Roaring 20s & Great Depression
Timeline
Trigger words
"Please Help Us Mr. President": Black Americans write to FDRThis is a small collection of letters addressed to FDR during the Great Depression in Georgia. It was filed in the Federal Relief Administration Central file center. It's three different cases of African Americans writing to FDR begging for aid whether by supplies, or preventing discrimination. THere is even one case where the sender was afraid of what the locals would do to him if he were to give his name in the letter.
It's truly emotional how these good people are being tormented, not only by the Great Depression, but by their own neighbors. One would think in times of crisis, people would band together, but nope. ONe of them is so scared of what might happen, he didn't sign his own and expressed it in the letter. It shows the mindset of the southern whites during that time, and the film "Birth of a Nation" wouldn't help all that much either. Verick R. |
"Children in a democracy. A migratory family living in a trailer in an open field. NO sanitation, NO water. They come from Amarillo, Texas"It is a picture of a family living in what seems to be a makeshift shelter. It seems as though there is no male present, though he may not have been there for the picture. It shows a mother and her children in a dry, barren area of empty land. There is obvious discomfort in all of the subjects' faces. The sun beats down on the family and their temporary home. There is no sign of food and water and the scene looks very dirty as though the family has not bathed for a while.
This shows how families(mostly Okies) were forced off their land and had to make the best of what they had. It shows the hard lives of the American people during this time known as the Dust Bowl. It depicts the despair of all who went through these kinds of challenges. This gives and accurate depiction of what life was like during the Great Depression--no sugar coating. It gives the sense that there was no sign of hope for many of the families but they continued to tread on with heavy shoulders. Some people would be lucky enough to live in a tenement (made possible by the resettlement administration), but most had to resort to living in the middle of nowhere in their cars or in makeshift houses like the one depicted. Alexis s. |
David G. |