7.9 notes

Financial Strain and Organized Protest

With millions of men unemployed, women faced increased family responsibilities. Stay-at-home wives had to care for their children and provide emotional support for out-of-work husbands who had lost their role as the family breadwinner. Despite the loss of income, homemakers continued their daily routines of shopping, cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. Widespread male unemployment led to an increase in the importance of women’s income. The depression hit male-dominated industries like steel mills and automakers the hardest. As a result, men were more likely to lose their jobs than women. Although more women held on to their jobs, their often meager wages had to go further because many now had to support unemployed fathers and husbands. During the 1930s, federal and local governments sought to increase male employment by passing laws to keep married women from holding civil service and teaching positions. Nonetheless, more and more married women entered the workplace, and by 1940, the proportion of women in the job force had grown by about 25 percent. As had been the case in previous decades, a higher proportion of Black women than white women worked outside the home in the 1930s. By 1940, about 40 percent of Black women held jobs, compared to about 25 percent of white women. Racial discrimination played a key role in establishing this pattern. Black men faced higher unemployment rates than did their white counterparts, and what work was available was often limited to the lowest-paying jobs. As a result, Black women faced great pressure to supplement family incomes. Still, unemployment rates for Black women reached as high as 50 percent during the 1930s. Despite increased burdens, most American families of all races remained intact and discovered ways to survive the economic crisis. They pared down household budgets, made do without telephones and new clothes, and held on to their automobiles for longer periods of time. What money they managed to save, they often spent on movies. Comedies, gangster movies, fantasy tales, and uplifting films helped viewers forget their troubles, if only for a few hours. Radio remained the chief source of entertainment, and radio sales doubled in the 1930s as listeners tuned in to soap operas, comedy and adventure shows, news reports, and musical programs. As the depression deepened, angry citizens found ways to express their discontent. Farmers had suffered economic hardship longer than any other group. Even before 1929, they had seen prices spiral downward, but in the early 1930s, agricultural income plummeted by 60 percent, and one-third of farmers lost their land. Some farmers decided that the time had come for drastic action. In the summer of 1932, Milo Reno, an Iowa farmer, created the Farmers’ Holiday Association to organize farmers to keep their produce from going to market and thereby raise prices. Strikers from the association blocked roads and kept reluctant farmers in line by smashing their truck windshields and headlights and slashing their tires. When law enforcement officials arrested fifty-five demonstrators in Council Bluffs, thousands of farmers marched on the jail and forced their release. Despite armed attempts to prevent foreclosures and the intentional destruction of vast quantities of farm produce, the Farmers’ Holiday Association failed to achieve its goal of raising prices. Disgruntled urban residents also resorted to protest. Although the Communist Party remained a tiny group of just over 10,000 members in 1932, it played a large role in organizing the dispossessed. In major cities such as New York, Communists set up unemployment councils and led marches and rallies demanding jobs and food. In Harlem, the party endorsed rent strikes by Black apartment residents against their landlords. Party members did not confine their activities to the urban Northeast. They also went south to defend the Scottsboro Nine and to organize industrial workers in the steel mills of Birmingham and sharecroppers in the surrounding rural areas of Alabama. On the West Coast, Communists unionized seamen and waterfront workers and led strikes. They also recruited writers, directors, and actors in Hollywood. One of the most visible protests of the early 1930s centered on the Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan. As the depression worsened after 1930, Henry Ford, who had initially pledged to keep employee wages steady, changed his mind and reduced wages. On March 7, 1932, spearheaded by Communists, three thousand autoworkers marched from Detroit to Ford’s River Rouge plant in nearby Dearborn. When the demonstrators reached the factory town, policemen indiscriminately fired bullets and tear gas at the crowd, which killed four workers. The attack provoked great outrage. Around forty thousand mourners attended the funeral of the four protesters; sang the Communist anthem, the Internationale; and surrounded the coffins, which were draped in a red banner emblazoned with a picture of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Protests spread. The federal government faced an uprising by some of the nation’s most patriotic and loyal citizens — World War I veterans. Scheduled to receive a $1,000 bonus for their service, unemployed veterans could not wait until the payment date arrived in 1945. Instead, in the spring of 1932, a group of ex-soldiers from Portland, Oregon, set off on a march on Washington, D.C., to demand immediate payment of the bonus by the federal government. By the time they reached the nation’s capital, the ranks of this Bonus Army had swelled to around twenty thousand veterans. They camped in the Anacostia Flats section of the city, constructed ramshackle shelters, and in many cases moved their families in with them. Although many veterans returned home after Congress refused their request for an early bonus payout, the rest of the Bonus Army remained in place until late July. When President Hoover decided to clear the capital of the protesters, violence ensued. Rather than engaging in a measured and orderly removal, General Douglas MacArthur overstepped presidential orders and used excessive force to disperse the veterans and their families. The Third Cavalry, commanded by George S. Patton, torched tents and sent their residents fleeing from the city.In this one-sided battle, the biggest loser was President Hoover. Photographs and reports of the violent displacement of the Bonus Army shocked many Americans. Through four years of the country’s worst depression, Hoover had lost touch with the American people. His cheerful words of encouragement fell increasingly on deaf ears. As workers, farmers, and veterans stirred in protest, Hoover appeared aloof, standoffish, and insensitive.

• Financial Strain: Millions of unemployed men increased women's responsibilities in families.

• Role of Women: More women worked; by 1940, 40% of Black women and 25% of white women were employed.

• Economic Discrimination: Black men and women faced higher unemployment; Black women's unemployment reached 50%.

• Family Survival: Families cut budgets and turned to movies and radio for entertainment.

• Farmers' Protest: The Farmers’ Holiday Association protested to raise produce prices.

• Urban Discontent: The Communist Party organized strikes and supported rent strikes in cities.

• Ford Protests: In 1932, protests at Ford factories resulted in four workers' deaths and public outrage.

• Bonus Army: In 1932, WWI veterans marched to DC for early bonuses, leading to violent clashes with police.