Great Depression in Alabama
Amanda Scheichet and Emily Schaefer
How long did the Great Depression affect
Alabama? (From when to when?)
List some of the ways farmers & rural Alabamians
were specifically affected by the Great
Depression? (What did they do in response?)
★ All the industries fired most employees due to a smaller profit,
which led to a high unemployment rate.
★ The Great Depression challenged Alabama's long-standing social and
racial stereotypes, and inspiring some Alabamians, to push for basic
civil rights.
How did the Great Depression affect other
Alabama industries?
★ Of 3,000 mines and mills operating in the state, only half of
them were still in operation.
★ Employment in iron and steel industries fell by 28%.
★ The textile industry lost around 4,000 jobs.
How did Governor Miller try to help Alabamians
financially?
★ Governor Miller found that with the worsening depression and the failure of
voluntary assistance, this put new demands on the state treasury.
★ Income was declining, as a result, unpaid teachers threatened to strike, and
the governor started a state income tax, and borrowed around $500,000 to
pay for relief efforts.
★ Governor Miller also disbanded the state's Law Enforcement Department.
When did Alabama’s economy finally start
recovering? Why?
★ Alabama’s economy recovered after World War II because of the
availability of good paying war work.
★ The effects of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the war
caused major changes to the economy when it was recovering
The New Deal
By Steven Kang and Gabriel Schaerf
What was it?
The New Deal was a domestic program which took action to bring about
immediate economic relief as well as reform in industry, agriculture,
finance, waterpower, labor, and housing.
Whose program was it? When was it in place?
• This program was put into action by Franklin D. Roosevelt
• It was put into action between the years of 1933 and 1939
• The term was taken from Roosevelt’s speech accepting the Democratic
nomination for the presidency
http://tinyurl.com/h7fahgj
What was the 100 Days?
• Duration of time when the New Deal’s legislation was enacted during
Roosevelt’s Presidency
• Time was around three months, where the term “100 days” comes from
What are some different things the New Deal tried to Accomplish?
•
•
•
•
•
Maximum work hours
Minimum wage
Disability insurance
Old-age and widow’s benefits
Unemployment compensation
New Deal’s four major programs (Part 1)
CCC- (Civilian Conservation Corps), was a program that forced about 2.5
million men to work maintaining and restoring beaches, forests, and parks.
It had taught the workers how to live independently. (1933)
AAA- (Agricultural Adjustment Administration), had forced the rise of farm
prices. The Government had commanded farmers to not grow/ kill certain
crops even though America was already starving. Declared
Unconstitutional Later on. (1933)
New Deal’s four major programs (Part 2)
WPA- (Works Progress Administration). was a program that attempted to
decrease unemployment by employing Americans and reconstructed
schools, hospitals, and airfields totaling up to 1,410,000 projects.(1935)
SSA- (Social Security Act), was a program that provided, old age pensions,
survivor benefits, and insurance which helped millions of Americans feel
for secure. (1935)
Jim Crow System
By Sohail Akbari, Brian Leechow, and Noah Edelman
What is the Jim Crow System?
• Jim Crow was the name of a racial system that was basically a way of life
for African Americans.
• Put African Americans as second class citizens instead of equals
When were the laws in effect?
• The Jim Crow system occurred from 1877 to the mid-1960’s.
• Throughout this period, white people were thought to be the “chosen”
people by christian ministers while black people were thought to be
cursed servants.
Where were the laws in effect?
• Southern States
• Border States
• Confederate States
Whom did it affect? how?
• The Jim Crow System affected the African Americans
• Made African Americans second class citizens.
• Christian ministers and theologians taught that whites were chosen and
blacks were cursed to be servants, and that god supported racial
segregation.
• The African americans had no rights, like they had to sit in the back seat
or the back of the truck, when they rode in white persons car.
What are some examples of specific Jim Crow rules?
(Provide 4-5 examples.)
• A black male would not have been allowed to shake hands
with a white man or woman.
• Blacks and Whites were not allowed to eat together
• Black males were not allowed to light a cigarette for a
white female
• If a black person drove with a white person they must sit
in the back seat or in the back of the truck
What were the consequences of breaking these laws?
The consequences for breaking one of these laws were you could get
physically beat up by a white man, or you get get lynched, one of the
saddest murders carried out by mobs, if you were a victim of lynching, you
were either hung, or shot, but some were burned at the stake, castrated,
beaten with clubs, or dismembered. (cutting of limbs)
In the 1930’s as a Black Person
By: Rey Cobarrubias and Harley Scherago
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
-When did this story occur?
This story occurred in 1961.
-Where did this story occur?
