Education, Social Studies, History, Civics, Current Issues

Civics Era 10 – The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929-1945)

New Jersey Council for the Social Studies

www.njcss.org

Engaging High School Students in Global Civic Education Lessons in U.S. History

The relationship between the individual and the state is present in every country, society, and civilization. Relevant questions about individual liberty, civic engagement, government authority, equality and justice, and protection are important for every demographic group in the population. In your teaching of World History, consider the examples and questions provided below that should be familiar to students in the history of the United States with application to the experiences of others around the world.

These civic activities are designed to present civics in a global context as civic education happens in every country. The design is flexible regarding using one of the activities, allowing students to explore multiple activities in groups, and as a lesson for a substitute teacher. The lessons are free, although a donation to the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies is greatly appreciated. www.njcss.org

Era 10 The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929–1945)

The beginning of the 20^th century marks the foundation of the transformation of the United States into a world power by the middle of the century. In this era economic prosperity and depression, the ability of our government to provide for the needs of people experiencing economic hardship, and the rise of dictators attacking innocent civilians and threatening the existence of democratic governments leading to a second world war dominate the narrative of this historical period. The development of the new technologies of electricity, transportation, and communication challenged our long-held traditional policies of limited government, neutrality, and laissez-faire capitalism.

Activity #1: Father Charles Coughlin, BBC and ABC: Can the ruling political party use public media to advocate for its policies?

In the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest, had a weekly radio program with millions of listeners in the United States. In 1926 he broadcast weekly sermons but as the economy shifted into a recession and depression, his broadcast became more political and economic. They also reflected anti-Semitism with verbal attacks on prominent Jewish citizens. His broadcast following Kristallnacht on November 10, 1938 was particularly divisive. The owner of WMCA, a New York station, refused to broadcast Father Coughlin’s messages

The owner of WMCA, the New York station that carried his program, refused to broadcast Coughlin’s next radio message. The Nazi press reacted to the news with fury: “America is Not Allowed to Hear the Truth” declared one headline. “Jewish organizations camouflaged as American…have conducted such a campaign…that the radio station company has proceeded to muzzle the well-loved Father Coughlin.” A “New York Times” correspondent in Germany noted that Coughlin had become for the moment “the hero of Nazi Germany.”

In the United States the Federal Communications Act of 1934 and subsequent additions regarding television and quiz shows mostly protects licenses, ensures equal access to all geographic areas, and provides for a rapid communications system regarding emergencies and national defense. It protects First Amendment rights regarding content, with some restrictions regarding profanity or inappropriate sexual content or images. The absence of specific content regulations allowed Orson Welles in 1938 to produce “War of the Worlds” over the radio leading to a panic by many citizens regarding their fear of an alien invasion. The Fairness Doctrine of 1949 requires broadcasters to allow responses to personal attacks and controversial opinions. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Red Lion Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission challenged the constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine allowing the popularity of political radio and television talk and news programs.

Federal Communications Act of 1934

Broadcast Media Policy in the United Kingdom

The use of public media in the United Kingdom has specific statues to balance the perspectives of opinions and to prevent or limit the public broadcast media as a platform to present the views of the government, propaganda, or to advocate for a particular point of view on a controversial issue. The diversity of opinion in the United Kingdom for the BBC must respect opinions reflecting urban and rural populations, age, income, geography, culture, and political affiliations. There are also reasonable guidelines regarding the editor’s judgment to exclude a particular perspective. Facts and opinions must be defined and clearly stated. Section 4 Impartiality: 4.3.14 BBC Editorial Policy

Questions:

How is broadcast media (radio and television) substantially different than print, telegraph or telephone media?
How is social media substantially different than radio and television broadcasting?
Does the U.S. Constitution allow for government regulation of content?
To what extent is self-regulation effective or ineffective regarding news, weather, traffic, programs, and ethical standards?
Are the regulations of content justified when their protect the mental health of people and prevent false or misleading statements and prohibit explicit sexual images and content determined to be pornographic?
To what extent is censorship a problem in the publication of information. Should restrictive editorial policies be considered a form of censorship?

