STATION A: STORIES OF THE DUST BOWL
Please, read the following excerpt from Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. Then, answer the questions below.
Brown earth rained down
from sky.
I could not catch my breath
the way the dust pressed on my chest
And wouldn’t stop.
the dirt blew down so thick
it scratched my eyes
and stung my tender skin,
it plugged my nose and filled inside my mouth.
no matter how I pressed my lips together,
the dust made muddy tracks
across my tongue.
But I kept on,
spitting out mud,
covering my mouth.
clamping my nose,
the dust stinging the raw and open
stripes of scarring on my hands,
and after some three hours I made it home.
1. What does this passage tell you about life during the Dust Bowl?
The popularity of photography increased greatly during the 1930s due to new technologies, such as the .35-millimeter camera. Famous photographer, like Dorothea Lange, sought new subjects. They found them in the victims of the Dust Bowl. Please, choose one of the following images.
1. What do these images show you about life during the Dust Bowl?
Migrant Mother (Dorothea Lange, 1936) Migrant Family Walking on Road (Dorothea Lange, 1938)
STATION B: STARVATION
The Great Depression worsened during Hoover’s presidency (1929-1933). The unemployed stood in bread lines for hours to receive free food or visited soup kitchens set up by private organizations, such as the YMCA.
1. What do these images show you about life during the Great Depression?
The starvation of the Great Depression did not end at city limits. Farmers felt the Great Depression in both their personal and business lives.
“Those families who had lived on a little piece of land, who had lived and died on forty acres, had eaten or starved on the produce of forty acres, had now the whole West to rove in. And they scampered about, looking for work; and the highways were streams of people, and the ditch banks were lines of people. . . . The great highways streamed with moving people. . . .
And this was good, for wages went down and prices stayed up. The great owners were glad. . . . And wages went down and prices stayed up. And pretty soon now we'll have serfs again. . . . And the little farmers . . . lost their farms, and they were taken by the great owners, the banks, and the companies.
. . . As time went on, there were fewer farms. The little farmers moved into town for a while and exhausted their credit, exhausted their friends, their relatives. And then they too were on the highways. And the roads were crowded with men ravenous for work, murderous for work.
And the companies, the banks worked at their own doom and they did not know it. The fields were fruitful, and starving men moved on the roads. . . .
The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line. . . . On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1. How does this excerpt show the effects of the Great Depression?
STATION C: HOOVER AND POVERTY
President Herbert Hoover’s lack of efficient response to the Great Depression led his name to become synonymous with poverty.
1. How do these images show the effects of the Great Depression?
Children around the country wrote to the President to ask for relief from the Great Depression.
Request for Money
Greensboro N.C.
Febuary 12,1938
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt,
Washington D.C.
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt
On January 1st I was layed off from my work leaving my father the whole support of our family. just recently he was cut down to three days a week with a cut in salary. With seven of us in the family it is just about impossible for us to live on this amount.
My mother has been sick for over two months having had a nervous breakdown and we are unable to buy or furnish her with the medicine required for her recovery.
I am 18 years of age the oldest girl in the family, and it just seems impossible for me to get a job any where. I have been to Mills, Stores and Firms of all sorts. I am willing and able to work. Can furnish excellent references but at this time of the year it just seems impossible to find work.
We are so in debt and each week the bills are piling higher and higher that it just seems as if there was no way out.
We must make a pay ment on our furniture bill. And if it isn't paid soon they will be out any day for our furniture. And on top of this we are behind in our rent.
It would be a big help if we could get some of our bills paid on as they are already impatient for their money.
If you could help us out with from $35.00 to $50.00 I believe we would be the happiest family in the world.
Please grant me this favor and I will ever be
Gratefully yours,
D.B.
1. How does this letter show the problems families faced during the Great Depression?
STATION D: STOCK MARKET CRASH
1. What happened to the Stock Market in 1929?
The Stock Market crash led to many bankers to turn to suicide to deal.
1. What did the stock market crash do to the perception of the “American Dream”?