This issue will be discussed more below. Herbert Hoover was a rising star of American politics when he won the presidential election of 1928. Hoovervilles In the 1930s, Hoovervilles (shantytowns) formed coast to coast in cities of the United States. The peak of the Great Depression was from 1932 to 1933. Multiple factors led to the Great Depression, including the U.S. stock market crash in October 1929 and the widespread failure of the American banking system, both of which helped destroy confidence in the nations economy. Roosevelts recovery program, known as the New Deal, eventually reduced unemployment, regulated banking and helped turn the ailing economy around with public works projects and other economic programs. By 1932, Herbert Hoovers last full year in office, the U.S. unemployment rate had soared to 25%, with more than 15 million people without jobs or homes. Interesting Facts About Hoovervilles During the Great Depression The Bonus Army of veterans built a large Hooverville in Washington D.C. that housed around 15,000 people. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and read more, The New Deal was a series of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans. Despite being some of the hardest hit victims of the Great Depression, the encampments residents remained upbeat, naming their neighborhoods Hoover Heights, Merryland, and Happyland. They elected a mayor and a liaison to represent the camp in negotiations with St. Louis authorities. Did you know? Riverside Park, New York City: A shantytown occupied Riverside Park at 72nd Street during the depression. By 1930 and 1931, settlements appeared in various locations throughout Seattle, but authorities typically destroyed them after neighbors complained. In June, many of the so-called Bonus Army marched to the Capitol to request early payment of the government bonuses they had been promised for their military servicemoney that would have alleviated the financial problems of many families. Anyone who has seen the famous old Civil War movie ' Gone with the Wind' might remember the Shanty Town on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia that was occupied by freed slaves and poor whites. The makeshift shacks were constructed from unwanted materials and lacked basic amenities such as adequate sanitation and clean drinking water. Hoover Pullmans were rusted railroad boxcars used as dwellings. [1] He believed this would represent a philosophical shift in what the government was supposed to be for--namely, to ensure a level playing field for economic opportunity, but not to regulate or take over the functions of the market. These areas were frequently on private lands, but the trespassing settlements were simply ignored as the crisis demanded. Most were white with the majority of them foreign-born, especially Scandinavians. 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. Longley, Robert. Democratic National Committee publicity director and longtime newspaper reporter Charles Michelson is credited with coining the term, which first appeared in print in 1930. The economic depression began in September 1929 and was immediately followed by the October 24 Wall Street stock market crash. 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. By the early 1940s, with the economy rebounding during World War II, many Hoovervilles had fewer residents and most were torn down. 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. He offers fascinating observations about social mores and culture of the community, including the easy racial relations and tolerance of homosexuality. Today the nine acre site is used to unload container ships. The primary cause was rapid economic growth, which was accompanied by excessive risk-taking at the aggregate level in the market. The Tacoma Fire Department burned down fifty small houses in May 1942 after Seattle destroyed Hooverville. Hoovervilles were racially integrated. If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source. 2 See answers Advertisement jayilych4real Hooverville housed about 10,000 veterans and their families in ramshackle shelters built from old lumber, packing boxes, and scrapped tin from a nearby junk pile. Early Hooverville was burned down twice by Seattle police, but its residents continued to rebuild small houses. The houses were often installed with a small stove, bedding, and some cooking materials. Exhibit B: Location and Number of Shacks (March 5, 1941) Farming in 1935 . ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996. Trade your paper with a Partner. In April, residents of the main Hooverville were given notice to leave by May 1. They cut down dramatically on their purchases, but less buying meant fewer goods needed, so companies didn't need so many employees. Some people . Many other names were coined by Democrats based on his opinion, including Hoover blanket, flag, leather, and wagon. Even before the Great Depression, there were homeless people, but most large cities were able to build municipal lodging houses for the homeless. - Definition & History, Effects & Events of the US Civil War from Various Perspectives, William Monroe Trotter: Quotes & Biography, Andrew Carnegie: Steel, Net Worth & Philanthropy, Neil Armstrong: Biography, Facts & Moon Landing, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. These communities of shacks or shanties were called Hoovervilles, after President Hoover, who refused to help the growing number of homeless. Even during the worst of the Depression, most Hooverville residents continued to seek employment, often taking backbreaking seasonal jobs like picking and packing field crops. The Depression was blamed on President Herbert Hoover, after whom the town was named after, as coined by Charles Michelson. It is a city built on hills and around water, in a mild marine climate that encourages prolific . Over the next several read more, Disenchantment with Prohibition had been building almost from the moment it first took effect in 1920. The quality and livability of structures built in Hooverville camps varied widely. