The Great Depression in Arkansas

How did the Great Depression affect Arkansas?

Subject(s): African Americans, Arkansas History, and US History

Time Period(s): (1929-1945) Great Depression and World War II

Grade level(s): 9-12

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Supporting question(s):

What were the effects of the Great Depression in Arkansas socially, economically and geographically?

What do you think life would have been like for you and your family during the Great Depression in Little Rock, Pulaski County, or another place in which your family lived in the 1930s?

Source Set

Description

A group of black boys stand on top of the roof a Coca Cola stand in Little Rock, Arkansas, June 1938.


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A woman and two of her children stand on the porch, and another child stands behind a screen door, of their simple wooden home on Stortz Cotton Plantation in Pulaski County, Arkansas, August 1935.


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A group of African Americans waiting at the edge of a cotton field to weigh cotton in large cloth sacks. October 1935.


Description

Two young black boys standing in a cotton field in Pulaski County, Arkansas. October 1935.


Description

Letter from father Warren G. Furry to son “Mor G.” in Fayetteville, AR, written from workplace, the Hartford Fire Insurance Company agency office in Van Buren, AR.


Description

Letter from father Warren G. Furry to son “Mor G.” in Fayetteville, AR from work in Van Buren, AR.


Description

Oral history of Sidney Walker on March 16, 1974 by Maria Hicks. Mr. Walker’s parents were sharecroppers and he lived in Scott, Arkansas, during the Great Depression.




Additional resource(s):

Encyclopedia of Arkansas – “New Deal”

Smithsonian Magazine “Meet Ten Depression-Era Photographers Who Captured the Struggle of Rural America”

Arkansas Frameworks(s):

United States History Since 1890, 9-12:

Era8.3.USH.3 Construct historical arguments and explanations about social, economic, political, geographic, and environmental effects of the Great Depression on various regions from multiple perspectives.

African American History, 9-12:

SC.5.AAH.2 Analyze the effects of the Great Depression and New Deal on the social and economic status of African-American men and women in various geographic regions.

Arkansas History, 9-12:

Era4.4.AH.9-12.5 Analyze social, economic, and political effects of the Great Depression on various regions and segments of the population in Arkansas