Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1934 to December 31, 1934: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. An English Woman Writes About American Prisons
    date 1934map Hartford, Connecticut, Cayuga, New Yorktags prison, prison reform

    Should prison be a place of punishment or reform?  American society was debating this question when Harriet Martineau, a famous writer from England, visited in 1934.  Martineau later wrote about her two year trip to America in a book called “Retrospect of Western Travels”, Volumes 1 and 2, which was published in 1938.   In a chapter titled “"Prison", Martineau describes her visit to Auburn...

  2. “Fight to Win!” Communists Fight for Workers
    date 1934map Jefferson, Alabamatags Race Relations, Government

    “Fight To Win!”The Communist Party in Birmingham, Alabama spread many fliers with this message throughout the 1930s. Communists urged miners and steel workers to fight for higher wages. The communists proclaimed to be “giving leadership to the workers and raising real demands for them.” They urged white and black workers to band together and claimed that the unity of the two races on this...

  3. Lydia Mendoza sings “Mal Hombre”
    date 1934map Bexar, Texastags Tejano Music, Mexican American Women

    On a hot sunny day in a plaza on the streets of San Antonio, a young girl and her family set up a few chairs and arrange themselves with their instruments. The plaza is full of people selling and eating food, going about talking, and small groups of men strumming on their guitars in the background. Then suddenly the small voice of a young girl starts to sing amidst the crowd. She sings songs known...

  4. Death of America's First Public Enemy #1
    date July 22, 1934map Cook, Illinoistags John Dillinger, FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, Biograph Theater, Public Enemy #1

         America’s first Public Enemy Number One, John Dillinger, was an idolized gangster who robbed and killed during the Great Depression. Considered a Robin Hood character by the public, in reality he was a prosaic gangster and a cold hearted killer. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents C.B. Winstead and C. O. Hurt gunned down John Dillinger on July 22, 1934, outside the Biograph...

  5. United Textile Workers Ready to Strike
    date September 1, 1934map Montgomery, Alabamatags Politics, Government

    The textile workers had had enough. On September 1, 1934 at 11:30 p.m. they went on strike. Francis J. Gorman, Chairman of the National Special Strike Committee of the United Textile Workers of America, sent a telegraph to Alabama Governor Benjamin Miller to make him aware of the strike and the reasons behind it. Gorman reasoned that the workers themselves provided the authority for the strike and...

  6. “The Baby Faced Mad Man of Highway 12”
    date August, 1934 to November 27, 1934map Cook, Illinoistags Gangsters, The Great Depression

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) named 1934 “The Year of the Gangster” as the agency had killed John Dillinger, Homer Van Meter, Bonnie and Clyde, and Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd. The FBI now had its eye set on Baby Faced Nelson. Nelson had killed FBI agent W. Carter Baum at the Little Bohemia shootout as a member of the 2nd Dillinger gang. By August 23, 1934, FBI...

  7. Zora Neal Hurston's trials and tribulations through the Harlem Renaissance
    date December 13, 1934map Orange, Floridatags Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, Rollins College

    Zora Neale Hurston was born January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. Soon after her birth she moved to Eatonville, Florida which always remained her home throughout her life. Eatonville was the United States first incorporated black township, her father and many other African Americans were involved in the towns governance. Hurston was a very famous black author of short stories, novels and plays....

  8. The Folklore and Dance behind Zora Hurston
    date January, 1934 to 1934map Orange, Floridatags Zora Neale Hurston, African-Americans, African American Folklore, Dance

    “Anyone wishing to get a real glimpse into negro life in Florida should not miss the performance to be given in Recreation Hall.” 1 This praise, given to the anthropologist, writer, poet, dancer and singer Zora Neale Hurston, came from R. W. France about her 1934 production of All De Live Long Day. Zora lived her life in an attempt to revitalize and find the truth...

