Agricultural area
Total US farm income dropped alomst it's 50% from 1919 to 1928
Some reasons
Declining exports
After the war, Europe was poor and the US tariffs were too expensive to import food from the USA
Competition
New competition against Canadian wheat producers
Population
After the war, there was a time were the populaation was falling, so, there were less mouths to feed
Overproduction
From 1900 to 1920, with improved machinery and fertilisers, agriculture was doing great
But on the 20s, farms were producing more products wich nobody wanted.
Falling prices
Prices fell by 50% and farmers were deseperated to sell their products
Hundreds of rural banks collapsed
About half of all Americans werein the rural areas, yet, when they moved to the city, they were unskilled and no one wanted them, leading to unemployment
However, not all farmers were afected
Rich Americans still wanted their products, yet, it was a small amount of farmers who survived the crisis.
Afroamericans
The majority of people in the south of the US were black
Governments, feared to black people entering the power
They restricted them to vote, access good jobs or good education
Improvemments
In the north, black americans had a better quality of life
In Chicago and New York there was a small black middle class and a movement to encourage black people setting up a business
Artists joined all together in a city where they magnet white people to bars and clubs
Politics
WebDubois founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Struggle with racial segregation laws and lynching ones, they weren't so effective but they changed a bit the society
Marcus Garvey founded Universal Negro Improvement Association
Expressed that black americans should be proud of their race and encouraged them to set up a business
Garvey set up a shipping line to support UNIA businesses and to help emigrate afroamericans
Problems
Movements failed to change USA
Most black people even in northern cities lived in poverty. They paid higher rents, had worse education and health service in comparison with whites
If they tried to move they had hostile reception. Poor whites considered them in the same way
They ended up living in ghettos
Workers
Old Industries
Unemployment was a problem
New jobs weren't created due to the growth of industry
New electrical and mechanised prodution
Mostly for
Cotton
Income from new industries wasn't devided equally
Few wokers belonged to a trade union
Native americans
Were forced to move
reservations in the mid-west
Most of their lands were taken
Most of them live in
extreme poverty
Lower life expectanty
than white people
Worse health-care
than white people
Poorly paid jobs
They suffered from
extreme discrimination
They were losing
their culture
Kids were sent to special
boarding schools
To asimilate them
into white culture
"the decent american values against renegade black people and corrupt white Businessmen"
President Wilson, as a consequence, became a powerful political force
James Cameron is a very famous case since in his book depicts his experience and probably the case of most afroamericans
70 hours a week
Male workers $18
Female workers $9
42% of Americans lives in povery
For instance, silk was replaced by rayon, a cheap subsitute