Providing Economic Security

Congress passed the Social Security Act in the midst of the Great Depression. It authorized taxes on workers and employers to provide for the elderly, the unemployed, dependent children and the disabled. The legislation addressed the concerns of popular grassroots movements that advocated for federal old-age pensions and relief for those without jobs.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Message to Congress Announcing a Program for Social Security, June 8, 1934	Letter from A.E. Bosley in Support of a Social Security Program, March 5, 1935	President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Signing the Social Security Act, August 14, 1935	U.S. Social Security Board Poster, A Monthly Check to You for the Rest of Your Life . . . Beginning When You Are 65, Lithograph Print, 1935