Photojournalists have compiled images of poverty in America to create Photo Essays on various topics from ‘Labor Camps’ to ‘Children of Poverty’.  Aside from displaying these moving essays, this site shares statistics and stories on poverty in various states and ways to get involved in helping to solve one of this nation’s largest problems.

Here, you are provided with brief, easy-to-digest descriptions of many different topics about poverty in America today; which include definitions and current facts and statistics. As an extension, each description provides a link to an outside, scholarly site or article for more in-depth reading.

On this website, you can listen to a free radio podcast hosted by Krista Tippett “Seeing Poverty After Katrina”. You can also read David Hilfiker’s summary of the causes and cures of povertyamong AfricanAmericans in the inner city as laid out in his booklet, Poverty in Urban America.

This is a 1936, government-funded documentary about events that lead to over-farming in the American Plains, which then lead to the “Dust Bowl”.

Amy Goodman interviews Stephen Pimpare about his research on the history of poverty in America and his book A People’s History of Poverty in America.  His claim is that our view on what poverty is in America is very different than its reality and that the situation of the poor has not, in fact, gotten ‘better’ over time.

“Our mission is to feed America’s hungry though a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.”
Learn about personal situations, more of what Feeding America does, and what we can do to help.

This website provides images, with descriptions, of child workers by the famous Lewis W. Hine.

Here, you can search the Library of Congress’s huge photograph collections from 1935 - 1945 by subject, geography, or creator. There are also various collections created for special subject-specific collections.

The National Poverty Center promotes multidisciplinary research on poverty – specifically on the causes and consequences of poverty, trains the next generation of poverty researchers, and informs the public. This is a wonderful resource for teachers looking for the most up-to-date research on poverty in America. Here, you will find multiple working papers and policy briefs, multimedia presentations, and current facts about poverty in the U.S.

Everything New Deal and more can be found here. There are not only speeches, documents, and photographs; but also lesson plans, resource links, interviews, and articles.  Much of the focus is on the New Deal, though this site also provides many resources for the Great Depression, and individuals and other events from this time period.

“The lesson plans in this guide, developed in a partnership between New York State United Teachers and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, focus on his passionate commitment to social justice. That passion and commitment inspired millions….
As teachers share the lessons in this guide, students across New York state will be inspired to recognize that gift of courage in themselves. Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy lives on in countless individuals who fight for justice around the world — and in every child who is inspired by his legacy to ‘speak up, speak out.’  “
 – Kerry Kennedy (“Dear Educators” introduction to this unit)

This research project focuses on finding a new understanding of the manifestation, meaning, and causes of economic distress by examining community social and economic conditions nationwide.