The American struggle
From the point where the stock market crashed the American life changed drastically. Many people moved to California in search of jobs in their cars leaving behind everything they had. It was difficult to keep a steady job much less obtain one and a lot of people had little to no food since their was no jobs to provide money. Many people would stand in line for handouts from the government; for others they would work on farms and try to collect the little money they had to support themselves and their families. The unemployment rates rose from 5 million in 1930 to an almost 13 million by the end of 1932. Many unemployed fathers saw children getting jobs for sub-standard wages. In 1930, 2.5 million girls and boys ages 10-18 were hired to work in factories, canneries, mines and farms. Trying to help and support their siblings and families these children took these jobs. But this time was different every individual. Not everybody in America was picking up scraps and such just to survive. The people that already had a good living would not be that far off and could possibly maintain themselves for a descent amount of time. On the other hand, the others that were already struggling to begin with would be the ones that hit heavily on them. Most likely those people were the ones that were leaving their homes in search for work in California. Another aspect of the struggle that went on during that period was with the African American and immigrant population . For the African Americans the Great Depression did nothing but worsen the situation for the already bleak economic state. They were the first ones to be laid off from jobs and their unemployment rate plummeted two to three times higher than those of the whites. In early public assistance programs African Americans would receive less than the whites and in some situations some charitable organizations would exclude blacks from their soup kitchens. Despite the decline of racial organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan racism was still however standing strong in the South. Furthermore, the increased population of Blacks in the North intensified the racial problems. Many New Deal opportunities gave them help and showed the Northerners their daily struggles. Examples of these federal programs are the Federal Music Project, Federal Theater Project, and the Federal Writers Project which enabled black artist to find word during the depression. Prior to the Great Depression immigrants traveled to the United States in multitudes on a search for a better life and a new start. Mexicans to be more specific was one of the races that were affected in this predicament. Mexicans or Mexican Americans became targets for discrimination and removal during the period of the Great Depression. White government officials claimed that Mexicans had the highest unemployment rate in the state of California. That did not stop white trade unions that claimed that the Mexicans were taking the jobs that were for the white men. Although, in reality it showed that a new supply of white refugees desperate for jobs was flooding California from the Midwest, ultimately making up the majority of the unemployed.