This story happened in a family trip from Las Angeles, California to Waco, Texas.
-Who was involved?
Several people were involved such as Jim Crow, his parents, his cousins, the man
working at the diner, and the people chasing the family's car.
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
What happened/What was the experience?
They experienced several situations where they were not welcome or had to
go to another part of an area. Such as they stopped at a gas station to go to the
bathroom and they were told they had to go to a dirty bathroom in the woods.
-Why did these events occur?
These events ocurred because in the south segregation was very popular and
often caused any colored person to be told they had to go somewhere else.
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
-What were some of the consequences of what happened?
There were several consequences of segregation such as being kicked out
of a public place, having to go in a different entrance, or even just the fact
that anyone who was white was “better” and was higher up than anyone
and everyone who had different color skin.
-Aside from the fact that this information is important background for To Kill
a Mockingbird, why is it important for us to know and remember these
narratives?
It is very important to remember these narratives because a known fact is
that if we forget things that have happened in the past history repeats
itself. Segregation should never have happened and if we forget about it…
it may happen again which is very bad for our world.
American Radio Works
-When did this story occur?
The story took place between the years 1965 and 1966.
-Where did this story occur?
The story was located in a Firestone tire factory in Memphis, Tennessee
-Who was involved?
The people who were involved were the narrator, Kirk Bready, the workers in
the factory, both white and black, the supervisors helping the workers, and
security, that recognized Kirk as the white man in the colored areas..
American Radio Works
What happened/What was the experience?
Due to the narrator working in the compound room for nine hours a day, he
was covered in carbon dust, giving him a darker appearance. His
experience during lunch was lonely to him. In the “white lunchroom”,
people there thought that he was colored and in the “colored” lunchroom,
people there knew that he was white, forcing them to move away from
Kirk.
-Why did these events occur?
South segregation was popular during this time, making a lot of tension
between whites and colored people. This forced white people to push the
colored people away in many scenarios, including specific factory areas and
in the lunchrooms.
American Radio Works
-What were some of the consequences of what happened?
Due to Kirk being outcasted from both white and colored people, he was
mostly left alone, albeit some people do talk to him once in awhile in the
lunchroom. He was also interrogated by the security due to some
suspicions they had because of the scenario.
-Aside from the fact that this information is important background for To Kill
a Mockingbird, why is it important for us to know and remember these
narratives?
We need to remember these narratives because they can be an important
lesson in life. If forgotten, we may repeat the past and not be a community
once again. Segregation is an important topic in our world today. If there
was no peace and segregation is back, there would be an all out war.
The Scottsboro Boys
Luke Dinicola, Jack Berk, Steven Rosenstark
Who? What? Where? When? Why?
• Jack In Scottsboro, Alabama in 1932 nine african-american teenage boys
had gotten into a fight with a group of white boys on a train
• Steven Two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, accused the
nine boys of raping them once they got off the train, which was at the
time a crime punishable by death
• Luke This was on top of the assault charges that were given only to the
black boys who were involved in the fight
• Jack In reality the boys were completely innocent and were on different
cars than the women for most of the train ride
More Details
• Jack One year after the incident in 1933 Ruby Bates recanted her
story, while Victoria Price continued to push for ‘justice’
• Luke Within several weeks of the reported rapes eight of the nine
boys had been sentenced to death by the electric chair, under the
conviction of all white juries, but these were postponed due to the
case’s appeal
• Steven The youngest defendant was thirteen. His trial ended in a
hung jury and he was never retried, but he was imprisoned for more
than six more years
• Jack Only four of the boys were ever fully released, while others were
put on parole or even broke out of prison
The Scottsboro Boys with attorney Samuel Leibowitz, under guard by
the state militia, 1932
Why Did The Trials Last So Long?
Where are they now?
• Luke These trials lasted from 1931-1937. Within this time, the case went up
to the supreme court more than once, getting the same result each time.
• Jack The result that was continuously gotten was that the boys were guilty
of rape.
• Steven In 2013 Alabama’s governor Robert Bentley signed a legislation
officially pardoning all of the boys, after over eighty years of protests,
petitions, movies, shows, organizations, and public speakings
Visual
http://www.engli
sh.illinois.edu/m
aps/poets/a_f/b
oyle/protestexhi
bit.htm
Bibliography
Blinder, Alan. "Alabama Pardons 3 ‘Scottsboro Boys’ After 80 Years." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
The Scottsboro Boys. YouTube. Emory University, 13 Feb. 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
"The Scottsboro Boys Trials: A Chronology." The Scottsboro Boys Trials: A Chronology.
