Thread by @thebureauco, The Great Depression was the most significant economic decline in the industrialized [...]

THE BUREAU

thebureauco

The Great Depression was the most significant economic decline in the industrialized world. But the images associated with it are usually of rural, White Americans amidst extreme poverty. The reality of Black life at the time remains largely erased (thread)

:Russel Lee, 1938

The Great Depression was the most significant economic decline in the industrialized world. But the images associated with it are usually of rural, White Americans amidst extreme poverty. The reality of Black life at the time remains largely erased (thread):Russel Lee, 1938

The Great Depression devastated Black communities. In 1932, 1/4 of white Americans were unemployed compared to HALF of all Black Americans. In some cities, “Whites called for African Americans to be fired from any job as long as there were whites out of work.”

:Russel Lee, 1938

The Great Depression devastated Black communities. In 1932, 1/4 of white Americans were unemployed compared to HALF of all Black Americans. In some cities, “Whites called for African Americans to be fired from any job as long as there were whites out of work.”:Russel Lee, 1938

Hundreds of thousands of African-American sharecroppers migrated from the rural South to the urban North because of debts incurred during the Great Depression which accelerated the spread of Black people across the country.

:Russel Lee, 1938

Hundreds of thousands of African-American sharecroppers migrated from the rural South to the urban North because of debts incurred during the Great Depression which accelerated the spread of Black people across the country.:Russel Lee, 1938

This migration, coupled with other effects of the Great Depression, came to define our political landscape for decades after. Their experiences laid the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement and shifted the tide towards the Democratic Party after FDR's New Deal

Walker Evans

This migration, coupled with other effects of the Great Depression, came to define our political landscape for decades after. Their experiences laid the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement and shifted the tide towards the Democratic Party after FDR's New DealWalker Evans

History has shown us that economic catastrophes have a profound and disproportionate impact on our communities and this current pandemic is no different. Centering the voices of the most impacted is about more than representation. Now more than ever, erasure is violence.

Read more about the Whitewashing of the Great Depression at the link below. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/whitewashing-the-great-depression/616936/

Whitewashing the Great Depression

How the preeminent photographic record of the period excluded people of color from the nation’s self-image

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/whitewashing-the-great-depression/616936/

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