ABSTRACT
In the early autumn of 1929, after a long period of soaring prices, the New York stock market turned downward. Over the next several years the economy continued to declineprices fell, business volume declined, unemployment rose, the number of bankruptcies increased, and with the closing of all banks in March 1933, the Great Depression reached every city, town, farm, and hamlet in the land. Two special problems added to the woes of the Sterling administration. The first was a crisis in the oil industry. Second, the East Texas oil fields were controlled by small producers rather than the major oil companies. The Great Depression brought stagnation or even retrenchment to many areas of the state's emerging industrial economy. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II. Both Mexican Americans and African Americans organized for equality.
