Thank you to M. Johnson, L. Bass, and A. King for sharing their experiences with us.
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"The Forgotten Man" photography by Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks was born in Kansas in 1912. During the Great Depression had gone through many jobs and as a hobby he took up photography. In the 1940s Parks decided to move to Washington and tried to make photography his main source of income. When he was in Stryker's office, who was one of Parks co-workers, Stryker pointed Gordon to Ella Watson and told him to go see what she had to say about life. Parks did exactly that and started taking pictures of her and her family and Watson opened up and shared her life story with him. Through photos Gordon Parks was able to show what it was like for Ella to be an African American woman during the Great Depression.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/docchap7.html
Gordon Parks was born in Kansas in 1912. During the Great Depression had gone through many jobs and as a hobby he took up photography. In the 1940s Parks decided to move to Washington and tried to make photography his main source of income. When he was in Stryker's office, who was one of Parks co-workers, Stryker pointed Gordon to Ella Watson and told him to go see what she had to say about life. Parks did exactly that and started taking pictures of her and her family and Watson opened up and shared her life story with him. Through photos Gordon Parks was able to show what it was like for Ella to be an African American woman during the Great Depression.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/docchap7.html
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Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel
"Terkel interviewed hundreds of people across the United States for his book on the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1973, he selected several interviews that were included in his book to be broadcast in eleven parts on the Studs Terkel Program on WFMT radio (Chicago, IL)." "Terkel questions people about their recollections of employment problems, the crash of 1929, organized labor issues, “farm holidays” where crops were destroyed, and U.S. President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. He asks them how they managed financially and personally through the economic slump and what personal qualities surfaced as a result."
http://www.studsterkel.org/htimes.php
"Terkel interviewed hundreds of people across the United States for his book on the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1973, he selected several interviews that were included in his book to be broadcast in eleven parts on the Studs Terkel Program on WFMT radio (Chicago, IL)." "Terkel questions people about their recollections of employment problems, the crash of 1929, organized labor issues, “farm holidays” where crops were destroyed, and U.S. President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. He asks them how they managed financially and personally through the economic slump and what personal qualities surfaced as a result."
http://www.studsterkel.org/htimes.php
Below are personal letters wrote to the heads of the New Deal agency in Washington, D.C., the President of the United States, F.D. Roosevelt, or to his wife. These letters are published in the book, "To Ask for an Equal Chance."
New Orleans, La.
April 18, 1941 Mrs. F.D. Roosevelt Dear Mrs. I am a Negro girl of 25 yrs. I'm sick. I been sick 4 months. I'm in need of food and closes. I don't have any relative at all so help me. I hop I'm not asking so much of you but I hop you would help me, Mrs. Roosevelt. I'm righting you this morning I don't have food for the day. I gose to the hospital. The dr say all my sickes is from not having food. I was working on the NYA...10 month. They laid me off because I was sick and diden give me nothing to live off after tune me off...I'm rooming with a old lade she don't have a husband. She give me food when she have it but she don't have it all the time. I own her 5 month rent right now...If I don't be able to pay her in 2 week she is going to put me out. I don't have nobody to go to for help and no where to go what I going to do if she put me out. Could you do something for me help me to fine something. Tell me what to do if you could give me some to do...any where I will do it. I will take a day job are a night job anything. Please help me. You can see I'm in need of help Mrs. Roosevelt. Will you please help me I can live much longer without food. Have lot of micine to take I do take it but it wont do me any good without food and if the lady put me out I just no I will die...Please wright at once as soon as you can... Thank you. Your kindes will never be forgoting. Yours sincerely. Mabel Gilvert Please do some thing for me at once any thing. Pleasanywhere pleas. |
Milleen, Ga.
February 4, 1935 U.S. Department of Agriculture Extension Service Dear Friends: I am a widow woman with seven head of children, and I live on my place with a plenty of help. All are good workers and I wants to farm. I has no mule, no wagon, no feed, no grocery, and these women and men that is controlling the Civil Work for the Government won't help me. ...I wants to ask you all to please help me make a crop this year and let me hear from you...Yours for business. Mosel Brinson P.S. These poor white people that lives around me wants the colored people to work for them for nothing and if you won't do that they goes to the relief office and tell the women, "don't help the colored people, we will give them plenty of work to do but they won't work..." Now I am living on my own land and I am got a plenty of children to make farm, and all I wants is a chance, and I an not in debt. I wants a mule and feed, and gear and plows, and a little groceries and guano. Please help a poor widow woman one year. Please help me to get a start, I will try to keep it. |
Woodland Park Bitely, Mich.
April 23, 1941 President Roosevelt Dear Sir: We are the colored women Democrat club. We are sending in a plea for help for our people of our community. Our men are out of work and have ben for sometimes. We can't get any Welfare help unless we sign our homes over to the welfare. We do not want to be beggers. Our men would work if they could only get work to do. We have helped in every way we could to help make your third election a success. We have some hard things to undergo during the time we were campaigning but the victory was well worth the pain... We here is this community are having a tuff way to go just now. There were a lay off just after Jan. and our men were laid off. Any time anything happens like this our group are always the first ones to get the first blow. We have tried to get work. We are sending our plea to you feeling sure you will and can help us in our needy condition. We aren't getting a fair deal. Some of our boys are being drafted for service for our country and here we are in a free land are not aloud to work and make a living for their wives and childrens. you are the Father of this country and a Father are suppose to look out for all of his children so we are depending on you. From the Colored Womens Democrat Club. We are hoping to hear from you soon. Your truly Lutensia Dillard |
Greenberg, Cheryl Lynn. To Ask for an Equal Chance: African Americans in the Great Depression. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. 144-146.
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