Activity #2: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States and Bank Deposit Insurance in Other Countries

In the United States, deposits in most banks are protected up to $250,000 for each investor. This protection restored confidence in American banks during the Great Depression and is an important reason for a sound financial system in the United States. Investments in stocks and bonds fluctuate with market conditions. Every bank in the United States also has deposits that are not insured. Investments in stocks, mutual funds, and corporate bonds are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The Federal Reserve Bank establishes a reserve requirement, currently 10%, for banks to maintain to ensure adequate funds for withdrawals. The Federal Reserve Bank also monitors the member banks in the Federal Reserve System. Banks are assessed on all of their deposits quarterly and a formula is used to calculate their insurance payment. The FDIC is self-insured, although backed by Congress in the event of a catastrophic collapse of the banking system.

The Banking System in Japan

In Japan, the Deposit Insurance Act was enacted in 1971. The DIA fully insures deposits that do not earn interest. In the United States amounts in checking, savings, money market accounts, and Certificates of Deposit are insured. Deposits that earn interest in Japan are insured up to 10 million yen, or about $70,000.

The most recent crisis in Japan is the exposure of the Aozora Bank to bad loans and investments in the United States. In 2024, it posted a net loss of 28 billion Japanese yen or about $191 million in U.S. dollars. A major earthquake in Japan, effects from extreme weather, or a military conflict would likely present major risks to Japan’s banks.

Examples of countries without any defined deposit insurance are China, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, and South Africa. Perhaps one-third of the countries in the world do not protect deposits in their banks.

Failed Banks in the U.S. by Year (Forbes)

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Video: FDIC (13 minutes)

Japan’s Banking Crisis in the 1990s (Video)

Questions:

There are about 6 million households in the United States without bank accounts. If you consider this a concern, what can be done to address this situation?
What is the role of banks in the macroeconomy?
Does the deposit insurance system in the United States provide sufficient protection?
Are some banks too big to fail? If yes, then is the federal government justified in using taxpayer dollars to protect a large bank from failure or takeover?
To what extent should pension investments, property and homes, investments in government bonds be protected? Should insurance for these investments be paid for by the depositor or the bank?
Is the primary purpose of federal deposit insurance to protect the banks or its depositors?

Activity #3: Governor Huey P. Long and Health Insurance in the United States and other Countries

Huey P. Long is a challenging person for historians and educators. His ‘Share the Wealth’ program, use of the media, authoritarian actions, and criticisms of voter manipulation provide for diverse perspectives. However, he improved healthcare in Louisiana by expanding the Charity Hospital System, creating the Louisiana State University Medical School, reforming institutions to care for the disabled and mentally challenged, and providing free health clinics and immunizations. As a result, many lives were saved.

As governor, Long tripled funding for public healthcare. The state’s free health clinics grew from 10 in 1926 to 31 in 1933, providing free immunizations to 67 percent of the rural population. By building bridges and paving new roads, he made it possible for the rural poor to have access to medical and dental health care and hospitals. In the long historical timeline toward universal health care insurance in the United States, Huey P. Long is a pioneer.

Before Huey Long’s reforms, patients at the Central Hospital for the Insane were locked in chairs during their ‘recreation’ time. from Every Man a King by Huey Long; reproduced by permission.

Long by-passed the negative press by distributing his own newspaper, “The American Progress,” and he spoke directly to a national audience through radio speeches and speaking engagements. In a national radio broadcast on February 23, 1934, Huey Long unveiled his “Share Our Wealth” plan a program designed to provide a decent standard of living to all Americans by spreading the nation’s wealth among the people. Long proposed capping personal fortunes at $50 million each (roughly $600 million in today’s dollars) through a restructured, progressive federal tax code and sharing the resulting revenue with the public through government benefits and public works. In addition, he advocated for a 30 hour work week, four weeks of paid vacation for every worker, free college or vocational educational and limiting annual incomes to $1 million or about $60 million in today’s dollars. He also advocated for pensions and health care provided by businesses and the government.

