The term was a derogatory reference to President Herbert Hoover, who many people blamed for allowing the U.S. to fall into economic despair. Life in the encampments remained best described as grim. His records show populations of Japanese, Mexican, Filipino, Native American, Costa Rican, Chilean, and Black men. months[5] = "Explore the interesting, and fascinating selection of unique websites created and produced by the Siteseen network. Usually built on the edges of larger cities, hundreds of thousands of people lived in the many Hooverville camps. The name was a reference to Herbert Hoover who was the President of the United States during the at the start of the Depression and widely blamed for it. Seattle's Hooverville had lasted a full decade.[4]. In 1934, Roy recorded a population of non-White people, including Black men, Costa Rican, Chilean, Filipino, Japanese, Mexican, and. Black and white Americans and immigrants from all over the world shared the camp sites. In turn, a new lexicon came into being -- words like "Hoovervilles," "Hoover blankets" and "Hoover hogs." Most Hoovervilles operated in an informal, unorganized way, but the bigger ones would sometimes put forward spokespersons to serve as a liaison between the camp and the larger community. Homelessness followed quickly from joblessness once the economy began to crumble in the early 1930s. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Response from Health Department (May 23, 1935) To find out more, see our cookie policy. Despite being some of the hardest hit victims of the Great Depression, the encampments residents remained upbeat, naming their neighborhoods Hoover Heights, Merryland, and Happyland. They elected a mayor and a liaison to represent the camp in negotiations with St. Louis authorities. 2 See answers Advertisement jayilych4real Some Hoovervilles had basic public services and conveniences. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images). Americas longest lasting Hooverville in Seattle, Washington, stood for ten years, from 1931 to 1941. They are crowded, dirty, miserable, and they are places where the homeless gather to build temporary homes. Beyond the waters lie two rugged mountain ranges, the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east. "; Some claim to have been made up of men, women, and children, while others claim to only have had men. Excerpt from Health Department Annual Report (1935) Definition and Summary of the Shantytowns and HoovervillesSummary and definition: The Shanty Towns, known as Hoovervilles, sprang up across the nation during the Great Depression (1929 - 1941). To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images. Hoover also received criticism for signing, in June 1930, the controversial Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, which imposed a high tariff on foreign goods in an effort to prevent them from competing with U.S.-made products on the domestic market. Cardboard covering a worn-out shoe sole was 'Hoover leather,' and cars pulled by horses (since no one could afford gasoline) were 'Hoover wagons.'. All rights reserved. People were expected to fend for themselves. This was Port of Seattle property that had been occupied by Skinner and Eddy shipyard during World War I. READ MORE:Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression? However, most buildings were little more than crude shelters thrown together from wooden crates, cardboard boxes, tar paper, scrap metal, and other fire-prone discarded materials. He offers fascinating observations about social mores and culture of the community, including the easy racial relations and tolerance of homosexuality. Definition, Examples, Pros and Cons. The Shanty Town was given the sarcastic nickname 'Hooverville' after President Herbert Hoover who Americans blamed for the Great Depression. Most shanties, however, were distinctly less ambitious: Cardboard-box homes did not last long, and most dwellings were in a constant state of being rebuilt. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation, he wrote of the squalled camp. Hundreds of Hoovervilles were established across the country during the 1930s. Excerpt from "The Story of Hooverville, In Seattle" by Jesse Jackson, Mayor of Hooverville (1935) They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it. Almost 6,000 shanty towns, called Hoovervilles, sprang up in the 1930s. Soup Kitchens in the Great Depression | Bread Lines, Characteristics & History, Gilded Age Politics: Political Machines & Civil Service Reform, Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 | Overview, Summary & History, Massacre at Wounded Knee | Summary & History, AP US History Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans, AP English Literature Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans, DSST A History of the Vietnam War: Study Guide & Test Prep, DSST The Civil War & Reconstruction: Study Guide & Test Prep, Glencoe U.S. History - The American Vision: Online Textbook Help, High School US History Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans, Prentice Hall America: History of our Nation: Online Textbook Help, DSST Environmental Science: Study Guide & Test Prep, Create an account to start this course today. Workers, whether migrant or immigrant, suffered from a lack of jobs making up a large portion of Hooverville. Many other names were coined by Democrats based on his opinion, including Hoover blanket, flag, leather, and wagon. "Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression." ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996. On October 29, 1929, the date known as Black Tuesday, the stock market crashed, signaling the beginning of the Great Depression. Hooverville residents had nowhere else to go, and public sympathy, for the most part, was with them. The camp began when an unemployed lumberjack Spread over nine acres; it housed a population of up to 1,200. University of Washington: The Great Depression in Washington State. He explained that the population was fluid, as men sold their shacks to newcomers and moved on, and at its maximum during the winter months when it reached as hight as 1,200. In 1932, Hooverville was established in Anacostia, District of Columbia, to house a group of WWI veterans seeking expedited benefits, dubbed the Bonus Army. A survey located 1687 shacks in five substantial colonies and many smaller ones. Shantytowns and Hoovervilles: Herbert Hoover was the 31st American President who served in office from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933. When a new mayor took office in 1932, owing his election in part to support of the Unemployed Citizen's League, Seattle's Hooverville gained a measure of official tolerance that allowed it to survive and grow. Odd pieces of wood, stones, loose boards, crates, cardboard, scraps of other materials, old bricks and parts of boxes. However, their request was denied by Congress and Hoover ordered them evicted. WATCH VIDEO: How Artists Helped End the Great Depression. The homeless clustered in shanty towns close to free soup kitchens. In his famous novel the Joad family briefly settles into a Hooverville in California. Seattle was also the location of seven other shantytowns. Longley, Robert. Politicians continued drinking as everyday people were slapped with charges. One-fourth of all workers were unemployed. [2], However, not every Hooverville fits this description. Many people turned to farming, and grew the food themselves, like fruits, vegetables, cattle, chickens, sheep, and hogs. Roosevelts recovery program, known as the New Deal, eventually reduced unemployment, regulated banking and helped turn the ailing economy around with public works projects and other economic programs. The Seattle City Council decided to close Hooverville in May 1941, despite the increased reliance on it for shelter. However, some countries retaliated by raising their tariffs, and international trade was hampered. They were built by unemployed impoverished Americans that had been made homeless and had nowhere else to live. The highly unpopular Hoover was defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal recovery programs eventually helped lift the United States out of the Depression. Thousands of World War I veterans, calling themselves the Bonus Army, had arrived in the nation's capital to demand early payment of a bonus they had been promised at the end of the war. Nearly 29 percent of the population was non-white. Early Hooverville was burned down twice by Seattle police, but its residents continued to rebuild small houses. "; By the early 1940s, Roosevelts New Deal programs had turned the economy around and many of the Hoovervilles had been abandoned and demolished. The Hoovervilles varied in size from just a few shacks clustered together to communities of over 1000 rickety shacks covering acres of unused or public lands. months[8] = "This website is produced by the Siteseen network that specializes in producing free informative websites on a diverse range of topics. [4] Most of these unemployed residents of the Hoovervilles relied on public charities or begged for food from those who had housing during this era. "Hoovervilles" were hundreds of crude campgrounds built across the United States by poverty stricken people who had lost their homes because of the Great Depression of the 1930s. While the goal of the tariffs was to protect U.S.-made products from foreign competition, most countries retaliated by raising their tariffs on U.S. goods. Reasons for Homelessness: Homeowners lost their houses when they could not pay mortgages or pay taxes. Today the nine acre site is used to unload container ships. Photos from shantytowns across the country show images of families, including women and children, dwelling in their makeshift home. Why was the Shanty Town called a Hooverville? Police officers doused the little structures with kerosene and lit them as spectators watched. Businesses made huge profits, but average workers wages did not rise at the same rate. When most of the veterans refused to leave their shacks, Hoover ordered his Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur to drive them out. var months = new Array(12); Over the next several read more, Disenchantment with Prohibition had been building almost from the moment it first took effect in 1920. The Red Scare of the 1920s History & Overview | What was the First Red Scare? During the Great Depression, other Hoovervilles were built in. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them. Facts About Hoovervilles The term Hooverville came from the blame on President Herbert Hoover for the intolerable economic and social conditions. Its unofficial mayor was Jesse Jackson, who led the city in tolerating the homeless and imposed lax building and sanitation regulations. As the Depression worsened and millions of families lost their jobs and depleted their savings, they also lost their homes. Some Hoovervilles were dotted with vegetable gardens, and some individual shacks contained furniture a family had managed to carry away upon eviction from their former home. var current_date = new Date(); month_value = current_date.getMonth(); day_value = current_date.getDate(); year_value = current_date.getFullYear(); document.write( months[month_value] ); was the 31st American President who served in office from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933. The photograph dates from about 1932 to 1937. He had first achieved fame during World War I when he ran the U.S. Food Administration, and his. St. Louis Hooverville, built in 1930, had its own unofficial mayor, churches and social institutions. Trade policies made the Great Depression worse. Tacoma had a large encampment that spanned six blocks. Hoover leather referred to cardboard or newspaper used to replace worn-out shoe soles. The reaction to all of this was often characterized by a grim sort of humor, sometimes represented by popular songs like the 1930's 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' "; After 1940, all of Hooverville were destroyed as the economy recovered and the unemployment rate fell eventually. This pattern became associated with Oklahoma because that state provided a plurality of migrants from 1935 to 1940, the peak of the phenomenon. Where were Hoovervilles situated? Exhibit B: Location and Number of Shacks (March 5, 1941) A Brief Look at the U.S. Department of Labor. Unemployed masons used cast-off stone and bricks and in some cases built structures that stood 20 feet high. See the fact file below for more information on the Hoovervilles, or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Hooverville worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment. The decision led to the establishment of the Shack Elimination Committee by the City Council. "Hooverville" became a common term for shacktowns and homeless encampments during the Great Depression. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis: Chapters 1-5 | Summary & Analysis, Themes in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Examples & Analysis, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Summary & Characters of Bud, Not Buddy, Bud's Rules in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Significance & Analysis, Vietnamization Policy & Significance | Nixon's Plan to Withdraw American Forces. Donald Francis Roy, a resident of Seattles Hooverville, recorded 639 residents, only 7 of whom were women. Hoover Pullmans were rusted railroad boxcars used as dwellings. But they eventually returned because they had nowhere else to go, and they were soon allowed to stay, owing to public sympathy. Follow the Great Depression Project/ Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project on Facebook. Encampments and shantytowns often referred to as tent citieswith similarities to Hoovervillesbegan appearing in parts of California, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Washington and other states. Interesting Facts About the Great Depression The stock market lost almost 90% of its value between 1929 and 1933. "; [3] Men, women and children alike lived in Hoovervilles. Hoovervilles In the 1930s, Hoovervilles (shantytowns) formed coast to coast in cities of the United States. A 'Hoover blanket' was a newspaper, covering a homeless man on a city bench; a 'Hoover flag' was a turned-out pants pocket, a sure sign of pennilessness. Hoovervilles: Some 200,000 migrant farmers relocated to California. Though Hoover later agreed that MacArthur had used excessive force, irreparable damage to his presidency and legacy had been done. Most were unemployed laborers and timber workers, few of whom had held any jobs in the previous two years. Hoovervilles began to disappear after the election of Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal promised to put the federal government into activist mode to try to end the Great Depression. The easiest way to travel across the country was by train and Shantytowns, nicknamed 'Hobo Jungles' sprang up by most city railroad stations. Probably the most famous Hooverville was the one founded on Anacostia Flats, just outside Washington, D.C., in 1932. Some shelters were little more than holes in the ground covered with tin or cardboard. Source for information on Okies: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. The publics frustration with President Hoovers refusal to deal with the Depression peaked in the spring of 1932 when an estimated 15,000 World War I veterans and their families established a Hooverville along the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. 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