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. A shantytown, also known as a Hooverville (named for U.S. President Herbert Hoover), was located in Seattle, Washington, during the Great Depression. We are grateful to the Seattle Municipal Archives, King County Archives, and the University of Washington Library Special Collections for permission to incorporate materials in their collections. Thesis, University of Washington, 1935), pp.42-45. Petition for community bath houses in Hooverville (May 15, 1935) All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. During the Great Depression, in the 1930s, as millions of people lost their jobs and homes, shanty towns, also known as "Hoovervilles" began to sprout up across the US. The nation turned to Herbert Hoover expecting help, but he had none to give. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! A Tarpaper Carthage: Interpreting Hooverville. A large number of small houses were constructed from scrap materials. Donald Roy created this map of Seattle's Hooverville. However, most buildings were little more than crude shelters thrown together from wooden crates, cardboard boxes, tar paper, scrap metal, and other fire-prone discarded materials. No two Hoovervilles were quite alike, and the camps varied in population and size. Homelessness followed quickly from joblessness once the economy began to crumble in the early 1930s. To find out more, see our, Download the Hooverville Facts & Worksheets, Hooverville Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com, Resources created by teaching professionals. [9], Regardless of the gender of the residents, Hoovervilles served as a common ground for many different nationalities and ethnicities. OKIESOkies is a term applied generally to people from the American Southwest who migrated to the Pacific Coast, particularly to California, during the Great Depression. Second New Deal Purpose & Programs | What was the Second New Deal? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. In his journal, he states that of the 639 residents of the town, only 7 of them were women. [6], After 1940, the economy recovered, unemployment fell, and shanty housing eradication programs destroyed all the Hoovervilles. Hoovervilles are very similar to refugee camps. This sort of fatalism was especially apparent in the language that developed around the iconic representation of the Great Depression --the Hooverville. Many squeezed in with relatives. He explained that the population was fluid, as men sold their shacks to newcomers and moved on, and at its maximum during the winter months when it reached as hight as 1,200. Technically, these settlements were often in violation of state or local law; and even though they were often raided, it became common practice for authorities to endure them. Click to download the free sample version, Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the. After hosting several homeless settlements, the reservoir was dubbed the Hoover Valley and Depression Street. Usually built on the edges of larger cities, hundreds of thousands of people lived in the many Hooverville camps. In 1933, it was 25%, with 1 out of every 4 people out of work. Hoovervilles were not fancy or well-constructed. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards. Grade Level. What does it tell you about Hooverville society? "Nobody Paid any Attention": The Economic Marginalization of Seattle's Hooverville, Seattles Hooverville: The Failure of Effective Unemployment Relief in the Early 1930s, Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle, Seattle Municipal Archives Hooverville Documents, Unemployed Citizens League and Poverty Activism, Self-Help Activists: The Seattle Branches of the Unemployed Citizens League, Organizing the Unemployed: The Early 1930s, Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium | University of Washington. Dwellings in the Hoovervilles were little more than shacks built of discarded bricks, wood, tin, and cardboard. During the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted about a decade, shantytowns appeared across America as unemployed people were evicted from their homes. 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. What became the city's main Hooverville started as a group of little huts on land next to Elliott Bay south of "skid road," as the Pioneer Square area was then called. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. An error occurred trying to load this video. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis: Chapters 1-5 | Summary & Analysis, Themes in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Examples & Analysis, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Summary & Characters of Bud, Not Buddy, Bud's Rules in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Significance & Analysis, Vietnamization Policy & Significance | Nixon's Plan to Withdraw American Forces. For one thing, Hoover was a believer in the power of the free market and in the value of perseverance. Many of us spend a great deal of time imagining what we'd do if we had a lot of money--if we won the lottery, for example. Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. Browse hooverville resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources. Some families were fortunate enough to stay with friends and family members that hadn't been evicted yet, but homeless men, women and children were forced to take up residence in shacks as a result of the Great Depression. A "Hooverville" dweller, Circleville, Ohio, c. 1938. Renters fell behind and faced eviction. https://www.thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996 (accessed March 1, 2023). WATCH VIDEO: Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Throughout the country, Hoovervilles, or makeshift shanties, would spring up to provide shelter wherever possible, often near water sources or the soup kitchens operated by churches and charities. A look at how people lived, especially in the makeshift dwellings they constructed, gives a better sense of this, as does an understanding of the bitter humor behind the naming of these dwellings, known as 'Hoovervilles'. Some shelters were little more than holes in the ground covered with tin or cardboard. