What is the cultural setting of the book Bud, Not Buddy?

The cultural setting of Bud, Not Buddy involves African Americans in the Midwestern United States during the Great Depression. This setting plays a large part in the plot. The time and place of the story are established through numerous references to various historical conditions and events.

The main character, Bud, is an African American boy moving through the foster care system when he runs away to find the man he thinks is his father. Out in the world, Bud experiences the culture of the times in the form of other orphan runaways, soup kitchen lines, cardboard shanty towns and the freight trains people would attempt to hop onto in order to relocate in search of better opportunities. The hunger, homelessness and joblessness of the times are seamlessly woven into the plot.

One last cultural setting applicable to the plot is the African American jazz music world of the early 1900s. The man Bud thinks is his father brings that part of the culture into the story. He is a regionally famous jazz musician.