This cartoon uses characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland story to criticize federal spending on New Deal programs. The cartoonist depicts President Franklin Roosevelt as the Mad Hatter; Postmaster General and Chairman of the Democratic…

This worksheet helps students undertake a close reading of the 1936 cartoon "A Mad Tea Party," about President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. It also asks them to write a paragraph explaining the cartoon's argument.

The Social Security Act of 1935 started a national old-age pension for workers who earned wages. This meant that at age 65 these workers could retire and receive monthly payments from the government. To pay for this program, workers and employers…

One of the most enduring images of the Depression is a portrait of a woman and her children in a California migrant labor camp. Taken by FSA photographer Dorothea Lange, it was one of a series of six photographs that Lange shot on a rainy afternoon…

One of the most enduring images of the Depression is a portrait of a woman and her children in a California migrant labor camp. Taken by FSA photographer Dorothea Lange, it was one of a series of six photographs that Lange shot on a rainy afternoon…

One of the most enduring images of the Depression is a portrait of a woman and her children in a California migrant labor camp. Taken by FSA photographer Dorothea Lange, it was the last of a series of six photographs that Lange shot on a rainy…

African Americans were poor to begin with, but the Great Depression made their plight worse. They tended to work in industries most affected y the economic downturn, and in such dire circumstances white workers often took even the difficult,…

This newspaper account tells about how the NAACP successfully intervened in the case of an African American member of the Civilian Conservation Corps who was dishonorably discharged after he refused to fan flies off an white officer.

In this activity students read letters from ordinary people to government leaders in the Roosevelt Administration. Then they interpret the range of attitudes about the changing role of the federal government during the New Deal. The letters for…

Although Franklin D. Roosevelt never endorsed anti-lynching legislation and condoned discrimination against blacks in federally funded relief programs, he still won the hearts and the votes of many African Americans. Yet this support and even…