March 9, 1933 - At Roosevelt's request, Congress began a special session to review recovery and reform laws submitted by the President for Congressional approval. It actually lasted only 99 days.

The NRA Blue Eagle was a symbol Hugh Johnson devised to generate enthusiasm for the NRA codes. Employers who accepted the provisions of NRA could display it in their windows. The symbol showed up everywhere, along with the NRA slogan "We Do Our Part."

Created in April 1933. Within 4 months, 1300 CCC camps were in operation and 300,000 men between ages 18 and 25 worked for the reconstruction of cities. More than 2.5 million men lived and/or worked in CCC camps.

Under Secertary of the Interior Harold Ickes, the PWA distributed $3.3 billion to state and local governments for building schools, highways, hospitals, ect.

The WPA started in May 1935 and was headed by Harold Hopkins. It employed people for 30 hours a week (so it could hire all the unemployed).

May 1935 - Replaced Section 7A of the NIRA. It reaffirmed labor's right to unionize, prohibited unfair labor practices, and created the National Labor Relations Board.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

Originally formed by leaders within the AFL who wanted to expand its principles to include workers in mass produciotn industries. In 1935, they created coalation of the 8 unions comprising the AFL and the United Mine Workers of America, led by John L. Lewis. After a split within the organization in 1938, the CIO was established as a separate entity.

A strong first lady who supported civil rights. Wife of president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Share the Wealth society was founded in 1934 by Senator Huey Long of Louisiana. He called for the confiscation of all fortunes over $5 million and a 100% tax on annual incomes over $1 million. He was assassinated in 1935 and his successor Gerald K. Smith lacked the ability to be a strong head of the society.

Father Coughlin

A Canadian-born Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower Church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience.

Francis Townsend

An American physician who was best known for his revolving old-age pension proposal during the Great Depression. Known as the "Townsend Plan," this proposal influenced the establishment of the Roosevelt administration's Social Security system.

One of the most important features of the Second New Deal established a retirement for persons over 65 funded by a tax on wages paid equally by employee and employer.

1932 - Facing the financial crisis of the Depression, WW I veterans tried to pressure Congress to pay them their retirement bonuses early. Congress considered a bill authorizing immediate assurance of $2.4 billion, but it was not approved. Angry veterans marched on Washington, D.C., and Hoover called in the army to get the veterans out of there.

Name given to the makeshift shanty towns built in vacant lots during the Depression.

“Roosevelt Recession”

A temporary reversal of the pre-war 1933 to 1941 economic recovery from the Great Depression in the United States.

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune

An American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for black students in Daytona Beach, Florida that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Harry Lloyd Hopkins

One of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's closest advisers. He was one of the architects of the New Deal, especially the relief programs of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which he directed and built into the largest employer in the country. In World War II he was Roosevelt's chief diplomatic advisor and troubleshooter and was a key policy maker in the $50 billion Lend Lease program that sent aid to the allies.

Federal Securities Act

Requires that any offer or sale of securities using the means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce be registered pursuant to the 1933 Act, unless an exemption from registration exists under the law. It was the first major federal legislation to regulate the offer and sale of securities. Prior to that time, regulation of securities was chiefly governed by state laws (commonly referred to as blue sky laws). When Congress enacted the 1933 Act, it left in place the patchwork of existing state securities laws to supplement federal laws in part because there were questions as to the constitutionality of federal legislation.

John L. Lewis

An American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960. He was a major player in the history of coal mining. He was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s.

Scottsboro Boys

Nine black defendants in a 1931 Alabama rape case. The case was heard by the United States Supreme Court twice in Powell v. Alabama and Norris v. Alabama. These decisions established the principles that criminal defendants are entitled to effective assistance of counsel and that people may not be de facto excluded from juries because of their race.

John Collier

An American social reformer and Native American advocate. Collier's efforts led to a monumental study in 1926-1927 of the overall condition of Indians in the United States. The results of the study became known as the Meriam Report. Published in 1928 as The Problem of Indian Administration, the Meriam Report revealed failures of federal Indian policies and how they had contributed to severe problems with Indian education, health, and poverty.

Memorial Day massacre of 1937

Police shot and killed ten demonstrators in Chicago, on May 30, 1937. The incident took place during the "Little Steel Strike" in the United States. The incident arose after U.S. Steel signed a union contract, but smaller steel manufacturers (called 'Little Steel'), including Republic Steel, refused to do so.

The Popular Front

A broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal (or "bourgeois") forces as well as socialist and communist ("working-class") groups. Popular fronts are larger in scope than united fronts, which contain only working-class groups.

An American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century. He was a socialist in the early 1930s; he became a leading liberal and supporter of the New Deal coalition.

Jesse Owens

An American track and field athlete. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team.