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Black Tuesday
On the Thursday morning of October 24th, stock markets plummeted. After years of buying on margin, which literally was taking loans to purchase stocks, the fall of the market left average citizens quickly losing their investments. Then, five days later, on 'Black Tuesday', 12.9 million shares were sold, and the market hit rock bottom. -
The First 'Fireside Chat'
Fireside Chat on Banking
Over radio broadcast, President Roosevelt talked to the citizens of America on the national banking crisis. He continued to have these 'Fireside Chat's during his presidency, having done over 30 by the end of his terms. He was a confident speaker, and by far, he reassured America about many of the ongoing problems. -
Man, Controller of the Universe
Diego Rivera, along with many others, worked during the Great Depression under the Federal Art Project. This particular mural was to be held in the Rockefeller Center in New York City. Many prominent patrons at the time commissioned artists to create massive murals, to encourage citizens and bring up hopes when the Great Depression was at its worst. Ironically this mural was taken down before showed to the public because of it's depiction of Lenin and it's communistic connections. -
Glass-Steagall Act
After the failure of nearly 5,000 banks, Roosevelt enacted the Glass-Steagall Act. It called for tighter regulation of national banks, prohibited bank sales of Securities, and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC forced banks to insure deposits up to $5,000. -
The 21st Amendment
"At 7:00 PM, President Roosevelt signed the proclamation ending the Prohibition." After 13 long years of the "Great Experiment", the manufacturing, transportation, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverages once again became legal. Respect for the law, had to be rebuilt, after crime increased to a level never seen before. -
Works Project Administration
Over 3.4 million people were emplyed by 1936 in many of the WPA programs. Harry Hopkins, the administer, set up programs from the Civilian Conservation Corps, which worked on many of Roosevelt's national park projects, to the Federal Art Project, which commisioned some of the most prominent artists in the country at the time, keeping as much of America working as possible. -
Black Sunday
Winds traveling at 40 MPH and more, picked up dust and carried it, growing till it became a mountain of blackness that swept across the High Plains. Land owners from Oklahoma to the Texas panhandles felt the main front of the dust storm. So bad, that one could not see a hand held out in front of their face. The dust later blew all the way up north to Washington. -
National Youth Administration
Focusing on the impoverished and unemployed people between the ages of 16 and 25, the NYA provided job training and work-study programs that allowed people to earn income while continuing their education. -
Migrant Mother
On their way looking for work at a pea pickers' camp, Florence Owens Thompson and her children were stopped by Dorothea Lange. Lange asked if she could take a few exposures, and was surprised by how little Thompson seemed to mind. Lange found that Thompson was thirty-two, had been living off of frozen vegetables and birds that the children killed, and she had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. -
Roosevelt's Court Packing Plan
In February 1937, the Senate Judiciary Committee met to hear Roosevelt's request to increase the size of the Supreme Court. President Roosevelt had suffered many of his provisions included in the New Deal programs, and looked to reform the system, benefitting his deals in the long run. Two weeks into the debate, a supporter of the revision, Senate Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson, died of a heart attack. Later an amended version passed, that did not include Roosevelt's provision.
