1. Name the states, along with their capitals that lead to the Dust Bowl.
These are the main midwest states involved in the dust bowl.
South Dakota --- Pierre
Nebraska --- Omaha
Kansas --- Topeka
Oklahoma --- Oklahoma city
Texas --- Austin
New Mexico --- Santa Fe
Colorado --- Denver
Wyoming --- Cheyenne
2. What contributed to what we call the ‘Black Blizzard?”
Poor agriculture and farming methods. Sun spots and higher than average temperatures sometimes over130 degrees.
Winds would stir up the dust and it would blow for days even weeks, causing great clouds of dirt. These times were called the "dirty thirties."
3. What was President Roosevelt’s opening statement at his 2nd Inaugural Address.
The Second Inaugural Address
January 20, 1937
WHEN four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic, single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here. We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a vision - to speed the time when there would be for all the people that security and peace essential to the pursuit of happiness. We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it; to end by action, tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day. We did those first things first.
4. Unlike former President Hoover, what did President Roosevelt feel was the governments duty towards the American people?
The beginning of the depression started with the crash of the stock market in 1929. People were out of work. The banks failed and bread and soup lines formed to feed the hungry people. Shanty towns were set up in city parks across the nation. They were called “”Hoovervilles””.
The Hoover Administration got the blame for the Great Depression. And rightly so. The Republicans did not believe that the out of work people deserved government support.
Franklin D. Roosevelt believed that it was the governments responsibility to assist the people. He won the election in 1928 with programs called the New Deal.
There were a number of work projects to get America back to work. Many very successful, like irrigation projects, Rural electrification projects, CCC Civilian Construction Corps that built roads and trails for the forest service. The WPA built government buildings, libraries, city halls, court houses, bridges and roads. All of these project put people back to work. But World War Two really got America out of the depression.
5. Explain the purpose of the WPA. http://www.wpamurals.com/
Is such a program needed today? Yes
New Deal Art During the Great Depression
On May 6, 1935, the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) was created to help provide economic relief to the citizens of the United States who were suffering through the Great Depression. The artistic community had already become inspired during the 1920s and '30s by the revitalization of the Italian Renaissance fresco style by the inspired creations of Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueriros. Certain visionary U.S. politicians decided to combine the creativity of the new art movements with the values of the American people. The Federal Art Project was one of the divisions of the W.P.A. created under Federal Project One. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made several attempts prior to the F.A.P. to provide employment for artists on relief, namely the Public Works of Art Project (P.W.A.P.) which operated from 1933 to 1934 and the Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture which was created in 1934 after the demise of the P.W.A.P. However, it was the F.A.P. which provided the widest reach, creating over 5,000 jobs for artists and producing over 225,000 works of art for the American people.
It is this legacy of the thousands of workers who labored at their craft for little money but great pride which we have to inspire us today. Although many of these works of art have been destroyed or stolen, those that remain must be preserved. They stand as a reminder of a time in our country’s history when dreams were not allowed to be destroyed by economic disaster.