The Great Depression

By Alexander Mourad
March 14, 1935
Today I arrived at the ranch in the
Salinas Valley. I’ve had to walk for miles
to get from town to town and spend
hours on buses. It’s been a long time
since I’ve seen my family or friends. I’ve
been on the road for ‘bout four years
with an end goal of getting here in
California. It’s been a really lonely
journey tryin’ to get here. I’d make a
friend then get kicked out for doin’
something stupid like getting onto a
licked in a fight. I usually don’t have
many conversations with other people
because I don’t know if I can trust them.
It’s been an extremely tiring journey. I
need to wake up every day and five a.m
and just start working. Whether I’m
farming crops or plowing hay it’s boring
and miserable. I’ve been doing this for
so long that most of the time I even
forget what day it is. I’ve just made a
routine that it feels like i’ll be endlessly
following. I’m just trying to work until
enough I can make some money for a
house. I’ve been tellin’ myself this for
years but it never ends up happening.
I’ve had my money stolen from me twice
and I’ve gambled it away too many
times to count. I have a long journey of
work ahead of me and hopefully I don’t
get kicked out of this ranch. I’m jus’
gonna keep to myself and be smart with
my money.
The period of the Great Depression meant that the economic conditions in the USA
were low, resulting in families living in squalor.

Above: Camp of migrant workers near Harlingen, Texas

Lee Russel, 1939
 Men walked for miles in search of their dream for work and a livelihood.

Above:"Damned if we'll work for what they pay folks hereabouts."

Carl Mydans, Crittenden County, Arkansas. May 1936.
 Drought had turned the Great Plains into a desert that came to be known as the
Dust Bowl.

Above: A farmer and his sons walk in a dust storm in Oklahoma in 1936.
Arthur Rothstein 1936, Oklahoma
 Many men considered the journey west for work to be their last chance.

Above: “Migrant worker on California highway”

Dorothea Lange, California, 1935
 Severe drought, in addition to decades of extensive farming without crop rotation
or other techniques to prevent erosion, caused duststorms. The Period was called
the “Dirty Thirties’.

Above:A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texas,

1935, George E. Marsh
After men searched alone for work, whole families migrated West, taking their all
their possessions for a chance for survival.

Above: “Oklahoma refugees reach San Fernando, California in their overloaded vehicle.”
Dorothe Lange/FSA, 1935, San Fernando, California.
 America’s midwest was effectively destroyed by the dust storms of the 1930s,
causing most of the farmland to be worthless.

Abandoned farmstead in the Dust Bowl region of Oklahoma, showing the effects of wind erosion, 1937.
USDA Photo, 1937
 “Many men who didn’t leave their families, struggled to support their them with
unstable incomes.”

Workers Alliance picketing for jobs; children holding signs, St. Paul.
St. Paul Daily​ News, 1937
Unemployment levels skyrocketed and many families in America's largest cities
were unable to pay their mortgages or rent payments because of this many
desperate families built squatter’s camps on public land, creating villages that were
called ‘Hoovervilles’.

Above: ​King County,1931,​ ​Seattle's Hooverville

 Many men were unemployed so they would take what they could get.

Above:, “Men stand in line outside a depression soup kitchen”

NARA, 1931.
Bibliography:

Crittenden County, Arkansas. Cotton Workers on the Road, Carrying All They
Possess in the World.” ​The Library of Congress​,
www.loc.gov/resource/fsa.8b28726/​.

The Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, ​America’s Library,

www.americaslibrary.gov/es/ok/es_ok_dustbowl_1.html​.

“Migrant Worker on California Highway.” ​The Library of Congress,​

www.loc.gov/item/2017768863/​.

“Camp of Migrant Workers near Harlingen, Texas.” ​The Library of Congress,​

www.loc.gov/item/2017782324/​.

“20 Vintage Photographs Captured Scenes of the Dust Bowl During the 1930s.”
Vintage News Daily​, 23 Oct. 2017,
vintagenewsdaily.com/20-vintage-photographs-captured-scenes-of-the-dust-bowl-d
uring-the-1930s/.

National Geographic Society. “The Grapes of Wrath.” ​National Geographic

Society,​ 4 Apr. 2014, ​www.nationalgeographic.org/article/grapes-wrath/​.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Dust Bowl.” ​Encyclopædia Britannica​,

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Dec. 2019,
www.britannica.com/place/Dust-Bowl​.

“Workers Alliance Picketing for Jobs; Children Holding Signs, St. Paul.”
mnhs.org, ​collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10666827.

“Hooverville.” ​Hooverville - King County​,

www.kingcounty.gov/depts/records-licensing/archives/exhibits/second-looks-1/sl-h
ooverville.aspx​.
“The Great Depression.” ​PBS,​ Public Broadcasting Service,
www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/dustbowl-great-depression/​.