  9. Penders Advertisment
    date December 20, 1933map Wake, North Carolinatags African American Women, employment, African-Americans

    The Pender’s grocery advertisement from the Raleigh Observer depicted a wealthy and very happy white family enjoying a lovely Christmas dinner. The family is being served dinner by a maid, that also appeared to be in a good mood in the advertisement. This advertisement was an illustration of the menial work black women had to do in the 1930s. Domestic jobs were usually the most common...

  10. Black Men in Baseball
    date April 10, 1935map Wilson, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Segregation, Baseball

    A pair of “big league” Negro baseball teams, the Homestead Grays of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Newark, New Jersey, Dodgers played in Wilson, North Carolina, in 1935.  The teams were members of the Negro National League.  Buck Leonard, a Rocky Mount, N.C. native, was first baseman and captain of the Grays.  Leonard stated, “this league is the only way for ‘us’ to play baseball. ...

  11. Information Passed On: A German Attempt to Curb anti-Nazi sentiment
    date August 8, 1933map New York, New Yorktags War, Foreign Politics, League of Nations

    Over seventy-seven years ago, on the eighth of August, 1933, Dr. Daniel Mulvihill (a New Yorker) was assaulted by a German citizen while he was visiting Berlin, apparently because he had failed to “salute a Nazi detachment.” A few weeks later, on the twenty-fourth of that month, Dr. Mulvihill’s assailant was taken into custody by Nazi authorities, and was then deposited into a concentration...

  12. Baer Clowns, Braddock Downs
    date June 13, 1935map New York, New Yorktags Depression Entertainment, Cinderella Man, Baer, Braddock, Max Baer, James Braddock, Boxing

    “From rags to riches.

    Strive and succeed.

    A man may be down but he’s never out.”[1]

    -John Kieran

    Max Baer taunted his opponent.  A barrage of “boos” rained down from the audience, voicing their antipathy and intolerance for Baer’s lack of sportsmanship and detachment from the struggles of ordinary Americans.  In response to the jeering onlookers, Baer began...

  13. The Great Jack-Rabbit Roundup
    date 1935map Seward, Kansastags The Great Depression, Rabbit Drives, Jack Rabbit Roundup, Kansas, Dust Bowl

    When one thinks of the Dust Bowl one normally envisions the swirling dust, the storms, the poverty, and the despair. A little discussed consequence of the Dust Bowl was the effect that it had on the wildlife. An ever decreasing food supply was driving the jack-rabbits out of their native habitats and forcing them onto the plains in rapidly increasing numbers. Once on the plains these rabbits began...

  14. The Wagner Act
    date July 5, 1935map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Labor Unions, labor relations, Wagner Act, National Labor Relations

    The Wagner Act had great impact on industrial relations as the first part of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. The National Labor Relations Act was created out of the necessity and demand for new foundations of authority and new forms of participation in the political dimension and legalization of industrial life [1]. This statement supports the idea that people are the key to industry and...

  15. The Ford Company
    date July 8, 1935map Cumberland, North Carolinatags Fordism, Ford Company

    The new Ford engine gave drivers the “Power To Go And Power To Stop,” proclaimed the Fayetteville Observer.  This was a slogan for the Ford Company in July 1935.  The advertisement in the Fayetteville Observer promoted the performance of the Ford V-8 engine.  “The Ford thus gives you double safety.  The way it drives helps you to avoid danger.  The way it is built provides...

  16. No Blacks in New County Jury Lists
    date July 12, 1935map Richmond, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Law, Juries

    “Negroes have not served on juries in North Carolina since the White Supremacy Campaign in 1898,” noted the Richmond County Journal.  Yet In 1935, commissioners faced a decision of the United States Supreme Court that African Americans could not be systematically excluded from jury lists. African Americans were excluded anyway. The Richmond County Journal stated that the Register...

  17. Comforting a Nation
    date May 7, 1933map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat

    Franklin D. Roosevelt had a great challenge ahead of him as our nation’s 32nd President. The United States was in a period of unemployment and extreme poverty. The people were losing faith and it was F. D. R.’s responsibility to fix the problem. On May 7, 1933, F.D.R. entered American homes through their radios. Hoping to restore hope to the public, Roosevelt assured them that Congress...

