The Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to the early 1940s, was the worst economic struggles in history. It started in the United States, but it affected millions of families worldwide who lost their jobs, money, and homes.
Before the Depression, the 1920s were an exciting time. People went to parties, listened to jazz music, and bought new items like cars. However, many people bought things on credit, which means they spent money they did not actually have. This caused a big problem because businesses kept making new things, but regular people could not afford to keep buying them.
October 29, 1929 we call Black Tuesday. On that day the stock market crashed. The stock market is a place where people buy small pieces of businesses. When it crashed, millions of people who had their money there lost almost all of it. Because people were scared, they ran to the banks to take their cash out. That caused the banks to run out of money and they had to close.
At the time, Herbert Hoover was the President of the United States. He believed the economy would fix itself quickly and did not want the government to directly help struggling people. Because of this, many people blamed him for the bad times. People who had no money turned their empty pants pockets inside out, calling them “Hoover flags”. Families who lost their homes built little towns out of tents and scraps, calling them “Hoovervilles”.
It was a very hard time for parents who struggled to feed their children. African Americans faced even greater hardships, as many were unfairly fired from their jobs so those jobs could be given to white workers. By 1930, more than half of all African American workers in the country were out of a job.