Moore, Aaron McDuffie
Born on September 6, 1863 to free yeoman farmer parents, Aaron McDuffie Moore used educational opportunities to improve his social condition and to better his community.
Subject: New Deal/ Great Depression
Belk, William Henry (1862 - 1952)
Born in 1862, as the son of a farmer, Belk overcame obstacles in life to later build a retail empire.
Cannon, Charles Albert
Charles Albert Cannon, the son of a textile mill owner, was born in 1892. After attending Fishburne Military Academy and Davidson College, Cannon entered the textile industry himself, achieving success as a manager, treasurer and secretary. When his father died in 1921, Cannon assumed the leadership of the Cannon manufacturing plants and consolidated them to one entity, The Cannon Mills Company.
Tariffs (Progressive Era to Present)
Commercial restrictions through tariffs have been an integral part of American history, and Tar Heels have voiced their opinion on tariff legislation since the founding of the United States. The federal government has used tariffs to raise revenue and protect American industry and labor. During the Great Depression, Congress passed the highest tariff in the United States history.
Krispy Kreme
Vernon Rudolph and his Krispy Kreme doughnuts are excellent examples of the entrepreneurial spirit that flourished in North Carolina despite the Great Depression.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
Signed into law on May 12, 1933, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a New Deal government-spending program established to give direct cash assistance to the impoverished. Different from work relief agencies such as the National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration, which created jobs for the unemployed, FERA offered only short-term subsistence support. FERA’s poor design coupled with its low per capita grants failed to assuage the effects of the Great Depression in North Carolina.
Bailey Josiah
Josiah Bailey was a leading figure in North Carolina’s progressive movement in the early twentieth century. In the 1930s and 1940s, he served as a Democratic U.S. Senator from North Carolina and co-authored the “conservative manifesto,” which defended fiscally conservative policy during the heyday of the New Deal.
Warren Lindsay
Hailing from Washington, North Carolina, Lindsay Warren was a long-serving Democratic politician. He served eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and led the U.S. General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office) for more than a decade.
Public Works Administration
Established by Title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Public Works Administration (PWA) was a massive U.S. government spending program aimed at improving the nation’s infrastructure. Though the PWA was not vested with the sweeping powers of the National Recovery Administration, it affected nearly every county in the United States and indelibly altered North Carolina.
Kerr-Smith Tobacco Control Act
Passed in 1934, the Kerr-Smith Tobacco Act addressed a loophole in the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. The act levied a tax of 25 percent on all tobacco sales, while providing tax exemption permits to farmers who participated in the AAA. After passage of the Kerr-Smith Act, the price of tobacco rose markedly, briefly benefiting North Carolina farmers.