Document 22.5 Ann Marie Low, Dust Bowl Diary, 1934
Document 22.6 John P. Davis, A Black Inventory of the New Deal, 1935
Document 22.7 A Sharecropper’s Family in Washington County, Arkansas, 1935
Document 22.8 Martin Torres, Protest Against Maltreatment of Mexican Laborers in California, 1934
Document 22.9 Otis Nation, Testimony to the Great Plains Committee, 1937
Interpret the Evidence
What does Ann Marie Low’s description of a typical day suggest about the particular challenges women faced during the Dust Bowl era (Document 22.5)?
According to John P. Davis (Document 22.6), why did the New Deal’s AAA fail to help black farmers? How much of the problem was structural and how much resulted from racial prejudice?
In the photograph of the Arkansas family (Document 22.7), how do the subjects seem to react to the Great Depression? Compare their plight to that of black sharecroppers.
Why did unions in Mexico believe that Mexican farmworkers in California would receive assistance from the federal government (Document 22.8)? Compare their assumptions with Davis’s (Document 22.6).
According to the Great Plains Committee testimony (Document 22.9), what role did human-caused factors play in producing the misery that accompanied the dust storms of the early 1930s?
Put It in Context
What do these documents tell us about the challenges rural Americans faced during the Great Depression and their expectations regarding government help?
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