Long believed that it was morally wrong for the government to allow millions of Americans to suffer in poverty when there existed a surplus of food, clothing, and shelter. By 1934, nearly half of all American families lived in poverty, earning less than $1,250 annually. He supported a health care system for all people using government funds. Long’s authoritarian use of power helped him achieve his goals until his assassination in 1935.

There are four basic health care models

The United States has one of the most expensive health care systems in the world. It invests in research,

However, in 2021, 8.6 percent of the U.S. population was uninsured. The U.S. is the only country where a substantial portion of the population lacks any form of health insurance. The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest death rates for avoidable or treatable conditions, the highest maternal and infant mortality, and one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It also has the highest rate of people with multiple chronic conditions and an obesity rate nearly twice the average of other developed countries.

The current programs provided by Medicare (for people over age 65), Medicaid (for people with low incomes), and the Affordable Care Act (current program for most people) are each under attack because of the high costs associated with them and government regulation of the prices paid.

In your research and discussion consider the following models of health insurance and the programs Gov. Huey P. Long implemented in Louisiana in the 1930s.

The Beveridge Model

This model is named after William Beveridge, the social reformer who designed Britain’s National Health Service. In this system, health care is provided and financed by the government through tax payments, just like the police force or the public library.

Many, but not all, hospitals and clinics are owned by the government; some doctors are government employees, but there are also private doctors who collect their fees from the government. This system has the lowest costs per person, because the government controls what doctors can do and what they can charge. Great Britain, Spain, most Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, and Cuba are countries using this model or one that is similar.

The Bismarck Model

The Bismarck models uses an insurance system financed jointly by employers and employees through payroll deduction. Every person is covered. Doctors and hospitals are private operators. Although there are many payers to this model, costs tend to be regulated by the government. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, and some Latin American are countries that use this model.

The National Health Insurance Model

This system has elements of both Beveridge and Bismarck models. It uses private-sector providers, but payment comes from a government-run insurance program that every citizen pays into. Costs are considered low because there are no profits, no advertising, and claims are pre-approved. It is a single payer system and as a monopolist it is in a position to negotiate for the lowest prices. This system also has the ability to limit the medical services it will pay for, such as preventive care or what is considered elective procedures. Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea are countries using this model. For Americans over the age of 65, Medicare is similar to this model.

The Out-of-Pocket Model

Health insurance is mostly a benefit for industrialized countries. Of the 195 countries on planet Earth, about 40 or 25% have established health care systems. In countries using this model, the poor are neglected. This is a problem for hundreds of millions of people who have low incomes or are living below the poverty line.

Questions:

Does preventive care provide long-term savings for a country?
Who has the primary responsibility for physical and mental health care in a country?
Is government sponsored health care part of the vision of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution?
Are there limits to what a government or business can and should provide for its populations?
Local communities finance public education with taxes and the salaries of educators and graduation requirements are controlled by local Boards of Education with some supervision from the state government. Should this model be considered for health care?
Which of the four models would you adopt or adapt for the United States?
How can the United States best address the health care crises it faces regarding obesity, mental health, cancer, and chronic conditions. (i.e. diabetes, hypertension)
Should health care models also include the costs of vision, hearing, and dental expenses?

Activity #4: Dr. Francis Townsend and Direct Payments to Citizens Living in Poverty and Income Transfer in the United Kingdom

In 2023, the official poverty threshold in the United States was $30,900 for a family of two adults and two children. Families can earn well over this amount and still find they cannot pay all of their bills.

