Depression Memories
Depression Memories
The stock market crash on "Black Tuesday" on October 29, 1929 didn’t start the "Great Depression." However, it signaled hard times to come. By 1932, nearly half of nation’s banks had failed. Businesses across the country closed, putting millions out of work. At the same time, drought was turning the nation’s heartland into a dustbowl, idling thousands more. By 1932, 15 million Americans were unemployed, up from the 1.5 million a few years earlier. One in four Americans workers had lost their job…and had little hope of finding another.
Even today, many of those who lived through the Great Depression well remember the hardships they endured.