The crisis resulted in skyrocketing rates of unemployment, hunger, and desperation.

Known as Black Thursday, the 1929 crash was attributed in part to a vast imbalance of wealth between the rich and poor, a fervent production of goods, little to no wage gains, an increase in personal debt, and government mismanagement.

The effects of the Great Depression could be felt into the early 1940s.

From 1929 to 1930, unemployment rose from fewer than 3 million to 4 million, according to figures cited by the University of Houston’s Digital History archive. In 1931, it doubled to 8 million, and by 1932, unemployment levels reached a staggering 12.5 million.

Thousands of Americans lost their homes, and hundreds of thousands attempted to travel through the country on foot or by boxcar to find work, according to the Library of Congress.

By 1932, 75% of all remaining workers were on a part-time schedule, according to the University of Houston’s Digital History archive.

Vagrants looking for work on public trains were kicked to the curb.

Some families inhabited caves or sewer pipes out of desperation.

The population of the US at that time was about 125 million, according to the US Census Bureau.

Many also sacrificed medical and dental care because they couldn’t afford it.

Lines for food ration programs and free meals exploded across the country.

Hoover did not believe in offering federal aid to the impoverished or using the power of the federal government to manage prices or currency, according to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Impoverished people living in shantytowns across the country started referring to them as “Hoovervilles,” and empty pockets turned inside out were known as “Hoover flags.”

In 1932, 20,000 veterans of World War I marched to the Capitol to demand the payment of bonuses that they were scheduled to receive in 1945, according to the Library of Congress. The bill to do so did not pass in Congress.

The following year, 10,000 unemployed people joined a “hunger march” in Los Angeles.

See also

Black Business

7th annual Passport to Black Businesses held in Cambridge

Throughout the decade, separation rates grew. By 1940, there were 1.5 million American women living apart from their husbands, according to the University of Houston’s Digital History archive.

An estimated 200,000 vagrant children wandered the streets of America due to the break-up and collapse of their families, according to Virginia Commonwealth University‘s Social Welfare History Project.

Half of Black workers were unemployed by 1932 compared to the general unemployment rate of 25%, according to the Library of Congress. In Southern states, the percentage of unemployed Black workers was even higher.

Over the course of the Depression, authorities deported an estimated 400,000 Mexican Americans over fears of workplace competition, according to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Many of those people were American citizens.

As men struggled to provide for their families as cultural breadwinners, some turned to alcohol to cope, while others became abusive or gave up hope altogether.

Suicide rates peaked when unemployment reached high points in 1932 and 1938, according to the US National Library of Medicine.

The set of emergency relief programs, work programs, and large-scale government reforms implemented by Roosevelt helped boost the economy. The US’s entrance into World War II in 1941 jumpstarted American manufacturing.

Its aftermath fundamentally changed the relationship between Americans and their government and led to the development of more government programs, responsibility, and involvement.