Poverty is relative. Someone in your class, school, community, etc. will be in the bottom 25% of income earners. An individual earning an hourly wage of $20.00 an hour who works for 35 hours a week earns $700 a week or $36,400 a year. This total is reduced by state and federal taxes and a 7.65% tax on Medicare and Social Security. Although $20 an hour is higher than the minimum wage in every state, it is not considered a living wage.

About one in seven (14%) of children under age 16 are in poverty in the United States. This means that about 10 million kids in 2023 were living in households that did not have enough resources for basic needs such as food, housing and utilities. The poverty rate in New Jersey is 10% of the population or about 950,000. See the SPM child poverty rate in your state The highest rates of poverty generally occur for the youngest children — under age 5 — kids in single-mother families, children of color and kids in immigrant families. The numbers of children and adults living in poverty are increasing and they are a serious problem. The effects of living in poverty are the concern of your discussion as is the most effective way to reduce or eliminate it.

The effects of economic hardship disrupt the cognitive development, physical and mental health, educational success of children. Researchers estimate the total U.S. cost of child poverty ranges from $500 billion to $1 trillion per year based on lost productivity and increased health care expenses.

Poverty in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the poverty rate for children is 31% or double the rate in the United States. There is no single, universally accepted definition of poverty for the world. The United States identifies an income level for family categories and the United Kingdom uses a measure of disposable income (after taxes) below 60% of the median income (income of the largest group in the population) on an annual basis.

For example, the median income in the United States is $40,000. If we used this formula, the poverty level would be $24,000 (after taxes). If we consider a 20% federal tax, 8% FICA and Medicare tax, and a 5% state tax for a person employed in New Jersey making $40,000, their disposable income would be approximately $27,000 or similar to the measure used in the United Kingdom. If you consider the cost of rent at $2,000 a month, transportation costs at $200 a month, and food at $500 a month for a family or individual in New Jersey, these expenses are $2,700 a month or $32,400 a year. An income threshold of $30,000 a month is not practical.

The Townsend Plan

Dr. Francis Townsend, a medical doctor living in Long Beach, California, introduced a plan in 1933 to provide direct payments to people over the age of 60. The money would be raised through a national sales tax, which in some countries is labeled a Value Added Tax of VAT.

“It is estimated that the population of the age of 60 and above in the United States is somewhere between nine and twelve millions. I suggest that the national government retire all who reach that age on a monthly pension of $200 a month or more, on condition that they spend the money as they get it. This will ensure an even distribution throughout the nation of two or three billions of fresh money each month. Thereby assuring a healthy and brisk state of business, comparable to that we enjoyed during war times.

“Where is the money to come from? More taxes?” Certainly. We have nothing in this world we do not pay taxes to enjoy. But do not overlook the fact that we are already paying a large proportion of the amount required for these pensions in the form of life insurance policies, poor farms, aid societies, insane asylums and prisons. The inmates of the last two mentioned institutions would undoubtedly be greatly lessened when it once became assured that old age meant security from want and care. A sales tax sufficiently high to insure the pensions at a figure adequate to maintain the business of the country in a healthy condition would be the easiest tax in the world to collect, for all would realize that the tax was a provision for their own future, as well as the assurance of good business now.”

Dr. Townsend’s plan became popular with the people and became known as The Townsend Movement. Although it was criticized by President Franklin Roosevelt, the Social Security Administration is similar to what Dr. Townsend proposed. He published a newsletter, The Modern Crusader, to promote his plan. The Social Security plan is funded by a tax on incomes because the burden is shared proportionately by different income levels.

Welfare, unemployment compensation, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are payments to United States’ citizens that are currently being discussed and evaluated. The average monthly payment is slightly less than $2,000. These are direct payments to people from the government, which also benefit local communities as the money is spent on food, housing, and basic needs, and provides a safeguard against bankruptcy and financial hardship. They may also increase the federal debt of a country in times of high unemployment or a pandemic.

