File:One-Third-of-a-Nation-Set.jpg

DescriptionOne-Third-of-a-Nation-Set.jpg	English: Photograph of the New York production of One-Third of a Nation, a Living Newspaper play by the Federal Theatre Project
Date	1938
Source	Library of Congress
Author	Federal Theatre Project
Permission (Reusing this file)	Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This image is a work of a Works Progress Administration employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §§ 101 and 105). English ∙ français ∙ 日本語 ∙ македонски ∙ русский ∙ +/−

From the Library of Congress exhibit, Coast to Coast: The Federal Theatre Project, 1935–1939

Scene from One-Third of a Nation, 1938. Photograph. Federal Theatre Project Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress (068.00.00)
Digital ID # ftp0068

Fatal Fire in the Tenement
Perhaps the most successful of the Living Newspapers was One-Third of a Nation, which took its title from a phrase in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second inaugural address: “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” These Innovative productions took their inspiration from newspaper headlines of the day, dramatizing social, economic, and racial issues, and calling upon the audience to enact change. One-Third of a Nation ran for 237 performances and detailed the need for better housing conditions for the poor, touching on actual instances of public housing problems. The FTP archives holds dramatic source materials for this production, which includes real-life photographs of slum conditions, such as the image shown here of a woman living in squalor. The play may have been responsible for legislation and federal funding to help address the nation’s housing problems.