David Danbom, a professor of history at North Dakota State University, has written a book about the years of the Great Depression in Fargo.
During those times, between the stock market crash in 1929 and the beginning of World War II in 1939, Danbom tells of the changes wrought in the community by the hardships engendered by economic difficulties and, as a result of those hardships, the arrival of aid from the federal government.
Danbom presents the voices of many Fargoans who lived here during this period through interviews, personal papers, diaries, newspaper stories, and government records in the historical collection at the Institute for Regional Studies at NDSU. He also touches on how the Great Depression evolved and how it altered the nation.
In his introduction to the book, Danbom provides, "a social and economic portrait of Fargo in 1930." Later he outlines the beginning of economic decline and says that "While city leaders were confident of Fargo's abilities to survive the downturn and meet human needs, fissures began to appear between classes and a penurious and mean-spirited attitude toward those in need developed ... Relief (for the unemployed) contributed to class conflict, including discord between the poor on relief and those off. ... Denying the reality of class struggle and asserting the myth of class harmony became a major rhetorical enterprise among the city's leaders."
It was a dramatic time with unions attempting to become stronger, the mercantile class' fear of emerging radical movements and strikes - which often led to violence.
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The assistance that came from the federal government was not always appreciated. Local entities responsible for awarding relief were often motivated by political patronage. They often tried to humble and shame people where the rules of the federal government demanded that people be allowed some dignity.
Fargo was growing at the time with people in rural areas coming to town in search of work. Because of the economic difficulties, many transients passed through the community.
"Transients were part of the Fargo scene the year around, but the seasonality of farm labor meant the bulk of the estimated 30,000 who passed through the city annually were there between early April and the end of September," Danbom writes.
The police provided free lodging in the jail when space was available and in March 1930, they lodged 623 people.
Many people living here at the time remember dealing with transients. Some said that conversations with them gave a new and broader look at their own lives.
The police dealt - selectively at times - with the tangential problems caused by the hoard of single men in the community - prostitution, illegal gambling and drunkenness. Problems with serious juvenile delinquency also became more pressing.
Projects sponsored by the federal Works Progress Administration, such as the Ice Arena, Barnett Baseball Field and the swimming pool, not only provided jobs for the unemployed but when finished, afforded places of entertainment for the youth of the community.
Danbom presents a masterful distillation of the essence of what Fargo was in the years between 1929 and 1940. The book is enhanced by photographs from the excellent collection at the Institute for Regional Studies.
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Danbom's microcosm of the Great Depression, about which my generation heard so much, offers a fascinating and absorbing history of Fargo. The book gives me an appreciation of my father's, mother's and grandmother's lives. All of them lived in Fargo during this time and the book adds depth to many of the stories they told. It is a superbly written and meaningful book and I shall read it again.
Readers can reach Forum columnist Andrea Hunter Halgrimson at ahalgrimson@forumcomm.com