Policy makers and economists must also consider public policies regarding the poor and senior citizens. The discussion questions below address the question of poverty for the young, disabled, and elderly and how to finance them.

Questions:

Do governments have a responsibility to provide financial assistance or a guaranteed living wage to individuals or families with inadequate finances for basic needs?
Are direct income payments a burden on a government or do they provide an efficient return on their investment over time?
Is the question of how to reduce or prevent poverty a matter of taxation or a a matter relating to the priorities of the federal budget?
When people with mortgages apply the cost of interest as a deduction on their income tax, should this be considered an income transfer policy of the government providing assistance to people who are able to own property or their own home?
Should income transfers be made in cash or in-kind benefits such as food stamps, vouchers for health care, etc.?
Should the government regulate the consumption expenses of people receiving income transfers?
Should income transfers be financed by income taxes, consumption taxes, or another method?
What will likely be the effects of our government ending its income transfers for Social Security, medical, and/or unemployment? What will be the short-term and long-term effects?

Resources:

https://www.ssa.gov/history/towns5.html (The Townsend Plan)

https://www.ssa.gov/history/towns8.html (Francis Townsend’s Autobiography)

https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/townsend-dr-francis/ (Social Welfare History Project)

https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/child-poverty-statistics-causes-and-the-uks-policy-response/#heading-2 (House of Lords Library)

Local History: The Great Depression in New York City

Local History: The Great Depression in New York City

Reprinted from New York Almanack based on an article from the Blackwell’s Almanac, a publication of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2023/09/great-depression-in-new-york-city/

As the 1920s advanced, the economy soared. But with that dramatic expansion came irrational exuberance and unchecked speculation: stock prices reached levels that had no basis in reality; margin purchases were rampant; banks handed out loans lavishly and imprudently; and giddy product production resulted in a vast oversupply of goods. On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it all came crashing down. This is the story of the Great Depression in New York City.

After an erratic week in which stocks, including blue chip stocks, mostly declined, waves of panicked investors sold off their shares, driving the market ever downward. On that one day, now known as Black Tuesday, the market lost $14 billion in value; over the ensuing week, it erased another $30 billion — eventually suffering the staggering loss of 89.2% over its peak in early September.

Bank failures and business bankruptcies followed, presaging a decade of unprecedented economic hardship. New York City came to be viewed as “the symbolic capital of the Depression, the financial capital where it had started, and the place where its effects were most keenly felt.” Many residents lost their savings, their jobs and their homes. By 1932, half the city’s factories were closed, almost one-third of New Yorkers were unemployed (vs. one-quarter of the rest of the country and over one-half in Harlem), and some 1.6 million residents were on relief. Those who remained employed and therefore ineligible for the dole were often forced to take severe pay cuts.

At the time of the crash, under Mayor Jimmy Walker, there were few centralized municipal services that could be tapped for jobs or rescue: there were no central traffic, highway or public works department; street-cleaning was a function of individual boroughs; there were five separate parks departments; unemployment insurance was non-existent and, in the beginning, the Department of Public Welfare had no funds available. New York City, like most cities, was dependent on charitable institutions and alms houses to succor the poor, the homeless and the hungry. Yet these organizations publicly admitted their inability to meet the heavy demands being made of them.

In March 1930, 35,000 out-of-work protesters marched toward City Hall as part of International Unemployment Day organized by the Communist Party. They were met with violent attack by the New York Police Department. Several years later, it was the Black and Latino population’s turn. In addition to being jobless, they had to deal with blatant discrimination, including exclusion from more than 24 of the city’s trade unions and rejection at public work sites. With tempers boiling, a furious Harlem mob vandalized white-owned stores. Some 4,000 individuals took part, inflicting over $2 million in damages, resulting in 30 hospitalizations and several deaths. While an investigation into discriminatory practices was launched, little came of it and the situation continued unchanged.

