Information About the Great Depression, New Deal, the Great Society, and the War on Poverty Essay Example for Free

Information About the Great Depression, New Deal, the Great Society, and the War on Poverty Essay The Great Depression was a time of great suffering in American history. Remarkably it was a time that marked the American people and the country was able to emerge shining and stronger than ever. The Great Depression began in 1929 when in the month of October the stock market crashed and fourteen billion dollars were lost. In just one week, thirty billion dollars were gone. This loss was so monumental because it was ten times the average annual budget of the United States. The depression struck hard at all the industries in the United States. This left thousands and thousands of people jobless and even homeless. The first industries to be affected were construction and production. Soon after, the agricultural industry was hit hard. Over 750,000 farms were lost due to how the price of crops dropped drastically which ended up bankrupting the farmers. The unemployment rate was at 25%, the highest ever in American history. The population took yet another devastating blow with lack of food and illness due to inability to pay for medical care. President Hoover lost the election to Franklin D. Roosevelt because the American public considered Hoover to be incapable of handling the crisis. The Great Depression ended up carrying on until the second world war. Recently the United States faced something very close to the Great Depression. The stock market crashed again and millions of jobs were lost. Prices rose and Americans were headed for a slump that would take a long time to recover from. Ever so slowly the economy began to move forward again. But to this day the economy is still crippled and the American people are still paying for it. The New Deal was a series of economic programs that were implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. The man responsible for the New Deal was none other than Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal was a response to the Great Depression and mainly focused on Relief for the unemployment and the poor, Recovery of the economy, and Reform of the financial system to prevent another depression. These three R’s were what drove it to be approved by Congress. The New Deal managed to decrease unemployment greatly by the 1940’s and put out many different programs and organizations that are still present today that help move the United States forward. The main focus of President Kennedy’s administration was to confront poverty. Kennedy began by putting 2 billion dollars to urban renewal and gave federal rewards to companies who moved to the newly renewed areas. The War on Poverty was a governmental effort to stop the problem of persistent poverty in the U.S. the poverty rate in the U.S. was at 24%. In 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson declared a metaphorical war on poverty and new plans and programs were put out to help the poverty rate. The Great Society began when Johnson defeated the Republicans in 1964. His agenda consisted of taking care of the matters of discrimination, poverty, education, healthcare, housing, and consumer and environmental protections. The â€Å"Great Society† was a set of domestic programs promoted by Johnson and the Democrats. The Elementary Secondary Schools Act passed in 1965 was the first time the federal government was involved in public education. It gave government funds to high risk schools. The Higher Education Act put forth new buildings, programs, scholarships, and grants. The National Housing Act if 1968 increased low income housing by 1.7 million. The Civil Rights movement was an important time during American history. It was a time where American minorities conducted protested that won them rights and put a stop to racism in the United States. monumental individuals like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X helped a lot in spreading the word about racial equality. The African American communities all around the country protested for equality. Some whites went to extremes and resorted to violence that led to many murders of the African American people and even the assassination of Martin Luther King. The Native Americans also had an influential movement where they seized Alcatraz and occupied it. Their motive was to protest the first discovery of America and to establish a native American identity. Meanwhile the fastest growing minority in the United States, the Latinos, were also trying to establish equality.