JAMIE MEYER NOV 19,2014 HISTORY 1
MW 3:30-4:55

THE 1930’s It was not the best time in the late fourteen hundreds. Times were tough money was scarce. Banks foreclosed houses the poor were dirt poor and the rich were wealthy. Middle class was doing good for themselves except for the occasional power and telephone being cut off. Herbert Hoover was president till 1932, and FDR for the rest till 1945. Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa, and was the first president born west of the Mississippi River. When Hoover was six years old, his father died. Three years later his mother also died, and Hoover was then raised in Oregon by his maternal aunt and uncle. He was in china during the Boxer Rebellion, and he organized the relief efforts for trapped foreigners. Many thought of hoover to be a smart kind hearted man who was there for his people. In 1928 when President Coolidge decided not to run for another term Hoover was nominated as the Republican candidate. He ran against New York governor Alfred E. Smith and won in a landslide. Herbert said, “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land,” but a year later the stock market crash of 1929 struck, and the worst economic downturn in American history was upon Hoover’s administration. Now that we have a little more of a background of Herbert hoover lets look into something equally as important. Women’s rights in the 1930’s…There was no rights… Women were basically not getting married as much and they still worked as the only jobs they could at schools or small factories most were maids or housewife’s and some were midwifes. As James brown said “Its was a man’s world”. Women couldn’t have a voice nor disobey her husband. Women learned tricks to save money like buying cheaper day old bread and putting multiple dishes in the oven to save gas. There was no protection policy against woman at the time. So that means they could be fired for just being a woman. They were able to vote but discrimination against color women was still there. Women of higher intellect were not allowed to teach and learn at certain schools. They were mostly single because of the depression. Most men left for work and couldn’t send money home. It was the hardest not only on black women but on African American people in general. The number of blacks seeking jobs in cities escalated, urban black workers experienced greater difficulties. Black unemployment reached over 50 percent, more than twice the rate of whites. In southern cities, white workers carried around such slogans as, "No Jobs for Niggers Until Every White Man Has a Job" and "Niggers, back to the cotton fields—city jobs are for white folks." The most violent of episodes took place on southern railroads, as unionized white workers and the railroad brotherhoods intimidated, attacked, and murdered black firemen in order to take their jobs. That shows you just how far these people went for jobs and discrimination. There was other types of discrimination. Some towards farmers who barely had enough money to crop plants.

Farmers faced tough times. While most Americans enjoyed relative prosperity for most of the 1920s, the Great