1930s: by Colette Lord

Society in the 1930s: Race and Class Tension

01clord — 2015-10-25 20:51:39 UTC

Racism in the United States thrived in the 1930s. Although groups that participated in terrorism, like the KKK, were slowly fading from the public’s eye, segregation and discrimination were still present, especially in the south. Due to the decline of agricultural jobs, many blacks moved north to find industrial careers. The blatant distrust of black citizens was displayed throughout the media. usually through newspapers. One of many such images, a drawing that depicted of a drunken black man passed out on the steps of a person’s home led to “the apprehension which many rich white New Yorkers felt at the the presence of so many blacks in what they considered to be their city (Issues of Race in the 1930’s). There was also a wage gap between black and white people; whites were paid more and even in the difficult times of the Depression were sometimes eligible for jobs that black people were completely passed over for. Lynching occurred over a hundred times over seven years in just Mississippi alone, leading to an anti-lynching bill to be passed in the House of Representatives. Strain built between races and would continue to rise throughout the decade.

Tension between social classes was almost palpable in the 1930s. During the Great Depression, the wealthy were mostly unaffected by the stock market crash and retained much of their money, while the lower class was left scrambling for financial security. “The upper classes began to flaunt their wealth more than ever. Working class Americans . . . were shocked and angered by this ostentatious display” (Relations of Class in the Great Depression). However, the affluent side of America held a grudge against the poor, as President Roosevelt tended to side with the less fortunate when making important political decisions like the New Deal. Altercations broke out, especially during worker strikes when unionization was the main topic. Aggressive meetings of the two sides of society resulted in several casualties. There was a graphic divide between social classes during the 30s, mainly due to economical differences.

Education

01clord — 2015-10-25 21:19:35 UTC

In the South, blacks and whites did not attend the same schools. Not only were there not enough schools for blacks, there were far fewer black children enrolled than white. “Children were often pulled out school because they were needed on the farm. . . sharecroppers’ children had to work alongside their parents” (The Education of Black Children in the Jim Crow South). Because African-American families tended to work in agriculture, they lived in the rural country; education in the city had more funding and a larger white population. It also didn’t help that “schools for both black and white children were scheduled around the cotton growing season . . . as a result many black children went to school only two or three months out of the year” (The Education of Black Children in the Jim Crow South). The schools were in abhorrent condition as well, with used, outdated books and too many children with not enough teachers. Typically, one to two underpaid instructors would teach lessons to children from kindergarten to eighth grade. Additionally, “there were limits on what blacks could be taught in school. White school leaders did not want black children to be exposed to ideas like equality and freedom” (The Education of Black Children in the Jim Crow South). Reading documents like the Constitution or the Declaration of independence wasn’t part of the curriculum. However, Northern foundations like the Rosenwald Foundation supported building better schools with more refined teachings. The Rosenwald Foundation donated four million dollars to build 5,000 schools in the 30s.

Society

01clord — 2015-10-27 11:45:48 UTC

PBS

Education

01clord — 2015-10-27 12:27:11 UTC

America's Black Holocaust Museum

Problems of the 1930s

01clord — 2015-10-27 12:33:22 UTC

There were two significant issues in this decade: the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The Depression technically began in late October 1929 with the infamous stock market crash, although the US has been slowly declining into an economic slump for the last six months. Investors lost millions of dollars and almost half of the banks in the nation closed. 30% of the entire workforce of America was unemployed, and industrial production fell 46% from several years prior. While it originated in the United States, it had a ripple affect across the globe, due to the close relationship between the US and other countries as suppliers and consumers. As U.S. goods manufacturing went down and inflation occurred, societies in South America, Europe, and Asia also felt the imbalance. The Depression lasted nearly a full decade, filled with hunger, anxiety, and an uncertainty for the future. While it was a relief to end the disaster that had smothered a nation, it also marked the beginning of America’s involvement in WWII.

The Dust Bowl was “a series of disastrous dust storms [that] struck the southern Great Plains of the United States” (Dust Bowl 1931-1939). While the economic and agricultural impact would have been devastating on its own, it was particularly catastrophic since it occurred during the Great Depression. Over an eight year period, three quarters of the country was directly affected. As the dust storms blew over the plains, crops withered and soil eroded. Winds blew soil several miles into the air at speeds up to an estimated sixty miles per hour. The drought that caused it to happen in the first place had been creeping its way west for a year or two, but farmers had paid no attention it. In fact, “, Great Plains farmers were among the most prosperous in the nation, while farmers in other regions struggled. The 1931 growing season brought a record-breaking wheat crop and the future prospects seemed unlimited” (Dust Bowl 1931-1939). Three years after it started, 97 million acres across six states had been affected. Several million people were forced to abandon their homes and careers to start anew farther north. Homes were foreclosed by banks and schools were shut down; no one was around to pay taxes for public education, and there was no means to acquire any money by farming. While Alabama didn’t experience the drought itself, the state felt it through the nation’s economic distress.

Problems

01clord — 2015-10-27 12:36:24 UTC

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Economy in the 1930s

01clord — 2015-10-27 14:41:03 UTC

Due to the immense manufacturing need of WW1, Alabama started to shift from a mostly agricultural state (in terms of jobs) to a more industrial one. Alabama’s economy has started to sink downwards as many as eight years before the Depression hit the rest of the country. From the Encyclopedia of Alabama, “American agriculture had been struggling as early as 1921, when commodity prices fell steadily from post-World War I highs. In Alabama, cotton prices dropped to the lowest levels since the 1880s.” As the need for manual industrial labor declined, the income and profit for the state also went down, which led to mass unemployment. Because of the drastic nature of this, “when the Great Depression hit, poorer Alabamians hardly registered the difference” (Alabama Archives). Farm tenancy, a popular career choice, also began to fail due to lack of resources and workers. Workers began to join labor unions and threatened to strike if they were not given better environments and rights. With WWII came the immense need for war relief, which created jobs and effectively ended the Depression.

Economy

01clord — 2015-10-27 17:58:51 UTC

Wikipedia - unemployed men march