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, writer John Steinbeck, vividly described his hardships as a young farmworker in the Weedpatch Hooverville near Bakersfield, California. here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma. "; In 1932, Hooverville was established in Anacostia, District of Columbia, to house a group of. Hoovervilles were hundreds of crude campgrounds built across the United States by poverty stricken people who had lost their homes because of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The shanty town was so big that people established their own community government and elected a 'mayor' as their leader to settle any disputes. "; The smaller camps tended to come and go, while the larger Hoovervilles proved far more permanent. This building housed a mayora's office and a commissary, or grocery store. Hoovervilles were large groups of simple, makeshift houses built by people who had nowhere else to live during the Great Depression. Commanded by Maj. George S. Patton, the U.S. Army burned the Hooverville and drove the veterans out with tanks, tear gas, and fixed bayonets. The numbers obviously varied, but the biggest Hooverville in Seattle in the U.S. state of Washington served as the home to 1200 people. This drain reservoir became the site of an informal camp established by a few homeless people, but they were quickly evicted. He wasn't a particularly warm, charismatic individual; he had won the presidency on the strength of his record and his character, but very few people would have described him as sympathetic (though by all accounts, he agonized over the suffering of the Great Depression). Roy found the relaxed social atmosphere remarkable, describing "an ethnic rainbow" where men of many colors intermingled "in shabby comraderie. Homeless people were forced to live in absolute poverty in the Hoovervilles or shantytowns in the 1930s. Seattle's decision to raze Hooverville in 1941 and expel its residents relied on a discourse of "otherness" that set Hooverville economically, socially, and geographically apart. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. University of Washington: The Great Depression in Washington State.Hoovervilles in 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. Hooverville residents had nowhere else to go, and public sympathy, for the most part, was with them. What were the Hoovervilles (Shanty Town) of the Great Depression? Banks closed, and factories shut down; thousands and then millions of jobs were lost. When the government failed to provide relief, President Herbert Hoover was blamed for the intolerable economic and social conditions, so the shantytowns that cropped up became known as Hoovervilles. In late 1935, the city Health Department estimated that 4,000 to 5,000 people were living in the various shacktowns. Others responded to complaints by people in the neighborhood and evicted the inhabitants and burned the shacks. months[5] = "Explore the interesting, and fascinating selection of unique websites created and produced by the Siteseen network. In Seattle, Washington, stood one of the country's largest, longest-lasting, and best-documented Hoovervilles, standing for ten years between 1931 and 1941.Though several were located about the city, this Hooverville was on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle. St. Louis Hooverville, built in 1930, had its own unofficial mayor, churches and social institutions. Black and white men would share homes out of convenience and, likewise, exemplify camaraderie and friendship. I feel like its a lifeline. City of Seattle.Americans React to the Great Depression. Response from Health Department (May 23, 1935) This was handled by an elected Vigilance Committee-- consisting of two whites, two blacks, and two Filipinos-- led by a white Texas native and former lumberjack named Jesse Jackson, who came to be known as the unofficial "Mayor" of Hooverville. It was headed by the Commissioner of Health, the Superintendent of Buildings, the Chief of Police, and the Chief of the Fire Department, tasked to draft a plan on how to proceed with the elimination of Hooverville. The Story of the Great Depression in Photos, How the Great Depression Altered US Foreign Policy, Reconstruction Finance Corporation: Definition and Legacy, Biography of Louis Armstrong, Expert Trumpeter and Entertainer, What Is Patriotism? Definition, Examples, Pros and Cons. Writer John Steinbeck featured a family who lived in a California Hooverville and sought farm work in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939. He counted 639 residents in March of that year, all but seven of them men. Thousands of Hoovervilles began to appear all over the country. It is just west of Qwest Field and the Alaska Viaduct. Almost 6,000 shanty towns, called Hoovervilles, sprang up in the 1930s. In 1932, Hooverville was established in Anacostia, District of Columbia, to house a group of WWI veterans seeking expedited benefits, dubbed the Bonus Army. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an ambitious employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, during the bleakest days of the Great Depression. Along with Hoovervilles, other derogatory terms aimed at President Hoovers continued refusal to initiate welfare programs became common in both the homeless camps and newspapers. Filipinos and Mexicans were the only ones who were separated, but this was due to language rather than racial discrimination. The Hooverville in Seattle was one of the few with detailed documentation. Nearly 29 percent of the population was non-white. 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. The Great Depression was the most severe and enduring economic collapse of the 20th century, and included abrupt declines in the supply and demand of goods and services along with a meteoric rise in unemployment. [2] Among the white population, nationalities included English, Irish, Polish, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. He had first achieved fame during World War I when he ran the U.S. Food Administration, and his managerial skills, relentless work ethic, and ability to feed both the troops and the homefront simultaneously won him enormous praise. Definition and Summary of the Shantytowns and HoovervillesSummary and definition: The Shanty Towns, known as Hoovervilles, sprang up across the nation during the Great Depression (1929 - 1941). Around 15,000 men joined the movement, many of whom came from far away and arrived in the area by illegally riding on railroad freight trains. The effect was the virtual freezing of international trade. 