Macro View

1. The Great Depression

The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries. It was the largest and most severe economic depression in the 20th century, and is used in the 21st century as an example of how far the world's economy can decline. The Great Depression originated in the United States; historians most often use a starting date of when the stock market crashed of October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

The play is set during one of the hardest times to live in our country, so that effects the entire setting of the play in terms of what things should look like and how personal belongings should be valued.

2. Klu Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan was active in the South during the 1930s on a much smaller scale than it had been in the previous decade, having reached its peak in 1925. It still threatened blacks to keep them from voting and were particularly active against trade union organizers. It was reported that the Klan were violent in their attempts to break up strikes, resorting to beating the picketers and going into the Union Halls with guns to break up the meetings.

The Great Depression of the 1930s saw the Ku Klux Klan diminish to a fraction of its former self. Households barely had enough to eat so there were no funds for Klan dues and costumes. By the beginning of World War II the Klan was non-existent except in the minds of the former members.

http://www.helium.com/items/1130837-the-ku-klux-klan-in-the-1930s

The Ku Klux Klan had almost disappeared during the time of this play, but as stated above the idealism that the group had did not go away. The only reason it stopped was that times were hard, so many people were still extremely racist but just did not belong to an organization stating so.

3. Black and White Women finding Jobs during The Great Depression

During the Great Depression, women made up 25% of the work force, but their jobs were more unstable, temporary or seasonal then men, and the unemployment rate was much greater. There was also a decided bias and cultural view that “women didn’t work” and in fact many who were employed full time often called themselves “homemakers.” Neither men in the workforce, the unions, nor any branch of government were ready to accept the reality of working women, and this bias caused females intense hardship during the Great Depression.
The 1930’s was particularly hard on single, divorced or widowed women, but it was harder still on women who weren’t White. Women of color had to overcome both sexual and racial stereotyping. Black women in the North suffered an astounding 42.9% unemployment, while 23.2%. of White women were without work according to the 1937 census. In the South, both Black and White women were equally unemployed at 26%. In contrast, the unemployment rate for Black and White men in the North (38.9%/18.1%) and South (18%/16% respectively) were also lower than female counterparts.

The financial situation in Harlem was bleak even before the Great Depression. But afterward, the emerging Black working class in the North was decimated by wholesale layoffs of Black industrial workers. To be Black and a woman alone, made keeping a job or finding another one nearly impossible. The racial work hierarchy replaced Black women in waitressing or domestic work, with White women, now desperate for work, and willing to take steep wage cuts.

Survival EntrepreneursAt the start of the Depression, while one study found that homeless women were most likely factory and service workers, domestics, garment workers, waitresses and beauticians; another suggested that the beauty industry was a major source of income for Black women. These women, later known as “survivalist entrepreneurs,” became self-employed in response to a desperate need to find an independent means of livelihood.”
Replaced by White women in more traditional domestic work as cooks, maids, nurses, and laundresses, even skilled and educated Black women were so hopeless, ‘‘that they actually offered their services at the so-called ‘slave markets’—street corners where Negro women congregated to await White housewives who came daily to take their pick and bid wages down’’ (Boyd, 2000 citing Drake and Cayton, 1945/1962:246). Moreover, the home domestic service was very difficult, if not impossible, to coordinate with family responsibilities, as the domestic servant was usually on call ‘‘around the clock’’ and was subject to the ‘‘arbitrary power of individual employers.’’

http://www.peakoilblues.com/blog/?p=1139

The character of Calpurnia is that of a colored nanny. This job would have been common for black women in that time due to the fact that there were few jobs and women were only thought of as housekeepers.

4. Education during The Great Depression

During the Great Depression years not only did people suffer from lack of jobs, money, homes, and food, but the education of children suffered also. Children dropped out of school to sell newspapers and shine shoes. Students were also forced to wear worn out, mended clothes and were too embarrassed to go to school. People couldn't pay their property taxes so school districts were lacking funds. Few teachers were hired and there wasn't enough money to buy books and supplies. Students were forced to use worn textbooks which sometimes had pages missing. Students were forced to bring their own supplies to school. Since many parents couldn't afford to buy these supplies, students dropped out.Schools were forced to drop classes like home economics, physical education, art, and foreign languages. Just the basic courses of reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught. By 1933 many public schools closed, leaving three million students with no school to go to. Teachers were paid a flat fee regardless of experience or education. Many rural schoolteachers only had a high school diploma and were sixteen years old when they began teaching. Many teachers during this time had their salaries cut or were paid in script. Some teachers received only room and board as compensation. Rural schoolteachers would live in the schoolhouse and cooked their food on a wood stove. In the 1930s some city schools started what were called progressive classrooms. In these classrooms teachers let the students choose what subjects they wanted to learn. Teachers rarely used the standard textbooks and let the students work in small groups doing art and science projects and learning songs and dances. Many parents were against these progressive classrooms. They wanted their children to learn the basics like reading, writing, and arithmetic.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/549487/education_during_the_great_depression.html?cat=37

This would be good to know on how educated Scout and Jem were in the school they attended, and to know how their knowledge varied from the older people of the town.

5. Healthcare of the Great Depression

Malnutrition and tuberculosis were two diseases that were prevelent during the Great Depression.
Health care was directly related to income and with up to 25% of the population unemployed, health care was relatively unattainable for the poor.
An American Health Dilemma, a book, pages 132- 133
The 1930's, A Time for Depression (http://www.kidsnewsroom.org/elmer/infoCentral/frameset/decade/1930.htm)

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_health_issues_during_the_Great_Depression

It is important to know the concerns of health in that day and if Atticus's family could afford it if anything were to happen to him or his family, like when Scout and Jem are attacked by Bob Ewell.

