Essay Great Depression

Submitted By Jordan-Johnson
Words: 997
Pages: 4

Mr. Santomenna
APUSH
February 14, 2013
The Great Depression and the New Deal The 1930’s was one of the lowest points in American history. The stock market and economy was at an all-time low. As many Americans began selling their stocks, the market plummeted. This caused many people to lose their money and investments due to them buying on margin. During the election of 1932, President Hoover was removed from office and in came Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt went to work right away and passed a lot more bills all within a 100 day timeframe. Roosevelt came up with the idea called “The New Deal”. This was going to be a plan to fight the Great Depression and help the nation rebuild itself. The New Deal consisted of relief, recovery, and reform. Relief was the help for right now, to prevent people from starving and to give people shelters. Recovery was only temporary help to get the country out of the depression and get them back on their feet. Reform on the other hand was the long term, permanent, help. The reforms passed would make sure that this type of Depression would never happen again. Roosevelt, however, was not quiet done. Roosevelt passed many more bills that became known as “alphabet soup”, due to all the abbreviations used. All of this was a part of his New Deal. The Great Depression and Roosevelt’s New Deal greatly affected women, African-Americans, and farmers throughout the country. Women were discriminated against during the Great Depression and the New Deal. The depression put millions of Americans out of work, both male and female. The little jobs that were available were given to the men. The sexual division in labor grew as many men disapproved wives obtaining employment. Women were expected to keep the family stable and in social order, while the men found any job they could to provide as much as possible to their families. Many men still believed the idea that the “women’s place is in the home”. It was believed to be a waste of time for women to pursuit careers when they could just be using that time at home. Also, with all the new appliances for the home, standard cleanliness increasing and women had to keep up. But still, the amount of married women workers grew, at least until the women had a child. As women got married they tried to keep their jobs in order to provide a little more for the family, even though women wages were not as high as men’s. There were many defendants of women workers and they stuck to the idea that women should envision employment and continue to work in support for their family. African-Americans favored Roosevelt and the New Deal. Proof of this comes from seeing the massive conversion of black voters from Republican to Democratic in support of Roosevelt and his ideas. A big reason for this political change was because the New Deal allowed blacks to organize and express their concerns and frustrations to officials. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 gave Americans the right to vote for unions. The blacks then argued that unions should not be allowed to be segregated. Roosevelt, however, sided with the white labor forces and the African-Americans protest was shut down. The African-Americans did not give up and stop their fight there. They continued to show their frustrations through media like newspapers, journals, clergy, and civil leaders in the communities. While over a quarter of the black population was unemployed, A. Philip Randolph founded the National Negro Congress (NNC). This group quickly gained millions of followers as the blacks organized and fought to get jobs. Time and time again these efforts failed and lead to the decline of the NNC. With failure on the horizon, they gave one final push. The NNC marched to Washington. The “Negro March”