  18. Grand Jury Probes Shooting
    date April 24, 1933map Davie, North Carolinatags African American death, White violence

    The death of John “Red Shirt” Davis, an African American from Georgia, seemed to be a very routine shooting for the Coolemee police. Though the death of Davis was not something the police were happy about, it seemed to be necessary because Davis had resisted arrest, according to the Raleigh Observer. The police officer who shot him was Special Officer Jess Saunders. According to Officer...

  19. Zora Neale Hurston performs "From Sun to Sun" at Rollins College
    date February 11, 1933map Orange, Floridatags Rollins College, Zora Neale Hurston, florida slave history

    On Friday, February 11, 1933 Zora Neale Hurston’s program “From Sun to Sun” was shown at the Recreation Hall of Rollins College at 8:15 in the evening. At the performance Hurston led her company of Negroes in songs of African folklore, originating from various places around the state. Such songs included “Shack Rouser,” “East Coast Blues,” and “Alabama Bound”.  The scenery for...

  20. How one woman helped to valut African American culture into the spotlight
    date October 29, 1932map Orange, Florida, New York, New Yorktags Harlem Renaissance, Arts/Leisure, Race-Relations

    Born in 1891 in rural Alabama, Zora Neale Hurston spent her childhood in the first incorporated black town in the nation, Eatonville, Florida. Zora attended school in Eatonville until only 13 years old, when she traveled to New York City with a traveling theatre company. In the city that never sleeps, Zora would develop her creative mind and make her mark on history. Hurston seized the tremendous...

  21. Second Lieutenant Hurst Fears Communist Invasion
    date October 19, 1932map Montgomery, Alabamatags Race Relations, Government, Crime/Violence, african americans

    The Communist Party was infiltrating Birmingham, Alabama and the National Guard was beginning to worry. On October 19, 1932, Second Lieutenant Ralph Hurst wrote to his commanding officer Brigadier General J.C. Parsons about the “Communist Agitation” in Birmingham. The International Labor Defense had recently moved its Southern headquarters to Birmingham and there had been trouble ever since....

  22. The Bonus Army
    date July 28, 1932map Columbia, Washingtontags Bonus March, Bonus Army, General MacArthur, Bonus Check, WWI Veterans

    Four-thirty in the afternoon on July, 28, 1932, Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., was embalmed with tear gas.  Herbert Hoover instructed General MacArthur to lead 600 troops from the 16th Brigade into the streets to diffuse the “Bonus Army” riots.  The first riot resulted in the death of one Bonus Marcher killed by police gunfire.  After catching wind of the incident, President...

  23. The complicated life of a Native Alabamian
    date June 1, 1932map Jefferson, Alabamatags Medicine/Health, New South

    The complicated life of a native Alabamian

    By: Brandi Harper

    November 19, 2011

    Life was as normal as it could be during the hot summer of 1906 in Alabama. The poor were getting more poverty stricken while the rich struggled to maintain what they had.  Virginia Foster Durr remembers, “on Saturday mornings, these families would come into Birmingham, walking, there was no paved...

  24. How Alma College became "The Scots," and the start of the Highland Festival in Alma, Michigan.
    date November 10, 1931map Gratiot, Michigantags Highland Festival, Herbert Estes, Scottish Influence, Mascot, The Scots, Alma College

    The Scottish Influence

     

    The history behind the Alma College mascot began with the student-run newspaper, The Almanian, which ran a series of stories over a three week period in 1931 asking the students of Alma college to participate in a contest to come up with a new school mascot to replace the then current one: the Fighting Presbyterians.

    According to the first...

  25. Killer Disease Fighter
    date September, 1937 to 1937map Charlottesville, Virginiatags Medicine, Medicine/Health

    "But to realize that six human beings, all of them my patients, one of them my best friend, are dead because they took medicine that I prescribed for them innocently… well, that realization has given me such days and nights of mental and spiritual agony as I did not believe a human being could undergo and survive.” In a letter written by Dr. A.S. Calhoun in 1937 he describes his feelings toward...