A TIME OF DESPAIR
A look back at the devastation of the Great Depression in pictures and words
During the Roaring ’20s, the nation was riding high, and so was the stock market. America was the land of productivity and plenty, where wages were rising and prices were falling. But Americans intoxicated by new wealth were blind to an economic bubble that was quickly approaching the bursting point.
of nation was 1929, Oct. Stock plummeted, investors the selling days The falling the 24, which Exchange of into some seminal in prices stock the chased late values, the unfolded and 13 Great market October. on devastating event the Depression New that crash over Starting led York a deprivation of series the on million wildest the of stock last afternoon, the “One hectic fifty exchange New shares. scenes of minutes history the when York in occurred terrified of trading in investors this the 2,600,000 disposal,” into jammed the the shares pit Chicago a for of total all emergency Daily descriptions of Tribune One losses reported estimate at $4 billion. later pegged that single-day evening.
residents Shoulders In true of Midwestern responded the City of with fashion, the Broad stoicism: losses “Chicagoans in yesterday’s took stock their market battle and gentlemen,” like soldiers the and Tribune like ladies wrote. The collapsing stock market hit
“We could survive. We knew how to live off the land.” Mike Natale, who grew up in an Italian neighborhood on the Near West Side
bottom the following Tuesday, infamously known as “Black Tuesday,” as 16 million shares were shed at declining prices. The aftershocks over the next few weeks wiped out $30 billion in asset values.
During the depths of the Great Depression in the mid-1930s, 16 million people — or one-third of the American workforce at the time — were out of work. And those who were lucky enough to remain employed lived in daily fear of losing their jobs. Economic conditions fueled outrage and despair. Homeless encampments, bread and soup lines, and people begging for alms were tragically common sights.
As the 90th anniversary of the stock market crash passes us by, here is a look back in photos — and the words of people who grew up in Chicago and the surrounding area during that dark chapter in American history, as told to Tribune reporter John Keilman in 2015.
“We got food packages that contained rice, oatmeal, sauerkraut, beans. Oh God, beans. We’d have beans three times a week.” Lucille Holst, whose family lost its hardware store and had to leave its roomy South Side house for a Northwest Side two-flat “I don’t see why it couldn’t (happen again).” Betty Shoemaker, who as a child in Logan Square watched as her father devolved into despair over losing his accounting job and witnessed her neighbors being forced from their homes
“I doubt if many of (the younger generation) could make it if it was as tough as it was then.” Jack Montgomery, who grew up on a southern Indiana farm
“We went to the Union National Bank … and the bank president came out with a bullhorn and said, ‘Come back in a week and I’ll give you a penny on the dollar.’ And I just saw my grandfather’s face drop.” Donald Meade, whose family lived in Joliet at the time
“Three (people) in a bed. … What else could you do? You didn’t know any different.” Genevieve Carrano, about conditions at home on the South Side