Social Programs of the Great Depression in Arkansas

The stock market crash on October 29, 1929 signaled the beginning of very hard times for most Americans. As the effects of this banking collapse that followed spread across the country, reaching rural areas like Arkansas more slowly, a number of bad things came along with it. These included a sharp and continued increase in lay-offs, drops in wages, a reduction of state spending in Arkansas, and deflation. Arkansas, among other states, had its first taste of the troubles to come with the drought of 1930. With individual states unable to produce the funds to prop up the economy, the federal government under Roosevelt enacted the New Deal. Under state and local control, federal money was used to pay teachers, provide public sector jobs, and provide short-term relief like temporary housing and food.

The Resettlement Administration, which was renamed the Farm Security Administration in 1937, hired Roy Stryker in 1935 to find photographers to document the plight of tenant farmers, migrant workers, and sharecroppers. These photos would be disseminated throughout America to increase support for New Deal programs. Stryker hired a number of photographers, including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, Jack Delano and Ben Shahn. Over 70,000 government commissioned photographs were taken between 1935 and 1943 with the artists allowed to record what they wanted. The photos were used in newspapers, published by the government, and put in museums all over, now all over the internet. The official photos dominate web content, although others taken outside this time period and outside Stryker's influence can be found.