University of Missouri-Kansas City, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
"A Scottboro Protest Exhibit." A Scottboro Protest Exhibit. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec.
2015.
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/Refe
renceDetailsPage/DocumentToolsP
ortletWindow?displayGroupName=
Reference&jsid=7812016b5ea4d66
84ea4837e2c6ef921&action=2&catI
d=&documentId=GALE%7CCX340
4500017&u=sand55832&zid=b57ac
c008e359910d5c24de390bb447b
Southern
society during
the 1930s
By: Jade and Maggie
https://www.gilderle
hrman.org/historyby-era/greatdepression/essays/w
omen-and-greatdepression
What were the roles & responsibilities of white women in the South
in the 1930s?
-Responsible for maintaining southern social orders. (Southern Tradition)
-Don’t do anything really because they want to make men feel powerful over
everything that’s going on.
-Teach children the right and wrong for behavior
-Can never be true to herself, her husband, or her kids because she has to be true to
Southern Tradition, which does not value the emotions or differing opinions of
women
-One quote from the article “The Roles of Southern Women, Black and White, in
Society” was "If you could just keep from them all the things that must never be
mentioned, all would be well!" This shows that the woman needed to keep things
from their children so it wouldn’t be mentioned.
What roles did many black women play in white family
settings in the South during the 1930s?
-Cook, housekeeper, nurse and maid for a white family
-Family’s counselor for the white family and hers if time allows
-She is strong, wise and insightful
-as nurse and housekeeper she shows comfort to the children and represent
ease when the child feels there mother is overbearing or unavaliable or
when the child is just in a conflict
-better trained for a domestic nurturing role than the white mother
-children are more relaxed around housekeeper than mother
What did it mean to be from a “good” Southern family at
this time?
-Everyone had a maid or two, a cook, a nurse and a yard man
-Father had a job
-Good Church members
-The way people talked and pronunciation of words like niiiice and whiiitte
dragging the “i” sound out
- Sense of responsibility to the people whose lives they could affect
- from the interview Growing Up White in the South in the 1930 Cecil said
”They looked down very much on those who cheated and stole, especially from
the poor.” This shows that they were honest and did not believe in dishonesty.
What was the code of behavior for young girls
from “good” families?
-Not allowed to go to black children’s homes
-Taught to be respectful of black people
-Usually dressed in dresses
-Weren’t allowed to wear pants
-Blue jeans were considered tacky
-Never went anywhere barefoot
-Weren’t supposed to fight or use violence
The Civil Rights Movement:
Woolworth Student Sit-In
Created By: Elizabeth Chow and Michael DeAngelus
Who was involved in this event?
• At first it was four African-American students from North Carolina
Agricultural and Technical State University
• Manager of the Woolworth’s store
• Twenty-nine neatly dressed male and female North Carolina
Agricultural and Technical students
• White students from a nearby women’s college
• Crowd of white men
Where and when did it occur?
• On Monday, February 1, 1960
• Protests continued each day that week.
• In a Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s store (a restaurant)
What was the event?
• Four African-American students sat at a white-only lunch counter in a
North Carolina Woolworth’s store
• The manager of the store requested that they leave the premises
• The students told campus leaders at Agricultural and Technical what
happened
• The protest grew, which expanded to other stores
• Crowds of students were mobbing local lunch counters
• Crowds of white men appeared at lunch counters to harass the
protesters, by spitting, uttering abusive language & throwing eggs
Why did it occur?
• African-Americans were not allowed to sit at a only white lunch
counter
• They wanted to make a statement of segregation not mattering
• They showed this by sitting at a only white lunch counter and
protesting
• The manager of the store asked them to leave the premises
• After leaving the store, the students told campus leaders at University
what had happened
What were some of the results/ consequences of this event?
• By the end of February 1960, at many stores, African-Americans were
eating at the same lunch counters as whites
● Some stores in Raleigh closed their lunch counters to stop protests
● Most store did not immediately desegregate the lunch counters
● The sit-ins were successful in:
○ Forcing partial integration
○ Increased national awareness of the suffering by African-Americans in the
southern United States
● They effected partial desegregation in less than a month
Bibliography
“Greensboro Sit-In.” North Carolina History Project : Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/commentary/299/entry>
The Civil Rights: Little Rock
Nine
By: Bobby Martin & Shelby Rosen
Who/When/Where involved/Occurred with
event?
• There were 9 African American students
• Attended Little Rock Central High school
• Fall 1957
Why did it occur?
• Black 9 students getting verbally abused
• Had threats to them
What was the event? What happened?
• The Little Rock Nine was 9 black students who were attending a white public
school in 1957.