Riots in New York flared and petered out. What didn’t peter out was the sheer fight to survive – for the hungry, the need to eat, and for the homeless, the need to find shelter. Breadlines and soup kitchens were one aspect of the fight. People lined up daily in long, snaking queues outside bakeries or pantries to score a ration of day-old bread or thin soup. To hide their humiliation from neighbors, many would leave their homes dressed up as if they were going to work. Once on the line, they just stared straight ahead, refusing to interact with their downtrodden peers — in fact, refusing to admit to themselves where they were.

Thousands evicted from their homes took to living in shacks in parks or backstreets. As more and more homeless joined these camps, they grew into little shantytowns nicknamed “Hoovervilles” in condemnation of the inactivity of President Herbert Hoover to remedy the situation. The largest such settlement was located next to the Reservoir in Central Park. Ironically, many of the Hooverville men were construction tradesmen — bricklayers, stone masons, carpenters — who had helped build the luxury buildings surrounding the park and who now set to building their own shanties out of scavenged materials. Despite the skill and artistry with which these abodes were constructed, they were illegal; so both local and federal authorities regularly raided the settlements, destroying the shelters and scattering their inhabitants.

Conditions were dire and pleading letters from city officials and residents alike piled up in the Mayor’s office. Finally, in October 1930, Jimmy Walker created the Mayor’s Official Committee for Relief of the Unemployed and Needy, and things started to happen. By November there was:

a City Employment Bureau, which obviated the problem of job-seekers having to pay private employment firms;
a stop to the eviction of poor families for rent arrears;
a large-scale investigation by the police to determine needs in all 77 precincts;
a windfall of contributions to unemployment relief from police and other city employees;
an expansion of city lodging facilities; and
a special Cabinet Committee to deal with questions of food, clothing and rent.

In the first eight months of its existence, the Committee raised some $1.6 million. Direct relief funds were paid to 11,000 families, while 18,000 tons of food, including Kosher food, was given out to almost a million families. (Night patrolmen spent a good part of their shifts packing and wrapping these food parcels.) The money also paid for coal, shoes and clothing. Another city agency, the Welfare Council, disbursed over $12 million for relief and emergency work wages. These funds too came from voluntary donations. Private citizens contributed; sports teams organized exhibition matches (for example Notre Dame football vs. the New York Giants); and Broadway staged special benefit performances.

For a while spirits rose and hopes of normalcy returned. But by April 1931, it was clear that private welfare measures and one-off City actions could not keep up with the growing distress. Help was needed and it came from a now-familiar individual — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, not as president, but as Governor of New York State. Despairing of any constructive efforts by the Federal government, Roosevelt, unique among governors to accept liability for his constituents, declared: “upon the State falls the duty of protecting and sustaining those of its citizens who, through no fault of their own, find themselves… unable to maintain life.” By August 1931, foreshadowing elements of the future New Deal, a robust public works program was in effect to reduce unemployment. State income tax was increased by 50% and the Comptroller authorized the issuance of revenue bonds at both the state and local level. Some would say that New York City was in better shape than many other cities. Yet it was still on the critical list.

It wasn’t until 1932, when Walker resigned amid an investigation for graft and Herbert Hoover was voted out of office, that the way was paved for major innovations. Newly elected President FDR embodied the optimism of his catchy campaign song, “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Within a couple of years, he promulgated the historic, blockbuster New Deal, and working in close partnership with newly elected Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, transformed both the country and the City. The “New Deal” New York — the most populous American city with almost seven million residents — was the single greatest beneficiary of the New Deal’s Works Project Administration (WPA) in the entire U.S.

Under the WPA, more than a dozen federal agencies paid for the labor and materials to support hundreds of projects designed to put New Yorkers back to work. The New Deal built housing, schools, courthouses, roads, hospitals and health clinics, libraries, post offices, bridges, and highways. It was the impetus and money behind the Triborough Bridge, LaGuardia Airport, the Lincoln Tunnel, and the East River (FDR) Drive. It also gave the city an extensive system of recreational facilities, including swimming pools, playgrounds, ball fields, hiking trails, and parks.

