The Depths of the Great Depression

This bingo card has a free space and 24 words: By the end of 1932 the Great Depression left around 60 million Americans in poverty with limited federal aid available., A dust ball was created due to the high winds that picked up the topsoil and would create big and dangerous dust storms., Around 7 thousand people passed due to the dangerous and toxicity of the dust ball., American culture focused a lot on values like individualism, self-reliance, and success through competition., In movies, many silent films, like Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, told stories about people going from poor to rich, which was a popular theme in America., Starvation was increasingly common, with documented cases rising from 20 in 1931 to 110 in 1934., By the time Hoover left office in 1933, the poor survived not on relief efforts, but because they had learned to be poor., Family members swapped clothes; sisters might take turns going to church in the one dress they owned., Racial violence also began to rise. In the South, lynching became more common again, with twenty-eight documented lynchings in 1933, compared to eight in 1932., From the turn of the century through much of World War I, farmers in the Great Plains experienced prosperity due to unusually good growing conditions, high commodity prices, and generous government farming policies that led to a rush for land., Exacerbating the problem was a massive drought that began in 1931 and lasted for eight terrible years., Efforts, commodity prices continued to drop, finally plummeting in 1929, when the price of wheat dropped from two dollars to forty cents per bushel., Terrifying dust storms became more and more frequent, as “black blizzards” of dirt blew across the landscape and created a new illness known as “dust pneumonia.”, It is worth noting that of the five thousand banks that closed between 1930 and 1932, over 75 percent were country banks in locations with populations under 2,500., In hard-hit Oklahoma, thousands of farmers packed up what they could and walked or drove away from the land they thought would be their future., . Okies were an emblem of the failure of the American breadbasket to deliver on its promise, and their story was made famous in John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath., Even more than escapism, other films at the close of the decade reflected on the sense of community and family values that Americans struggled to maintain throughout the entire Depression., The Depression era was a favorite of Capra’s to depict in his films, including It’s a Wonderful Life, released in 1946., Finally, there was a great deal of pure escapism in the popular culture of the Depression., series. The Hardy series—nine films in all, produced by MGM from 1936 to 1940—starred Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, and all followed the adventures of a small-town judge and his son., 1920s. Contraceptive sales soared during the decade, and again, culture reflected this shift., 1932. Since communities were preoccupied with their own hardships, and organizing civil rights efforts was a long, difficult process, many resigned themselves to, or even ignored, this culture of racism and violence., Cash surrender payments of individual insurance policies tripled in the first three years of the Great Depression. and Over fifty thousand New York citizens were homeless by the end of 1932..

More like this:

1929 - "Great Depression"- 1939 | The Great Depression | 1929 - "Great Depression"- 1939 | Great Depression Bingo | The Great Depression Bingo