19. Ultimately, they were a bitterly ironic symbol of the suffering inherent in the worst economic crisis in U.S. History. Hoover's other problem was his own personality. The term was coined by Charles Michelson. [1] There were hundreds of Hoovervilles across the country during the 1930s.[2]. By 1932, between one and two million American people were homeless. Join 51,000+ happy teachers and students who use our teaching worksheets and resources every day. KidsKonnect is a growing library of premium quality educational materials, printable worksheets and teaching resources for use in the classroom. 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. Economic disparity in the United States during the 1930s was not limited to American born individuals. Hoovervilles began to disappear after the election of Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal promised to put the federal government into activist mode to try to end the Great Depression. [2], However, not every Hooverville fits this description. Shantytowns and Hoovervilles: Herbert Hoover was the 31st American President who served in office from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933. He was the President, after all, and there were many things he could do--but he was in trouble from the start, for a couple of different reasons. Hoover later claimed that MacArthur had used excessive force, but his words meant little to most of those affected. Encampments and shantytowns often referred to as tent citieswith similarities to Hoovervillesbegan appearing in parts of California, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Washington and other states. Sign Me Up. read more, The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work relief program that gave millions of young men employment on environmental projects during the Great Depression. until the land was needed for shipping facilities on the eve of World War II. The Hoovervilles varied in size from just a few shacks clustered together to communities of over 1000 rickety shacks covering acres of unused or public lands. Request for removal of Interbay shacks (April 24, 1937) [4] Most of these unemployed residents of the Hoovervilles relied on public charities or begged for food from those who had housing during this era. Jackson was also the chairperson of the Vigilance Committee. The name was a reference to Herbert Hoover who was the President of the United States during the at the start of the Depression and widely blamed for it. These settlements were often trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. Life for the Average Family During the Great Depression. By the end of the decade it covered a six block area and, like Seattle's Hooverville, included a large number of little houses that residents had built out of scrap materials and steadily improved over the years. This was at a time when most workers didn't have access to unemployment benefits, health care, or Social Security--in fact, none of the programs that could provide that kind of help even existed. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize.. Mark has a Ph.D in Social Science Education. I highly recommend you use this site! The numbers, as mind-boggling as they are, tend not to reflect the actual state of suffering caused by the greatest economic catastrophe in U.S. history. And although private philanthropy increased during the early 1930s, the amounts given were not enough to make a significant impact. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. Construction within the strict timeframe proved an immense read more, The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken southern plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a drought in the 1930s. While the goal of the tariffs was to protect U.S.-made products from foreign competition, most countries retaliated by raising their tariffs on U.S. goods. In Washington, the Unemployed Citizen's League and its newspaper, The Vanguard, gained the state Communists a broad appeal, and integrated the unemployed into the state's radical reform coalitions. [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. 361 lessons. Hoovervilles: Some 200,000 migrant farmers relocated to California. Who Were the Democratic Presidents of the United States? Central Park Hooverville with Central Park West in the Background in 1932. @media (min-width: 340px) { .adslot_1 { width: 336px; height: 280px; } } Odd pieces of wood, stones, loose boards, crates, cardboard, scraps of other materials, old bricks and parts of boxes. It became the most widespread crisis of the twentieth century, affecting several countries worldwide. Hoovervilles were hundreds of makeshift homeless encampments built near large cities across the United States during the Great Depression (1929-1933). Usually built on the edges of larger cities, hundreds of thousands of people lived in the many Hooverville camps. This download is exclusively for KidsKonnect Premium members!To download this worksheet, click the button below to signup (it only takes a minute) and you'll be brought right back to this page to start the download! He was proud of the self-built community, saying "Hooverville is the abode of the forgotten man." 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. We pride ourselves on being a safe website for both teachers and students. Next: Unemployed Citizens League and Poverty Activism. Families who had lost their homes lived in shacks in temporary settlements known as "Hoovervilles," named after the current president, Herbert Hoover. Letter from Housing Authority to City Council (March 4, 1941) Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression. No two Why was the Shanty Town called a Hooverville? President Herbert Hoover lost the election in 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. With such a well-developed social order, the camp maintained itself as a functional separate community from 1930 to 1936, when President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal sweeping economic recovery plan allocated federal funds for its removal. 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