Come learn about Hoovervilles, how they got their name, and. City of Seattle.Americans React to the Great Depression. The Depression increased the demand for such assistance exponentially. Cardboard covering a worn-out shoe sole was 'Hoover leather,' and cars pulled by horses (since no one could afford gasoline) were 'Hoover wagons.'. The Great Depression saw the collapse of the United States' economy, rampant unemployment and a broad sense of hopelessness. During the Great Depression of the 1930s there was Mass Unemployment in America. Roosevelt promised to improve the country with a "new deal for the American people." Many felt that the government had to help those who lost work in the 1930s. The current "Nickelsville" is a nod to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, just as "Hooverville" was a sarcastic nod to . He wrote that the racial barriers constructed in normal society did not stand within the Hooverville. Hoover Pullmans were rusted railroad boxcars used as dwellings. Men, women, and children living in Hooverville either relied on public charities or begged for food from those who had permanent housing during the era. On two occasions, the Seattle Health Department ordered the residents to leave and burned their shanties when they refused. Seattle was also the location of seven other shantytowns. Including the veterans, their families, and other supporters, the crowd of protesters eventually grew to nearly 45,000 people. [2] Jesse Jackson, "The Story of Seattle's Hooverville," in Calvin F. Schmid, Social Trends in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1944), 286-93. There were dozens in the state of Washington, hundreds throughout the country, each testifying to the housing crisis that accompanied the employment crisis of the early 1930s. This building housed a mayora's office and a commissary, or grocery store. Seattle's developed into a self-sufficient and organized town-within-a-town. Economic disparity in the United States during the 1930s was not limited to American born individuals. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Some people . This website helped me pass! Courtesy Tacoma Public Library. A 'Hooverville' on waterfront of Seattle, Washington, March 1933. Life in these Hoovervilles was difficult and caused many people to migrate throughout the United States in search of better opportunities elsewhere. 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The effect was the virtual freezing of international trade. As the optimism of the 1920s gave way to fear and desperation, Americans looked to the federal government for relief. Inhabitants living in the primitive conditions of the shantytowns were subject to many health problems. In April, residents of the main Hooverville were given notice to leave by May 1. Click the image to see a larger version of the map and here to read excerpts from Roy's sociological survey.By 1934 nearly 500 self-built one-room domiciles were "scattered over the terrain in insane disorder," according to Donald Roy, a sociology graduate student who studied the community. It comes from the New York Public Library. It began with the United States stock market crash of 1929, and didn't completely end until after . Early Hooverville was burned down twice by Seattle police, but its residents continued to rebuild small houses. The highly unpopular Hoover was defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal recovery programs eventually helped lift the United States out of the Depression. Considered by many to be one of the most successful of Roosevelts New Deal programs, the CCC planted more than three read more, In the early 20th century, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation devised plans for a massive dam on the Arizona-Nevada border to tame the Colorado River and provide water and hydroelectric power for the developing Southwest. The rectangular reservoir north of Belvedere Castle was taken out of service when the stock market crashed in 1929. Today the nine acre site is used to unload container ships. Hoovervilles In the 1930s, Hoovervilles (shantytowns) formed coast to coast in cities of the United States. People who rented their homes fell behind with the rent and were evicted by bailiffs. Black and white men would share homes out of convenience and, likewise, exemplify camaraderie and friendship. All the Hoovervilles were 'eradicated' at the end of the Great Depression in 1941. He offers fascinating observations about social mores and culture of the community, including the easy racial relations and tolerance of homosexuality. When Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted swiftly to stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief read more, The Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred on October 29, 1929, when Wall Street investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. A "Hooverville" is the popular name for slum towns built by people without homes during the Great Depression. [1] There were hundreds of Hoovervilles across the country during the 1930s.[2]. St. Louis Hooverville, built in 1930, had its own unofficial mayor, churches and social institutions. As the Great Depression deepened people protested and launched hunger marches. "[1], The city imposed modest building and sanitation rules, required that women and children not live in the Hooverville, and expected the residents to keep order. Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. Eight different Hoovervilles were established in Seattle, Washington, with the largest one lasting from 1932 to 1941 and built on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle. "; Even when Hoovervilles were raided by order of parks departments or other authorities, the men who carried out the raids often expressed regret and guilt for their actions. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it. A "Hooverville" was a shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States. Protest against Hooverville evictions (October 10, 1938)
copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. And although private philanthropy increased during the early 1930s, the amounts given were not enough to make a significant impact. Second New Deal Purpose & Programs | What was the Second New Deal? No two Tacoma hosted a large encampment near the city garbage dump that residents called "Hollywood-on-the-Tideflats." How many Hoovervilles or Shantytowns were there? months[3] = "Check out the interesting and diverse websites produced and created by the international publisher in the Siteseen network. This worksheet can be edited by Premium members using the free Google Slides online software. Why was the Shanty Town called a Hooverville? 1933 is generally regarded as the worst year of the Depression: One-quarter of Americas workersmore than 15 million peoplewere out of work. New York City saw the emergence of many Hoovervilles during the 1930s: During the Great Depression of the 1930s author John Steinbeck wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" about the lives of the people living in the Prairies states and the devastating effects of the Dust Bowl. Farming in 1935 . But even as the Great Depression eased and the Hoovervilles began to vanish, they remained a potent symbol of how a combination of bad luck, governmental philosophy, and rotten timing could create a lasting, negative image. Public reaction to the Hoovervilles added to President Hoovers general unpopularity, leading to his landslide defeat by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. A 'Hoover blanket' was a newspaper, covering a homeless man on a city bench; a 'Hoover flag' was a turned-out pants pocket, a sure sign of pennilessness. As the Depression deepened, the sheer number of homeless people became overwhelming. This sort of fatalism was especially apparent in the language that developed around the iconic representation of the Great Depression --the Hooverville. "; Tensions between destitute citizens and the Hoover administration climaxed in the spring of 1932 when thousands of World War I veterans and their families and friends set up a Hooverville on the banks of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. [2], However, not every Hooverville fits this description. Desperate for shelter, homeless citizens. Many were established near rivers, as the above picture shows, or ponds - it helped to have access to some water. Those who did were chronically underpaid. A large number of small houses were constructed from scrap materials. In turn, a new lexicon came into being -- words like "Hoovervilles," "Hoover blankets" and "Hoover hogs." The people who lived in a Hooverville or Shanty Town were men, women and children, black and white, from all walks of life, who had been evicted from their homes and made homeless due to unemployment in the Great Depression. Next: Unemployed Citizens League and Poverty Activism. In 1938, Jackson wrote a short, vivid description of the community that we reproduce here. Response from Health Department (May 23, 1935)
Interesting Facts About the Great Depression The stock market lost almost 90% of its value between 1929 and 1933. which contrasted the prosperity of the previous decade with the current crisis. This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Jackson was also the chairperson of the Vigilance Committee. Unsanitary conditions in the camps left both their residents and the nearby communities at risk of disease. Link will appear as Hooverville Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, October 18, 2018. Dwellings in the Hoovervilles were little more than shacks built of discarded bricks, wood, tin, and cardboard. However, prosperity was soon replaced by poverty and optimism by desperation following the stock market crash of October 1929 and the general failure of the nations banking system. Some squatted, either defying eviction and staying where they were, or finding shelter in one of the increasing number of vacant buildings. The inhabitants of the Hoovervilles and shantytowns in the 1930s were deprived of many of these basic needs - for additional facts refer to Poverty in the Great Depression. By the early 1940s, Roosevelts New Deal programs had turned the economy around and many of the Hoovervilles had been abandoned and demolished. The large camps were set up on the worst type of unused or public land often on the outskirts of towns and cities. Black and white Americans and immigrants from all over the world shared the camp sites. Seattle lies on a narrow strip of land between the salt waters of Puget Sound and the fresh waters of Lake Washington. In 1934, Roy recorded a population of non-White people, including Black men, Costa Rican, Chilean, Filipino, Japanese, Mexican, and. [6], After 1940, the economy recovered, unemployment fell, and shanty housing eradication programs destroyed all the Hoovervilles. The term was coined by the publicity director of the Democratic National Committee in 1930. The Great Depression drew to an end with the outbreak of WW2 and municipal programs aimed at "eradicating" shantytowns destroyed all the Hoovervilles. A "Hoover wagon" was an automobile with horses hitched to it, often with the engine removed. It was a highly diverse population. Divided into distinct sectors, the racially integrated and cohesive encampment was home to as many as 8,000 destitute people. Its unofficial mayor was Jesse Jackson, who led the city in tolerating the homeless and imposed lax building and sanitation regulations. Most shanties, however, were distinctly less ambitious: Cardboard-box homes did not last long, and most dwellings were in a constant state of being rebuilt. The economic depression began in September 1929 and was immediately followed by the October 24 Wall Street stock market crash. Excerpt from "Seattle's Hooverville" by Leslie D. 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