• The governor of Arkansa ordered guardsmen for the black students for their
own safety.
• On the same day students of the school attacked 9 news reporters.
• The school that day dismissed the school at the lunch time for student and
school officials safety.
• The next day President Eisenhower ordered paratroopers from the 101st
Airborne division to the school.
What were some of the results/consequences of
this event?
•
•
•
•
•
The black students were able to go to the public school
The students were verbally abused
Threatened
Acts of hazing
Eight out of the nine completed their first year of the
school
The Civil Right Movement:
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
By Abby Berkowitz and Kalani Hayes
Who is Rosa Parks? What did she do the spurred the Boycott?
• Rosa Parks was portrayed as a simple
seamstress
• She was an educated women
• Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to
give up her seat to a white man
• This put the boycott into action
What was the purpose of the Boycott?
The black people of Montgomery, Alabama wanted to be able to sit
freely on a bus and not have to get up and give their seat to a white
person when they boarded a bus.
View page:
search.credoreference.com
Who helped lead the Boycott? About how many participated?
• Jo Ann Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Montgomery
Improvement Association (MIA) were all main leaders in the
Montgomery Boycott.
• 60% of the people who wanted rights participated in the Boycott.
Where did the Boycott occur?
The Boycott took place in Montgomery, Alabama
When did the Boycott occur? How long did it last?
The Boycott officially started on
December 1, 1955. It ended
November 13, 1956.
http://unit8juliav11.wikispaces.com/Montgo
mery+Bus+Boycott+Pictures
What were the results of the Boycott?
• The Blacks decided to go to court with the Brown decision, which said
that the "separate but equal" doctrine had no place in public
education. The city was not in the prejudiced local courts but in federal
court
• The federal court decided 2-1 in favor of the blacks, the bus boycott
was officially over
The Civil Rights Movement
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka
By: Isabel Marques Zahry and Mariam Shakil
Who was involved in this supreme court case?
Oliver Brown and the Board of Education were involved in this supreme
court case. This is because African American man (Oliver Brown) whose
daughter Linda, faced a long commute to school every day just because of
the color of her skin.
Why did Mr. Brown bring the Topeka Board of
Education to court?
He took the Topeka Board of Education to court because Mr.Brown, a parent
of a child, was denied access to a white public school, and claimed that
the black public schools and the white public schools were not equal.
Mr.Brown said that “the racial segregation violated the Constitution’s Equal
Protection Clause because the schools were not equal to each other and
could never be.”
When and Where did this event occur?
This event occurred May 17, 1954 in Topeka, Kansas where large portions of
the United States had racially segregated schools.
“made legal by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which held that segregated public
facilities were constitutional so long as the black and white facilities were
equal to each other.”
What was the outcome of the case?
The outcome was that Brown won the case against the Board of Education.
The Court concluded that separating children on the basis of race creates
dangerous inferiority complexes that may affect black children's ability to
learn. Inferiority complexes means that it would cause the children to have
very low self-esteem.
What are some long-term effects of this case?
A long term effect for this case is that the schools now have a racially
diversity community. Racially diversity means that the schools have all
types of races. For example the schools would have blacks, white, asians,
hispanics etc....
- All the children are entitled to the same education.
- All the children are able to learn about other cultures
- Less of racism if everyone is together in one school being equal.
Bibliography
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/spring-2004-schoolheadline.jpg
http://teaching.msa.maryland.gov/000001/000000/000034/images/girl.jpg
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html
Civil Rights Movement
Ryan G & Dylan S
Timeline
Brown vs.
Board of
Education of
Topeka (1954)
1953
Rosa Parks &
The
Montgomery
Bus Boycott
(1955)
195
5
195
6
Woolworth
Student Sit-In
(Greensboro,
NC in 1960)
Little Rock
Nine (1957)
1957
1958
1959
196
0
When did the Civil Rights Movement start &
end?
19551968
Who were some of the major players involved in this
movement?
Rosa Parks - Would not give up her seat
MLK- leader gave speeches
JFK- pushed for new legislation rights
1. When did the Civil Rights Movement start & end?
1. Who were some of the major players involved in this movement?
What was the purpose of the Civil Rights
Movement?
- The purpose of the Civil Rights Movement was to stop discrimination
against the colored population.
What were some of the methods employed by civil rights
activists?
- Some methods used by activists were; sitting in restaurants they weren't
allowed in and going to places they weren’t allowed because of their skin
color. (Most public places had a specific area for them to sit in away from
others)
What were some of the results of the Civil Rights Movement?
- Some of the results were the end of discrimination in america (mostly)
- It gave equal rights to all american citizens no matter their race or skin
color.