To make matters worse, banks that had invested their deposits in the stock market lost them. Bank customers tried to withdraw their money, but $140 billion of depositor money disappeared and 10,000 banks failed.
The stock market crash was beneficial for some, however. One of the most cunning and richest men made over 100 million dollars in profit because of it, and others made millions. But, the stock market crash of 1929 was disastrous for most Americans and for the whole economy. It caused the Great Depression, which lasted from October 1929 to the mid 1930s. It plunged many people into poverty. Many workers lost their jobs and were forced to live in shanty towns and depend on charitable soup lines and bread lines to get anything to eat. In fact, thirty percent of Americans were reduced to conditions of poverty, hunger and homelessness.
In 1932 Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered a New Deal that gradually helped average people and the great majority. He was a great leader who, in spite of being a victim of Polio and mostly confined to a wheelchair, unified the American people, led them out of the horrible depression, and to victory over the tyrants who threatened to conquer and rule the world by force of arms. He also led the average man to far greater prosperity than ever before.
During Roosevelt's first term many reforms of the economic system were established, and some much needed regulations were put in place. Moreover, many New Deal programs such as Social Security and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helped tremendously. For while President Roosevelt is now best known as the president who won the Second World War, it was the domestic programs he established before the war that helped most and saved millions of Americans from poverty.
The CCC, for instance, put more than a million people to work and produced many wonderful and immensely useful public works projects that are still used and enjoyed by the public even today. It was a marvelous and worthy investment in people, in the infrastructure, in the country, and in the land. In addition to many wonderful public works projects in state and national parks, other CCC projects included installation of telephone and power lines, construction of fire roads and hiking trails in wilderness areas, fence construction, erosion control, tree planting, and even archeological excavation. The CCC also provided the first truly organized wilderness firefighting crews for government agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service.
Roosevelt's and New Deal Democrats' efforts were boosted because, at the same time, a grass roots political protest-liberation movement had begun, led by great and courageous people like Joe Hill, Paul Robeson, Josh White, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Dorothea Lange and many others who were instrumental in that progressive political liberation movement. They tried to expose the corruption of the greediest, wealthiest, powerful few, and they especially tried to point out the plight of the poor and the working poor. And, together with the moral support of those in the spiritual movement, they produced a lot of progress.
Unfortunately, in the mid-1930s, in reaction to the success of the good liberal progressives, there was a revival of right-wing political activism, driven by right-wing conservative, materialistic, dogmatic Christian sects. They sought to establish more firm "Christian" control in the United States. They founded a so-called "Legion of Decency." It consisted of right-wing conservative Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists, conservative Catholics, and others --- pretty much the same denominations, sects and factions that even today make up the "Christian Right" and what they call a "Christian Coalition." They think they are the true Christians, but they ironically act in opposition to true Christians.
The "revival" started by the Christian Right in the 1930s continued sporadically throughout the 1940s and 1950s, but it had a significant impact. That's why the television programs of the 1950s were so superficial and unrealistically "perfect." Rigid censorship was imposed on the broadcast and entertainment industry by a very powerful minority conservative clergy.
The trouble is, rigid censorship always proves to be counterproductive, because it produces repression. And that produces unnecessary guilt, rebellion, and other negative consequences. We are, after all, human, and, if we are conscientious, we learn from our mistakes. But, in spite of that, and because of what was politically and socially "correct" at the time, strict conformity was the general rule.
However, there were many who rejected it and rebelled. In fact, that's when the Bohemians and "Beatniks" (the original "Hippies") became influential. It was also when the first motorcycle gangs were established in America, and it is when many young people simply ignored authority when no one was looking. After all, when authorities are overly and unnecessarily prohibitive and restrictive, young people are especially rebellious. After all, distrustful and rigidly strict church and state authorities, just like distrustful and rigidly strict parents, tend to do things that are counterproductive, because many of those they try to control resent and resist being controlled.
Ironically, though, in the 1950s America was, for the most part, united. That was mainly because the Second World War (1941-1945) helped to bring the American people together very noticeably. And, because of that unifying event, along with the efforts of President Roosevelt and New Deal Democrats and all those in the political liberation movement and the pluralistic spiritual movement, many things improved. The most notable example was that by the late 1950s Labor Unions had grown significantly, the American Middle Class had become very large and great, and the minimum wage was actually close to a living wage (not poverty wage, as it had been and is again today).
I have to say, though, that most of the improvements were made in spite of the efforts in the 1950s by some very unscrupulous and maliciously ruthless right-wing partisan conservative Republican politicians who rose up, led by Republican Senators Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon. They labeled and condemned all the people in the political protest-liberation movement as "Communists" just because they advocated for the majority, and especially for the working poor. It was called "red-baiting," and McCarthy, Nixon and their right-wing cohorts did it with terrible malice. They demonized those in the protest-liberation movement in a terribly unfair, slanderous, deceptive, misleading way.
Unfortunately, McCarthy, Nixon and their right-wing cohorts succeeded. They ruined the lives of many good people in the liberation movement, many of whom were in the entertainment industry and other influential professions, who were "black listed," ostracized and punished in many different ways. It was a very dark period in American history, and it is a classic example of how dishonorable, unscrupulous, malicious right-wing "conservatives" can wreak havoc by deceiving and misleading people, just so they can serve the interests of the wealthiest few who finance their political campaigns.
By the time we entered the 1960s, those dishonest and deceptive right-wing conservative tactics had produced their desired affect. Laws and policies enabled the very wealthy few to enjoy even more privilege and license, and, consequently, many of them had fallen into temptation and let the power of their wealth corrupt them.
Then, ironically, it was Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower who, in his farewell address in 1961, warned America about the dangers of allowing the "Military-Industrial Complex" to gain too much power and get out of hand. It was very appropriate and needed advice, but, unfortunately, most Americans didn't listen.
However, some aware and conscientious people understood why Eisenhower issued that warning. In fact, in response to all the corruption, and in response to the prudish repression that had been caused by the right-wing conservative clergy in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, the protest-liberation movement was reborn in the early 1960s.
