Causes of the Stock Market Crash
Many people said the reason the stock market crashed was because so many people were buying stocks that they got overly expensive and everyone wanted to keep selling and people started to stop buying them. Eventually it reached the point to where everyone wanted to sell and no one was buying. It started with black Thursday. At first they averaged 4 million shares sold per day, then on Thursday they sold a record 12.9 million shares. The stock market settled over the weekend. but then on black Monday, they went back up to 9.25 million shares sold. Then the final blow was Black Tuesday, 16.4 million shares were sold, which plummeted the stock markets value.
Causes of the Great Depression
The main reason believed to be caused by the crash of the stock market. Another major reason was the failing of many banks in 1929 which cause many people to be completely out of money. People didn't have as much money, so people stopped buying as many items. which in return caused a 25% unemployment rate in the U.S.
Depression in the cities
Many people in cities lost their jobs and weren't able to pay rent so the were evicted from their homes. People had to resort to living in parks or even sewer pipes. They had to cover themselves with newspapers to fend off the cold. Other people with a more creative ability made makeshift shacks out of old rusted cars, tin, metal, and other scraps that they could find. Soon after, "shanty towns" started showing up everywhere. For food, people dug through trash cans and begged everyone for anything they could get. Non-profit organizations also showed up everywhere. People tried to get donations from people with money so they could provide food to the poor and homeless.
There was also increasing racial violence to African Americans and Latinos. By 1933, 24 African Americans had been lynched. In case your wondering, Lynching is the illegal execution of someone by an outraged mob of people. The Latinos were subject to racism in the way of people accusing them of stealing their jobs. Whites wanted all Mexicans, even ones born in the United States, to be deported to Mexico or other Latin countries. By the late 1930's, Hundreds of thousands of Latinos had been moved to Mexico or other Latin countries. Some were deported and others did it voluntarily because of all of the racial tension.
Sources:
Us History Book E-edition
http://museumca.org/picturethis/timeline/depression-era-1930s/integration/info
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/greatdepression.htm
Comments
A bit brief on the causes of the Depression and no personal thoughts. Otherwise, good.