But construction wasn’t its only recipient. FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins (head of the WPA) recognized that funding culture and practitioners of culture was just as important. (“Hell, they’ve got to eat just like other people,” Hopkins is reported to have said). So, jobless artists, designers, craftsmen and photographers were hired to embellish public spaces with murals and sculptures, while posters publicized other WPA programs, and illustrations, photos and crafts found their way into newly opened galleries and respected museums. Playwrights, writers, actors and singers were paid to create theatrical shows — even Yiddish and German theater. And out-of-work musicians and composers of all stripes (classical, folk, jazz, light opera) were employed to give concerts indoors and out. At the same time, New Deal legislation began strengthening workers’ rights by allowing them to organize, earn a minimum wage and, as discussed below, obtain unemployment compensation and sign up for Social Security.

When Frances Perkins, a fierce advocate of social justice and economic security, was tapped as Secretary of Labor, she brought a list of proposals for FDR’s approval. Among them were unemployment insurance and what she called “old age” insurance. Both of them knew that the development of such programs would encounter many obstacles, not the least of which would be challenges to their constitutionality.

Be that as it may, in 1935, the enabling legislation passed overwhelmingly and FDR authorized the establishment of unemployment insurance and Social Security. And in 1937, the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of levying taxes to fund both programs. IBM won the bid to create the largest and most complicated data processing system ever built. It even designed novel equipment for the unprecedented task of enrolling some 30 million employers and workers, and registering their contributions into the Social Security system for later retirement payouts. According to Perkins, “Nothing [other than the Great Depression] would have bumped the American people into a social security system except something so shocking, so terrifying, as that depression.”

Above and beyond the homeless, 30% of the City’s housed population lived in deteriorating, squalid tenements. There were other slums deemed “unfit for human habitation.” The National Recovery Act of 1933 authorized the clearance of slums, repair of salvageable structures and construction of low cost housing. And the country’s very first “public housing” — a previously unheard of concept — was built in New York under the newly formed New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). The first three public projects were: First Houses, between First Avenue and Avenue A, from Second to Third Streets in the East Village; Williamsburg Houses, Scholes to Maujer Streets, Leonard Street to Bushwick Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Harlem River Houses, Seventh Avenue to Macombs Place, Harlem River Drive, and 151st to 153rd Streets in Harlem. Their public ownership represented a radical step that both created jobs and sheltered people in up-to-date homes. By 1941, nine such projects had been developed in New York City, providing 11,570 units. They are all still with us and the first three have been designated New York City landmarks.

The sheer range of educational programs implemented by the New Deal was remarkable. From kindergarten to college (for example, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, the Merchant Marine Academy in the Bronx), new buildings expanded the student population. Thousands of teachers were hired, and adjunctive programs such as preschool, work-study programs for young people, and vocational classes for adults were instituted. Community education classes were held in libraries, settlement houses, local facilities, trade union halls, park buildings, and even on the radio. There was no end to what a willing individual could learn, including driving, English, home arts, visual arts and new vocational skills. Much of the funds secured for New York City can be directly attributed to LaGuardia’s force of personality. According to Roosevelt, he would show up in Washington “and tell me a sad story. The tears run down my cheeks and tears run down his cheeks and the first thing I know he has wrangled another $50,000,000.”

