The Depression Of The 30 S - 937 Words

The depression of the 30’s came to many as a great shock, especially after just coming out of the wild and lavish ‘roaring’ 20’s. The sudden shift in the atmosphere; this crash of the stock market (Oct. 29, 1920) seemed to pull the rug out from under the American people leaving many dazed and confused, not knowing where to turn to. All hope was turned to Hoover, -president at the time- but soon any and every last glimmer of optimism turned to dust as Hoover failed to keep his people above water like many past presidents. This is when Franklin Delano Roosevelt stepped into the spotlight and grabbed the bull by it’s horns, imposing what is called â€Å"The New Deal† wrangling with the immense economic debt of this country and pulling the†¦show more content†¦This sort of market economy seemed to work quite well in the 20’s, and soon the stock market began to see quite a rise. All was good for a time, then, shortly after, the boom ing economy in 1929 led to business inventories backlogs that were three times their size the previous year. Production began a journey to slow declination, thus resulting in the stock market crash beginning October 24, and finally ending on Black Tuesday October 29. The depression swept over the nation like a wildfire, it’s flames licking each and everyone person sparing no mercy. The majority of the nation was unemployed. As for blacks, 80 percent of African-Americans were unemployed. Unemployment rates seemed to spike early into the 1920s and hit their peak around 1933 to rise again in 1935. It was a fluctuation, up and down, up and down, peak and valley. By 1945, the unemployment percentage dropped to under 5 percent, only around 1,040,000 people (Doc. J). The unemployment and general lack of concern for those who still had jobs was met with labor unrest. Employers showed blatant disregard for their hardworking employees through their refusal to grant reasonably safe work ing conditions and through refusal of collective bargaining. This started strikes and gave way to sit down strikes. Corporations such as U.S. Steel and General Motors were only some of the accused transgressors of law feeling above giving workers their rights (Doc. G). The homelessness in search of jobs was