The great migration was the great displacement of African-Americans from the southern states of the United States to the northern states. Looking to find better opportunities for work and fleeing segregation, they migrated massively starting in the early 1900's. They were searching for a better quality of life, more freedom and equality of rights. Motivated to move away from poverty, hunger and violence placed upon them by the conservative Southern American society, they began to migrate to cities of the north, southwest and western United Sates, changing from a rural life to an urban one.They found new jobs in the manufacturing industry that was rising in the north as a result of the first and second world wars and were able to settle and then create new communities. As a result of many years of slavery and even after its abolition, these black Americans suffered injustice, prejudice and racism and were forced to look elsewhere for better living conditions in general. Also the great migration gave African-Americans the chance to better integrate themselves into public and social life within the established mainly white/ of European decent society. These resulted in a great change in the American society as a whole, giving way for black culture to start to develop and take root. African Americans left behind a marginalized and discriminatory existence to raise on they own merits and to form unique and diverse communities with their own culture, food and music among other features that give them their identity today.
Also during the 1930s, at the same time as the Depression, the Great Plains region of the United States experienced an extended and destructive drought. The drought had a significant and destructive effect because of policies that reached back for decades. In 1862, the United States Congress passed the Homestead Act, and many Americans from the East moved into the plains to become farmers and ranchers. The farmers replaced the prairie grass with dry land wheat, and the ranchers had their cattle graze on the grass that was not replaced. Over time, with increasing demands for wheat, more farming occurred and damage to the prairie lands began to be long-term and significant. In 1930, a decade-long drought began, and the winds began to create dust storms on the farmed and overgrazed prairies. They literally began to be blown away. Some accounts and photographs record giant clouds of dust that would cover the sky and sun. This dust covered everything and reshaped the terrain. The “Dust Bowl” was a term referring to 19 states in the central and south-central United States that felt the brunt of the drought upon land that was mismanaged. Farm families had little choice other than to head west and try to find work. The same Resettlement Administration that was coordinating the Greenbelt Project and attempting to address rural poverty was also overseeing the farm workers and displaced sharecroppers who were forced to leave the stricken prairies of the Dust Bowl in search of work.
This historical era is commonly taught in high school social studies and history courses. The National Center for History in the Schools identifies this period in U.S. History as Era 8, Standard 1 (The causes of the Great Depression and how it affected American society) and Standard 2 (How the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism, and initiated the welfare state). Related works of literature, such as The Grapes of Wrath and other texts, are sometimes used either in a social studies/U.S. history course, or in English language arts or American literature classes.
The photography of the Dust Bowl and Depression era is vast and rich, with images that were often commissioned by the Historical Section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA). FSA Director Roy Stryker approved the commissioning and collecting of more than 270,000 photographs. It was a very specific and focused part of the FSA. FSA photographs “exploited the convention of the documentary style—such as black-and-white prints and uncontrolled lighting—that signified topicality, social concern and social truth” (Stange, 1992, p. 130). These photographs were commissioned from a large group of photographers who worked in rural and urban areas across the country, and were intended to provide the urban and suburban population of America with images that would evoke humanitarian responses to the plight of those facing adversity from the economic and environmental crises of the 1930s.
This photo collection is not intended to be comprehensive. Rather, it provides several specific photographs and ways to use them in the study of particular topics. This is meant to serve as a model for creating collections of photographs to use with your curriculum. Resources listed in the bibliography at the end of this collection will help you do this.
The reasons for war were many, but there were two immediate ones: America's support the ongoing struggle by Cubans and Filipinos against Spanish rule, and the mysterious explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor.
<span>William Howard Taft was the 27th president</span>
