Much more than just a period of economic and agricultural crises. The Depression was a majority-impacting event in the lives of many people affected by it. Reflecting the desperation that individual people felt regarding the standards they face in living. Starvation and extreme weather contributed to the widespread struggle people faced during this period.

Carrot pullers

During the Great Depression, a dust bowl tore through the Great Plains. Heavily affecting Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles. The Dust Bowl lasted from 1930 to 1936. The storms and droughts that followed devastated many people's farms, factories, banks, and mines Resulting in an agricultural and economic depression. "Starved, stalled and stranded" conveys the hardships many faced. Most lost their jobs, and their farms and were left in severe poverty leaving them feeling stranded. Forcing many to migrate away to seek better opportunities.

Black Sunday Dust Bowl

During the Great Depression, the US hit an economic crisis and many Black Americans were first in line to be hit by these problems. They were pushed out of work and many of the benefits from the New Deal weren't extended to Black Americans. White people often refused to give Black Americans access to the New Deals programs due to racism. The depression hit many hard but marginalized groups such as Black Americans were victims at the forefront of these issues.

Without the basic resources and necessities needed to support their families and children. Children were unable to help their parents and families. The letter shown above displays the desperate state the depression left people in. Without jobs, this letter reaching out to the president for help shows the disillusion and desperate nature that the Great Depression left families and children.

At Parting Poem by Anne Barbara Ridler

Families during the Great Depression were left with very little resources. The unemployment rates left them unable to pay for necessities and pay for things like food or clothes. Migrant mothers were unable to support their children and had to watch them suffer without the necessities to live. The mother displayed in the quote has faced depression for many years and is on the verge of losing their home. Her pleads for help reflect the disillusionment and desperation the depression left people in.

Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother

-Large migration family, in This Fabulous Century

Farmers throughout Oklahoma and Texas were devastated by the Dust Bowl which destroyed their farms, crops, livestock, and their lives. Farmers were left hungry poor and desperate but left with the idea of sticking together for mutual support and survival. The article on these issues also displays what it was like for these farmers to have to move from Oklahoma's devastated lands to somewhere like California.

Children of the Harvest

Mexican Americans had to face many more challenges during the Great Depression. The economic and agricultural crises that plagued that era heavily affected Mexican Americans. Unemployment was sweeping through the US and many Mexican American immigrants were being deported and forced back to Mexico. In 1931, as the quote states, more than "75,000" Mexican Americans living in California were deported. The mural is a segment from the Great Wall of Los Angeles and represents how hard the depression had hit Mexican Americans at the time and the challenges the US put them through.

350,000 Mexican Americans Deported - Segment from the Great Wall of Los Angeles

The devastation of the Oklahoma and Texas dust bowl destroyed the lives of many farmers and workers in that area. They were left desperate and without their crops no way to survive and create income. The fine art shown above by Deal Sobel displays the depression the Dust Bowl brought. The muted colors and long faces symbolize the struggle that Texas and Oklahoma farmers faced.

The Dust Bowl by Dean Sobel

Since families were unable to support their children due to the unemployment and agricultural crises at the time. Many families especially their children were left stranded. Lacking the resources needed to support themselves and move away from the places affected by the Dust Bowl. Without a way to work or attend school children and families were left desperate and poor.

Children of the Great Depression

The quote shown above is from a novel by John Steinback in 1939 and focuses on a family of tenant farmers from Oklahoma and how they faced the results of the Dust Bowl. Many families would work and earn very little in return. Due to the family's poverty, the children are described as being "Little boils", meaning they were skinny or malnourished due to them not being able to afford food or necessities which was common during the Great Depression.