6. Popular Culture during The Great Depression

The popular culture of the 1930s was fraught with contradictions. It was, simultaneously, a decade of traditionalism and of modernist experimentation; of sentimentality and "hard-boiled" toughness; of longings for a simpler past and fantastic dreams of the future.
It was a decade in which many Americans grew increasingly interested in tradition and folk culture. Under the leadership of Alan Lomax, the Library of Congress began to collect folk songs. Plus, folk singers like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger attracted large audiences.
Henry Ford, who had revolutionized the American landscape through the mass production of cars, devoted his energies and fortune to a new project: Greenfield Village, a collection of historic homes and artifacts located near Detroit. At the same time, the Rockefeller family restored colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=481

During this time people wanted a lot of things; they wanted to move forward and out of the depression, but to also hang on to simple traditions of the past. People were interested in their past and wanted to dream about their future.

7. Prices of Things during The Great Depression

Prices
WOMEN'S CLOTHES

Winter Coat
$28.00

Leather or Suede Bag
$2.25

Bathrobe
$1.00

Sweater
$1.00

MEN'S CLOTHES

Broadcloth Shirt
$1.00

Wool Sweater
$1.00

Bathrobe
$4.90

Overcoat
$18.50

GAMES AND TOYS

Sled that Steers
$3.95 - $8.95

Ping Pong Table
$23.50 to $37.50

Mechanical Toys
3 for$.59

Doll
$1.95

ITEMS FOR THE HOME

Table Lamp
$1.00

Portable Electric Sewing Machine
$23.95

Electric Washing Machine
$33.50

Gas Stove
$19.95


Then: Wages
WEEKLY WAGES (general averages)

Manufacturing--Production Worker
$16.89

Cook
$15.00

Doctor
$61.11

Accountant
$45.00

http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-15481_19268_20778-52530--,00.html

It is good to keep in mind how much each person in the town made and how they needed to spend that money.

8. Number of Lawyers During The Great Depression

At the end of the 19th century, the American Bar Association set out to turn lawyering into a profession, with the idea that increased status would generate higher fees. To accomplish this, it fashioned a code of ethics and urged states to adopt minimum educational requirements and a professional entrance (bar) examination for anyone who wanted to call himself a lawyer.By the late 1920s, most states had fallen into line.But to make the practice of law more lucrative, it wasn’t enough just to raise the professional image of lawyers. It was also crucial to keep accountants, insurance companies, bankers and just plain business folk from practicing law at cheaper rates. So, soon after the 1929 stock market crash made times even tougher for attorneys, the ABA began a successful push to establish a lawyer monopoly over lawyering. But unfortunately, instead of clearly defining the practice of law in language all could understand (and competitors could resist), ABA rules gave state court judges (lawyers all) the power to enforce the new lawyer monopoly on a case-by-case basis. As you might guess, this resulted in little joy for non lawyer practitioners. Non lawyers in the gray area of whether an activity was considered the practice of law could not take a chance as it was not defined.As the Great Depression deepened, lawyers faced with dwindling legal business pressured criminal prosecutors and state judicial authorities to go to court to close down non lawyer practitioners. Judges apparently eager to support the interest of their professional brethren soon banned non lawyers from handling all matter of activities that they had performed for decades, including real estate closings, title searches, negotiating insurance settlements and providing tax advice. By the onset of World War II, lawyers had successfully carved out a legal monopoly that would remain securely and profitably in their hands for decades. And legal reform became difficult.

http://www.legalreform-now.org/menu1_4.htm

It is good to know how many lawyers were practicing during the time of Atticus, so we can see how his career was doing during that time. The more demand for lawyers, the better he would be. Because many people were just calling themselves lawyers, I'm sure it hurt his career.

9. The Dust Bowl

Between 1930 and 1940, the southwestern Great Plains region of the United States suffered a severe drought. Once a semi-arid grassland, the treeless plains became home to thousands of settlers when, in 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act. Most of the settlers farmed their land or grazed cattle. The farmers plowed the prairie grasses and planted dry land wheat. As the demand for wheat products grew, cattle grazing was reduced, and millions more acres were plowed and planted.
Dry land farming on the Great Plains led to the systematic destruction of the prairie grasses. In the ranching regions, overgrazing also destroyed large areas of grassland. Gradually, the land was laid bare, and significant environmental damage began to occur. Among the natural elements, the strong winds of the region were particularly devastating.
With the onset of drought in 1930, the overfarmed and overgrazed land began to blow away. Winds whipped across the plains, raising billowing clouds of dust. The sky could darken for days, and even well-sealed homes could have a thick layer of dust on the furniture. In some places, the dust drifted like snow, covering farm buildings and houses. Nineteen states in the heartland of the United States became a vast dust bowl. With no chance of making a living, farm families abandoned their homes and land, fleeing westward to become migrant laborers.

http://memory.loc.gov/learn//features/timeline/depwwii/dustbowl/dustbowl.html

It is nice to know what major concerns were going on during that time, especially with farming which was a major industry during The Depression.

10. Crime Rate During The Great Depression

From 1930 to 1932, in the early years of the Great Depression and nearing the end of Prohibition, a spike in crime swept the country because of turf battles between bootleggers and disorderly conduct among their customers, McCrie said.

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/statistics-point-increase-crime-during-recessions

You should know that the crime rate spiked during The Great Depression because it shows why the neighbors all watch eachother's houses besides being nosy.