Black Tuesday Essay - 796 Words

On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the United States stock market suddenly and completely collapsed. This event is known as Black Tuesday and is attributed by many historians to be the start of the worst financial crisis in U.S. history, The Great Depression. The Great Crash itself had a devastating impact. Hundreds of banks failed, and because bank deposits were uninsured, their depositors lost some or all of their money. â€Å"Frightened customers drew their savings from solvent banks, forcing them to close.†1 And that was just the beginning. Government’s response to the Great Depression changed the lives of non-elite members of society. It changed them negatively at first. Herbert Hoover’s strategies for fixing the economy failed and drove these†¦show more content†¦On top of this people were losing their jobs very rapidly. The national unemployment rate was nearly twenty five percent. This forced many families out of their homes and onto the streets. â₠¬Å"By 1930 homeless people had built shantytowns in most of the nation’s cities. In New York City, squatters camped out along the Hudson River railroad tracks, built makeshift homes in Central Park, or lived at the city dump.†2 Many citizens began to call these shantytowns â€Å"Hoovervilles.† Another common sight during the Great Depression was a long line at a local soup kitchen. Men and women would come from miles just to get a meal that they otherwise could not afford. Things did not begin looking up for the non-elite members of society until after the 1932 election. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or FDR as he came to be known, promised big changes. He delivered. With his plan for economic reform that he called The New Deal, FDR attacked the nation’s financial problems head on. By setting up a number of federal agencies, FDR provided over four million non-elite people with jobs, and used federal funds to stimulate the economy. All of this combined halted the downward progression of the economy and began rebuilding it. 2 James A. Henretta, America A Concise History. (New York: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010) 694 The creation of a minimum wage law now prevented companies from paying unfair wages to its employees. Because of this, working class families were now able toShow MoreRelatedBlack Tuesday : Black Friday2509 Words   |  11 PagesBlack Friday has multiple reasons for it being named â€Å"Black Friday†. It traces back to the 1950’s when it was called â€Å"Black Friday† because of the surplus amounts of call-ins for employees trying to score a four-day weekend after Thanksgiving. In Philadelphia during 1961, the Friday after Thanksgiving was called Black Friday because it was the day when stores were coming out of the â€Å"red†, which was the downward shopping period between July and August. This was the biggest time retailors saw theRead MoreBlack Tuesday865 Words   |  4 PagesThe stock market crash, October 29, 1929 this is also known as Black Tuesday. The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America and Europe. The industrialized Weste rn world had experienced the most ruthless and prolonged depression. Cinderella Man is only one example of how families struggle and overcame the great depression. You will see how this effective many Americans. Why the stock market crashed, was due to two factors, economic and financial. 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