My name is James Williams. I'm 15 years old. I live with my parents John and Ruth Williams in Chicago, Illinois and my older brother Joseph Williams. My family usually calls me Jr because I'm considered to be just like my father.

We live a decent life thanks to my father working at a good company making a salary that we survived off and my mother recently got laid off . The Great Depression was just beginning.

Than one ordinary Tuesday 1929, tons of bank were closed and my mother told us that the family was in debt. I can remember the night very clearly when my father arrived home he said that he had lost most of our money to the stock market. Tons of prices peaked earlier that afternoon, then gradually failed. This was known as Black Tuesday.

We had to start finding a way to save up money in order to keep our home and to pay our bills t keep the lights and water on. Also around this time president Hoover's presidency was coming to a end and we were coming up on a new representative Franklin D Roosevelt. Hoover didn't really do anything that benefited the people as a whole and most people believed that FDR would be the exact opposite.

Very slowly he showed his true colors as he repeatedly avoided answering questions about helping out the people in the world. Then he passed the "New Deal" which was made to protect the economy and rebuild it back up. His goal was mainly created to help the poor get back to working and helping the provide money for their families to survive. My dad was then also laid off while the overall employment rate was 25%.

Recovery

My family was constantly visiting any nearby hoovervilles or "shantytowns" in the area in order to eat on the daily basis.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing millions of people including my father to carry out public works projects. The WPA gave my father a new job to recover us from bankrupt after Black Tuesday hit our family badly. He helped with the construction of public buildings and roads nearby our town.

Dad doing work under the WPA agency.