Solomon Horton

Solomon Horton is a steel worker at Southworks Steel Mill in the area of Chicago known as the “Black Belt”. A former resident of Mississippi, he moved to the South Side with his wife, Susan and their two daughters, Jeanette and Anne Marie. With all his savings lost in a bank that shut down, hours being cut for black workers and crumbling neighborhood apartments and schools, Solomon’s working so hard at staying optimistic it should be his second job. And he could really use the additional income right now.

Elsa Lehmann

Elsa Lehmann will be eleven years old very soon. Her parents, both immigrants from Germany, don’t have jobs right now, which make them very sad. With her four brothers, the two oldest trying to find work, too, there are too many mouths to feed in the family’s three-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side in New York. Elsa loves dancing, music, building blocks and Little Orphan Annie.

Rachael Mencken

Rachael Mencken is a social worker by trade from Indianapolis who is making her foray into politics as a member of the Public Employment Office within Frances Perkins’ Labor Department. A lifelong advocate for the working poor, she is hoping to brig relief to the millions who are suffering during these times of economic hardship. Given the reputation of the Public Employment Office as a bureau stuffed by Old Right cronies, she has her work cut out for her.

Samuel Whitman

Samuel Whitman is a proud veteran of the World War and a former lumberjack. He hails from the “City of Power”, Elizabethton, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife of 15 years, Rose and their 6 children. When not writing for the First Hundred Days blog, Samuel enjoys hiking, fishing, whittling animal figurines, and of course, playing his fiddle. After his family logging company shut down and a short stink as a farmer, he is currently working in Florida as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Charles Kavanaugh

Charles Kavanaugh was born and raised in the great state of Nebraska, the third in a line of Irish corn farmers. During the agricultural boom at the turn of the century through the Great War, his knack for business and study of agricultural science allowed him to nearly triple his landholdings and greatly increase his crop production. He was hit hard by the drought, dust storms and the sharp decline of crop prices over the past fifteen years, and has been active in the local and statewide Farmers’ Holiday Associations and other efforts to raise crop prices. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Lucy, and together they have four sons.

Margaret Bailey

Margaret Bailey is a housewife and mother of three darling children. A former Rose Bowl princess, she grew up in Pasadena, California just a few blocks from where she lives now. Prior to marrying her husband and starting a family, she was a high school Chemistry teacher. Like most working class families, the Baileys have been hard hit by the Depression and continue trying to make do. In addition to blogging, Margaret enjoys swimming, going to the movies and playing with her children.