NTK Unit: Great Depression and New Deal

Great Depression

A severe worldwide economic downturn beginning in 1929 marked by massive unemployment, bank failures, and widespread poverty.

Hoovervilles

Shantytowns built by homeless people during the Great Depression, named after President Herbert Hoover.

Dust Bowl

Severe dust storms in the 1930s caused by drought and poor farming practices that destroyed farmland in the Great Plains.

Hoboes

Unemployed people during the Great Depression who traveled the country, often by train, searching for work.

Federal Housing and Slum Clearance Programs

New Deal efforts to improve housing conditions by clearing unsafe neighborhoods and building better housing.

First Hundred Days

The first three months of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency in 1933 when Congress passed many laws to address the Great Depression.

Emergency Banking Act

A 1933 law that stabilized the banking system by allowing the government to inspect banks and reopen only those that were financially sound.

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

A New Deal program that provided direct federal relief money to states to help the unemployed.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

A New Deal program that provided jobs for young men working on environmental conservation projects like planting trees and building parks.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

A New Deal program that paid farmers to reduce crop production in order to raise agricultural prices.

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

A New Deal law designed to regulate industry, set fair wages and prices, and allow workers to form unions.

Second New Deal

A group of New Deal programs introduced in 1935 that focused on long-term economic security and workers' rights.

Wagner Act

A law that guaranteed workers the right to form labor unions and bargain collectively with employers.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

A law that established minimum wage, overtime pay, and restrictions on child labor.

Social Security Act

A New Deal program that created pensions for the elderly, unemployment insurance, and financial assistance for the disabled.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

A New Deal program that built dams and power plants to provide electricity, control flooding, and promote economic development in the Tennessee Valley.

Rural Electrification Administration (REA)

A program that helped bring electricity to rural areas across the United States.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

A New Deal program that created millions of jobs building public infrastructure and supporting artists, writers, and musicians.

New Deal Coalition

A political alliance that supported Franklin D. Roosevelt, including labor unions, farmers, immigrants, African Americans, and urban voters.

Huey Long

A Louisiana politician who criticized the New Deal and proposed the "Share Our Wealth" plan to redistribute wealth.

Father Charles Coughlin

A Catholic priest and radio host who criticized Roosevelt and proposed radical economic reforms during the Great Depression.

Francis Townsend

A doctor who proposed a plan giving monthly pensions to elderly Americans to stimulate the economy.

American Liberty League

An organization of wealthy business leaders who opposed the New Deal and believed it expanded government power too much.

Court-Packing Plan

Franklin Roosevelt's 1937 proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court after it struck down several New Deal laws.

Scottsboro Boys

Nine African American teenagers falsely accused of rape in Alabama in 1931, highlighting racial injustice in the U.S. legal system.