Life in the Cities during the Great
Depression
By Collette
It is human nature to blame someone or something
when things go wrong. No person was blamed more for the Great Depression than
the sitting President in 1929, Herbert Hoover. Although he did enact
legislation and made an effort to ease suffering, it was too little and too late.
“Hoovervilles” sprang up around cities when people lost their homes. If one was
forced to sleep on a park bench and used a newspaper to cover himself that was
a “Hoover Blanket.” “Hoover flags” were the white lining of one’s pockets
pulled out to show no money was in them.
Bread lines and soup kitchens were found everywhere
and for many provided the only food available. Churches ran many of them, but other
charitable organizations joined to help feed the millions of unemployed. Long
lines of men could be found if a business advertised work available. Families
split apart as men left to seek work leaving women and children to fend for
themselves. Men hopped freight trains and rode the rails across the country.
Families moved in with relatives in order to have a place to live. Millions of
Americans were displaced and hungry during the early years of the Great
Depression.
Some of the following sites might prove interesting.
www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief1.htm
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_kitchen
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