Franklin D. Roosevelt Unemployment During The Great Depression

The Great Depression was a decade of economic shortage. Caused by an stock market crash on October 1929, it spread chaos throughout the entire world. That lead to the highest rate of unemployment in American History, due to the closure of many companies, factories,banks and this left millions of people jobless and bankrupt. Due to the lack of jobs all over the country it forced people to migrate, and it split families apart. The mother or father were forced to go far away to get a job or even resort to illegal activities, this usually ended with them in jail. Some were lucky enough to have or get a job, but the majority was not so lucky so they had to depend on the government. In 1933, the new President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt

From 1933 to 1934, the rate of unemployment skyrocketed it was at “an extraordinary 25 percent with another 25 percent who had their hours and wages cut” (Campbell). These statistic mean that one out of every two households were unemployed or underemployed during the Great Depression. All the country was affected, getting a job was an impossible task. Unemployment affected everyone, from the rich bankers to the farmers. Around 9000 national banks were closed due to the market crash and hundred of farmers lost their land and homes to foreclosure as a result to the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowls were dust storms that created dry weather and caused crops to fail, and destroyed the fields. In the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” when Everett and the boys head over to Pete’s estrange cousin’s farm to regroup, but when they arrive there is nothing left and they are not producing anything, this is an example of how most farms ended up during the Great Depression. Due to the lack of income, many families were not able to maintain the lifestyle they had, they lost their cars, homes and other luxurious goods that they use to posses. People who lost their jobs often lost their homes and moved to hoovervilles, shanty towns built by the homeless and they are named after Herbert Hoover the president during that time. It was a hard

More than 50% of the african american community lot their jobs due to the fact that they prioritised the white population. This was an insane amount compared to the white American that the unemployment rate was only half of that. “The white labor union accused other races of holding jobs that could be reserved for white workers to support their white families and community” (CPAH). This intensified racial discrimination creating resentment and distrust, it also increased the feeling of inequality because they were offered less opportunities due to their skin color, the african american workers were also the first people to be let go from their jobs. Oakland’s black population was a victim of racial attacks by white supremacist, and the white labor unions. Since they were a minority, standing up to the white supremacist was not always possible. When they tried to organise a labor union they usually found themselves as a target of lynch mobs, in both the North and the South. The rise of racism and white supremacist lead to the revival of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a group made up of mostly white protestants, which aimed to suppress the newly acquired rights of the african american community and to terrorism many other minorities. In the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” we can see how the boys saved Tommy from being hanged by the Ku