 |
| 1936 |
 March -- Photographer Dorothea Lange visits a pea-pickers' camp in
California's San Joaquin Valley and takes photographs of harvest workers. The
images, especially those in the "Migrant Mother Series," vividly illustrated the plight
of the workers. The San Francisco News ran the photo essay under the headline,
"Ragged, Hungry, Broke, Harvest Workers Live in Squallor (sic)." |
| October -- The San Francisco News publishes a series of articles written
by John Steinbeck called "The Harvest Gypsies." The series explored the
hardships faced by those living and working in migrant labor camps. Steinbeck
wrote, "...One has only to go into the squatters' camps where the families live
on the ground and have no homes...to look at the strong purposeful faces, often
filled with pain...to know that this new race is here to stay and that heed
must be taken of it." |
| November -- FDR is elected to his second term as president, winning every
state in the Union except Maine and Vermont. FDR defeated Kansas Governor
Alfred M. Landon. |
| 1937 |
January -- United Automobile Workers strike at the General Motors Plant in Flint, Michigan. The strike turned violent when strikers clashed with
company-hired police.
|
| May -- Ten people are killed and a dozen more are wounded in the "Memorial Day Massacre" at Republic Steel's South Chicago plant. Workers and their families had tried to combine a picnic with a rally and demonstration. |
 March -- The slow economic recovery made possible by New Deal programs
suffers a setback as unemployment rises. FDR's detractors called it the start
of the "Roosevelt recession." |
| 1938 |
April -- FDR asks Congress to authorize 3.75 billion in
federal spending to stimulate the sagging economy. Economic indicators
responded favorably over the next few months. Still, unemployment remained high
and was predicted to stay that way for some time. |
| 1940 |
November -- Franklin Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented third
term as president, defeating Wendell Willkie. FDR's victory is seen as proof of
the nation's support of his war policies. Roosevelt was lobbying Congress to
pass the Lend-Lease Act, which would aid Britain in its struggle to fend off
Germany. In little over a year, following Japan's December 1941 bombing of
Pearl Harbor, the U.S. would enter the war in the Pacific and in
Europe.
The war effort jump-started U.S. industry and effectively ended
the Great Depression.
|
1929 - 1932 | 1933 - 1935 | 1936 - 1940
|
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