The Great Depression, The New Deal, and Alabama's Political Leadership
The Great Depression
Economic conditions in some sectors of agriculture began to decline in 1920, triggering two-decade-long depression.
Alabama's substantial industrial economy suffered even heavier losses after the Great Depression hit industry in the late 1930s.
Human suffering was terrific, with reports of widespread deprivation among both whites and blacks and even occasional incidents of starvation.
The New Deal
Alabamians overwhelmingly supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Alabama's congressional delegation has sometimes been called the South's most progressive and effective.
New Deal programs helped both to stabilize temporary conditions (WPA, CCC, CWA) and also provided the basis for long-term economic growth (TVA).
Some of these programs brought negative as well as positive results.
Alabama's Democratic party and the state's elected officials tended to become more liberal.
Major Leaders
Gov. Bibb Graves elected as pro-New Dealer to his second term as governor in 1934 and created many state agencies to manage New Deal funds and programs.
Lister Hill, U.S. senator and major supporter of New Deal in Congress.
John H. Bankhead Jr., U.S. senator, co-sponsor of Bankhead-Jones Act, which was designed to help tenant farmers acquire their own land, and other New Deal programs.
Hugo L. Black, pro-New Deal U.S. senator, appointed to the Supreme Court in 1937.
Major Events
Creation of Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933.
Gov. Bibb Graves creates Alabama Department of Labor and Department of Human Welfare in 1935.
Passage of Social Security Act by Congress, 1935.
Appointment of Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court, 1937.
Organization of Alabama Chamber of Commerce in 1937.
Organization of liberal Southern Conference for Human Welfare in Birmingham, 1938.
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