S.S. Study Sheet - The Great Depression Test

Black Tuesday – October 29 a stampede of selling hit the N.Y.S.E
Great Depression – worst period of economic decline in United States history, beginning in 1929 and lasted until World War II.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation – loaned money to railroads, banks, and insurance companies to help them stay in business.
Bonus Army – jobless veterans traveled to the capital as cheaply as possible.
Capital – money raised for a business venture.
Bankrupt – unable to pay debts.
Relief program – government program to help the needy.
Soup chicken – place where food is provided to the needy at little or no charge.
Public works – projects built by the government for public use.
Bonus – additional sum of money.
Franklin Roosevelt – Democrats New York governor; ran for president in 1932
Eleanor Roosevelt – married to FDR in 1905; a niece of Theodore Roosevelt.
Frances Perkins – first woman to hold a Cabinet post. She was secretary of labor.
Hundred Days – between Mar. 9 and Jun. 16, 1933, Congress passed 15 major new laws.
New Deal – program of FDR to end the Great Depression.
Works Progress Administration – put the jobless to work building hospitals, schools parks, playgrounds and airports.
Tennessee Valley Authority – boldest program of the Hundred Days. It set out to remake the Tennessee River valley.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) – insured savings accounts in banks approved by the government. If a bank insured by FDIC failed, the government would make sure depositors received their money.
Fireside chat – radio speeches given by President FDR.
Surplus – an extra amount, more than is needed.
Speculation – person who invests in a risky venture in the hope of marking a large profit.
Huey Long – Senator of Louisiana. He supported FDR, but soon he turned on him. He felt the New Deal of FDR didn’t go far enough.
Francis Townsend – A California doctor wanted the government to give older citizens over age of 60 to get a pension of $600 each month.
Charles Coughlin – a Roman Catholic priest also felt the New Deal didn’t go far enough.
Liberty League – Formed by conservative political and business leaders who felt FDR’s New Deal didn’t go enough.
Wagner Act – protected American workers from unfair management practices.
John L. Lewis – set up the Congress of Industrial Organization
Social Security Act – set up a system of pension for the elderly, unemployed and people with disabilities.
Pension – sum of money paid to people on a regular basis after they retire.
Collective bargaining – right of unions to negotiate with management for workers as a group.
Sitdown strike – work stoppage in which workers refuse to leave a factory.
Unemployment insurance – program that gives payments to people who have lost their jobs until they find work again.
Laissez faire – idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs.
Deficit spending – government practice of spending more than it takes in from taxes.
Dust Bowl – During 1930s states that suffered a severe drought.
Black Cabinet – Unofficial advisers who gave FDR advises.
Mary McLeod Bethune – A well-known Florida educator.
Indian New Deal – Gave Native American nations greater control over their own affairs.
John Steinbeck – A very famous writer during the Great Depression, told the heartbreaking story of the Okies.
Richard Wright – An African American writer, describe racial violence against black southerners.
Dorothea Lange – A photographer that was known for the despair of rural Americans during the depression.
Migrant worker – agricultural worker who moves with the seasons, planting or harvesting crops.
Civil rights – the constitutional rights due all citizens.
Repatriate – to send back to one’s own country.