - these actions were referred to as the 'First New Deal' encompassing his policies of Relief, Recovery and Reform.

Great Depression Fact 35: President Roosevelt's New Deal Programs would become the biggest, most expensive government initiatives introduced by any American President. His first goal was to stabilize the banking system. The Emergency Banking Relief Bill brought all banks under federal control.

Great Depression Fact 36: President Roosevelt realized that he had to win back the confidence of the American people. He used the power of communication via the radio and established a weekly broadcast called the " Fireside Chats " to speak directly to Americans.

The Second New Deal emerged in 1935 - 1936 established more radical and reforming policies. These included the Great Depression Fact 37: Works Progress Administration, the Rural Electrification Administration and the National Labor Relations Act. The federal organizations that were created to provide practical were nicknamed "Alphabet Agencies," such as the TVA, NRA, CCC, AAA and PWA.
"..the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror".
World War 2 broke out in 1939 and the United States entered the conflict on December 7, 1941. At this point the economic output in America surged and unemployment fell - refer to Great Depression Fact 38: US Mobilization for WW2

Facts about Great Depression for kids

Facts about Great Depression for kids
For visitors interested in the history of the Great Depression refer to the following articles:

Great Depression - President Herbert Hoover Video
The article on the Great Depression provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during his presidential term in office. The following Herbert Hoover video will give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 31st American President whose presidency spanned from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933.

Great Depression

● Interesting Facts about Great Depression for kids and schools
● Summary of the Great Depression in US history
● The Great Depression, a major event in US history
● Herbert Hoover from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933
● Fast, fun facts about the Great Depression
● Foreign & Domestic policies of President Herbert Hoover
● Herbert Hoover Presidency and Great Depression for schools, homework, kids and children

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40 Facts about the Great Depression: US History for Kids ***

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Great Depression - Soup Kitchen President Herbert Hoover Herbert Hoover was the 31st US President who served in office from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933. One of the most important events during his presidency was the beginning of the period in US history known as the Great Depression.

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In April 1935, one of the worst dust storms hit the mid west. It was nicknamed "Black Sunday". View the images and listen to a song by Woody Guthrie, detailing the event.

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Kiddle is a safe search engine, offering a safe web, image, and video search. Results are vetted by editors.

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Mother of multiple children working as a pea farmer during the depression/dustbowl

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Family migrating west to find work

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Dust stirred up in a town

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Crowd gathers after the stock exchange crash.

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Dust Bowl dust storm

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Dust Storm covers this farmhouse

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Family in search of money and jobs heads west.

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Dorothea Lange is well known for documenting life during the great depression and the lives of migrant farm workers trying to escape the dust bowl in the mid west.

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Migrant Farm Families
Photos with Original Captions

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) has been called America's greatest documentary photographer. She is best known for her chronicles of the Great Depression and for her photographs of migratory farm workers. Below are 42 pre-World War II photographs she created for the U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA) investigating living conditions of farm workers and their families in Western states such as California. Most of the workers had come west to escape the Dust Bowl, the lengthy drought which devastated millions of acres of farmland in Midwestern states such as Oklahoma.

-- Tents as Home Left - Drought refugees from Texas encamped in California near Exeter. Seven in family. Mid - Brawley, Imperial Valley, In Farm Security Administration (FSA) migratory labor camp. Right - In a carrot pullers' camp near Holtville, California.

- Car on siding across tracks from pea packing plant. Twenty-five year old itinerant, originally from Oregon. "On the road eight years, all over the country, every state in the union, back and forth, pick up a job here and there, travelling all the time." Calipatria, Imperial Valley. On the Move -- Left Mid - Calipatria, Imperial Valley. Idle pea pickers discuss prospects for work. California. Right - Family who traveled by freight train. Washington, Toppenish, Yakima Valley.

- Entering Farm Security Administration (FSA) camp for migratory laborers at Indio. Coachella Valley, California. Finding Alternatives -- Left Mid - Heads of families on the Mineral King cooperative farm. Ten families are now established on this 500-acre ranch to be operated as a unit. (Farm Security Administration) Tulare County, California. Right - Family living in tent while building the house around them. Near Klamath Falls, Klamath county, Oregon.

Enduring Life -- Left- Migrant children. Merrill, Klamath County, Oregon. In unit of FSA (Farm Security Administration) mobile camp. Mid - Migrant worker on California highway. Right - Billboard on U.S. Highway 99 in California. National advertising campaign sponsored by National Association of Manufacturers.

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The History Place - Dorothea Lange Photo Gallery: Migrant Farm Families

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Forty-two pre-World War II photographs Dorothea Lange created for the U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA) investigating living conditions of farm workers and their families.

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Family heads west for jobs.

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Find out what life was like in the Dust Bowl
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/interactive/#homestead

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http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/

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https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression

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https://www.ducksters.com/history/us_1900s/great_depression.php

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https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/greatdepression/

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http://www.kidrex.org/