A Brief History of The Great Depression 1936-1940

1936	March -- Photographer Dorothea Lange visits a pea-pickers' camp in California's San Joaquin Valley and takes photographs of harvest workers. The images, especially those in the "Migrant Mother Series," vividly illustrated the plight of the workers. The San Francisco News ran the photo essay under the headline, "Ragged, Hungry, Broke, Harvest Workers Live in Squallor (sic)."
	October -- The San Francisco News publishes a series of articles written by John Steinbeck called "The Harvest Gypsies." The series explored the hardships faced by those living and working in migrant labor camps. Steinbeck wrote, "...One has only to go into the squatters' camps where the families live on the ground and have no homes...to look at the strong purposeful faces, often filled with pain...to know that this new race is here to stay and that heed must be taken of it."
	November -- FDR is elected to his second term as president, winning every state in the Union except Maine and Vermont. FDR defeated Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon.
1937	January -- United Automobile Workers strike at the General Motors Plant in Flint, Michigan. The strike turned violent when strikers clashed with company-hired police.
	May -- Ten people are killed and a dozen more are wounded in the "Memorial Day Massacre" at Republic Steel's South Chicago plant. Workers and their families had tried to combine a picnic with a rally and demonstration.
	March -- The slow economic recovery made possible by New Deal programs suffers a setback as unemployment rises. FDR's detractors called it the start of the "Roosevelt recession."
1938	April -- FDR asks Congress to authorize 3.75 billion in federal spending to stimulate the sagging economy. Economic indicators responded favorably over the next few months. Still, unemployment remained high and was predicted to stay that way for some time.
1940	November -- Franklin Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented third term as president, defeating Wendell Willkie. FDR's victory is seen as proof of the nation's support of his war policies. Roosevelt was lobbying Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act, which would aid Britain in its struggle to fend off Germany. In little over a year, following Japan's December 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. would enter the war in the Pacific and in Europe. The war effort jump-started U.S. industry and effectively ended the Great Depression.