For many City residents, lack of work had devolved into declining health, malnutrition, and increasing rates of infant mortality. New Deal funding produced new hospitals and neighborhood health clinics. The latter were often located in or near public housing developments and provided free medical and dental care, including immunizations, for all ages. The clinic doctors and nurses also visited homes and schools, and gave classes in healthy living. The clinics even sent housekeepers to help out where parents were ill. Access to regular health care was a first for many New Yorkers and its effects were incontestable: decreased infant mortality, a drop in serious illness and a decline in the suicides that so darkened the Depression years. It took entry into the Second World War to completely obliterate the Great Depression. Tens of thousands of men went off to battle, while the rest of the country was galvanized into full employment by the war effort. Still, the New Deal, with its plethora of alphabet soup subsidiaries, was nothing short of miraculous. It carried the country and New York City through one of the most challenging eras in our history. It transformed the relationship of government to its citizens — embodying a dynamism that has strengthened New York through the years and continues to empower it to this day

Local Connections: WPA Artists

Local Connections: WPA Artists

Susan Zwirn

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)

This is Harlem by Jacob Lawrence

Born in 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Jacob Lawrence moved to Harlem with his family in 1930 where he benefited from WPA projects. He studied art at the WPA Harlem Art Workshop in the New York Public Library’s 135th Street branch while he was still in high school. He continued his studies in art at the Workshop, despite dropping out of school to work part-time to help support his family when his mother lost her job. At the age of 21, he joined the easel division of the WPA and then the WPA Harlem Mural Project. Harlem, a destination for people of African descent from other parts of the U.S. and the Caribbean, provided Lawrence with a continual source of stimulation for his art. During the 1930s and 1940s, one of Lawrence’s major themes was working Americans, and unlike many artists, he created images of female workers, including teachers and domestic workers. The Shoemaker, 1945, is one of his images of men working.

Here, Lawrence depicts the strong physique and concentration of a lone worker, an artisan with powerful arms. Lawrence focuses especially on the man’s hands, rendered in exaggerated size and the largest element in the painting. It’s a serious subject, but Lawrence paints the background in the brilliant and joyous colors and patterns that he had noticed in many poor Harlem homes. Lawrence was well acquainted with the lives of laborers; his mother had been a domestic worker. In 1941 Lawrence was the first African American represented by a major New York City gallery. He was also the first to be exhibited in major museums and to enjoy patronage both within and outside the Black community.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)

In 1932, Lange photographed unemployed men in New York City on food line

Lange, born to German immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, is best known for her photographs taken during the Depression. A childhood case of polio left Lange with a limp that contributed to her sensitivity to the plight of others and her commitment to social justice. Deserted by her father and raised in the home of her alcoholic grandmother, Lange had a lonely childhood. She trained in several photographers’ studios, studied photography at Columbia University, and established a very successful photography studio in San Francisco. Lange’s early photos of labor demonstrations in San Francisco came to the attention of Paul Taylor, an economist at UCLA, who later became her second husband. An advocate for establishing camps for migrant workers, Taylor encouraged Lange to become a photographer for the State Emergency Relief Administration. The potency of these photos prompted Roy Stryker, the director of the Farm Security Administration, an agency that examined issues of rural poverty, to employ Lange in its historical division. Lange’s images became a source of inspiration for John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Her photograph, Migrant Mother, came to epitomize the Depression. This migrant mother was only 32 years old and had just sold the tires from her car to purchase food. Lange’s photographs later documented the injustice of Japanese internment during World War II.

Ben Shahn (1898-1969)

As a young boy Ben Shahn immigrated to the United States with his mother from Lithuania. When he was 14, he left school to become a lithographer’s assistant. He eventually attended New York University, CCNY, the Art Students League, and the National Academy of Design. His study of Jewish traditions, examined while the Depression developed, reinforced a concern for the plight of workers. He became known for his political subject matter, especially his series on the Sacco and Vanzetti court case that grappled with the trial and execution of Italian immigrants. Shahn worked on many WPA projects as both a painter and a photographer, chronicling the relocation of poor families to new federally sponsored communities through the Resettlement Administration. Shahn created a series of murals for a subsistence homesteading community in Roosevelt, New Jersey. The community was founded by the Farm Security Administration in 1936 to house New York City garment workers and their families, who would farm while off from work in the summer.

Shahn mural now housed at Princeton University