Description: Coined "Black Tuesday", October 29th, 1929 was the birth of a severe worldwide economic downturn known as "The Great Depression". On that date the stock market crashed. After the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high of 381.17 on September 3rd, 1929 - it suddenly began to decline. On "Black Thursday" (October 24th, 1929) nearly 13 million shares were traded. Over the weekend, attempts to halt the slide were sensationalized by American newspapers. On Monday, October 28th, the first so-called "Black Monday", more investors decided to get out of the market and the slide continued with a record loss of 13% in the DJIA. The following day (Black Tuesday) nearly 16 million shares were traded (an unprecedented amount), and the Dow Jones closed at 230.07. The American way of life changed in a few short days as a decade-long economic lethargy would put millions out of work and many out of their homes. During this period, there was an unusual drought in the "bread basket" of the United States. Little or no rainfall made areas arid and untenable in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado. Then the wind started to blow. It did not stop blowing for several years, taking precious layers of topsoil and turning it into dust. Join New England Folklorist John Horrigans as he takes you back to the "Dirty Thirties" with a lecture filled with vivid images of vast American dust storms ("Black Blizzards" and "Black Rollers") that compounded the misery of an already-suffering nation. The Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres, displaced farmers and families and was an ecological and human disaster caused by misuse of land and years of sustained drought.

IMAGES

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, moments after the stock market crash on "Black Tuesday", October 29th, 1929.

Late on the afternoon of Black Tuesday, worried investors congregated outside the New York Stock Exchange moments after hearing that the stock market has crashed.

Throughout the 1930's the stock market saw several fluctuations, "dead cat bounces", dips and panics.

Many lost their jobs, their homes and a even a basic daily meal. Soup lines were common.

The unemployment rate rose to 13.4% in 1932.

And then it stopped raining in the farming and ranching heartland of the United States. The "Dust Bowl" began....

There were three major dust storms during the Dust Bowl: November 11th, 1933, in South Dakota; May 9th, 1934, along the Great Plains; and the "Black Blizzard" of April 14th, 1935. In the winter of 1935-36, red snow fell on New England.

In addition to farmers, ranchers lost their livelihood.

A famous photograph known as the "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California.

A barn in South Dakota is buried by invasive dirt in May of 1936.





THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN PERFORMED FOR:

Organization: Amesbury-Newburyport Low Vision Group

Contact: Jeanie Furey

Date: July 14th, 2009

Location: Salvation Army Building in Amesbury, Massachusetts

Phone: 978-388-3537

LISTEN TO THIS LECTURE

Running Time: 57 minutes Size: 49 MB



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