What were Okies in the 1930s?
In the 1930s in California, the term (often used in contempt) came to refer to very poor migrants from Oklahoma (and nearby states). The Dust Bowl and the Okie migration of the 1930s brought in over a million newly displaced people; many headed to the farm labor jobs advertised in California's Central Valley.
How did the Okies fare in the Great Depression?
The Okies probably fared best in the area of culture. Novelist John Steinbeck brought the plight of the migrants with full force to the American public in 1939 with the novel The Grapes of Wrath, which described the journey of the Joad family from Oklahoma to California, where they were met with disdain and hostility, except in a government camp.
What was the impact of the Great Depression on Oklahoma?
During the Great Depression decade Oklahoma suffered a net loss through migration (outflow minus inflow) of 440,000. Although Oklahomans left for other states, they made the greatest impact on California and Arizona, where the term "Okie" denoted any poverty-stricken migrant from the Southwest (Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas).
How did the Okies affect the Dust Bowl?
They brought national attention to California’s migrant farm system. They also held back efforts to unionize Mexican farm workers. The arrival of the Dust Bowl migrants forced California to examine its attitude toward farm work, laborers, and newcomers to the state. The Okies changed the composition of California farm labor.
Why are they called Okies?
"Okie" has been historically defined as "a migrant agricultural worker; esp: such a worker from Oklahoma" (Webster's Third New International Dictionary). The term became derogatory in the 1930s when massive migration westward occurred.
How were Okies treated during the Great Depression?
Because they arrived impoverished and because wages were low, many lived in filth and squalor in tents and shantytowns along the irrigation ditches. Consequently, they were despised as "Okies," a term of disdain, even hate, pinned on economically degraded farm laborers no matter their state of origin.
Who were the Okies and how were they affected by the Dust Bowl?
From 1935 to 1940, roughly 250,000 Oklahoma migrants moved to California. A third settled in the state's agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley. These Dust Bowl refugees were called “Okies.” Okies faced discrimination, menial labor and pitiable wages upon reaching California.
What happened to the Okies after the Depression?
Once the Okie families migrated from Oklahoma to California, they often were forced to work on large farms to support their families. Because of the minimal pay, these families were often forced to live on the outskirts of these farms in shanty houses they built themselves.
Who were Okies and what did they do?
"Okies," as Californians labeled them, were refugee farm families from the Southern Plains who migrated to California in the 1930s to escape the ruin of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
What stopped the Dust Bowl?
Rain falls, but the damage is done Although it seemed like the drought would never end to many, it finally did. In the fall of 1939, rain finally returned in significant amounts to many areas of the Great Plains, signaling the end of the Dust Bowl.
What were major causes of the Dust Bowl?
Due to low crop prices and high machinery costs, more submarginal lands were put into production. Farmers also started to abandon soil conservation practices. These events laid the groundwork for the severe soil erosion that would cause the Dust Bowl.
How many Okies stayed in California?
An exact count does not exist, but one study estimates that as many as 3.75 million Californians, one-eighth of the state's 30 million population, claim Okie ancestry. Few of the children of that impoverished, homeless army attained the wealth of Scales, although a surprising number did.
How did the Great Depression affect hobos?
More than two million men and perhaps 8,000 women became hoboes. At least 6,500 hoboes were killed in one year either in accidents or by railroad "bulls," brutal guards hired by the railroads to make sure the trains carried only paying customers. Finding food was a constant problem.
What happened to most migrant workers when they arrived in California?
As migrants arrived in California, there were far more workers than available jobs. This overabundance of laborers drove down wages. Many migrants set up camp along the irrigation ditches of the farms they were working, which led to overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions.
What was life like in California during the Dust Bowl?
Life for the Migrant Dust Bowl migrants had little food, shelter, or comfort. Some growers allowed workers to stay rent-free in labor camps. Others provided cabins or one-room shacks. Still others offered only a patch of muddy ground to place a tent.
What solved the Dust Bowl?
Although it seemed like the drought would never end to many, it finally did. In the fall of 1939, rain finally returned in significant amounts to many areas of the Great Plains, signaling the end of the Dust Bowl.
What were the hardships of the Okies?
Predominantly upland southerners, the half-million Okies met new hardships in California, where they were unwelcome aliens, forced to live in squatter camps and to compete for scarce jobs as agricultural migrant laborers. They displaced Mexican workers, but despite the initial fears of landowners that they would demand better working conditions, these conservative, self-reliant, and persevering folk proved even easier to exploit. With many more willing hands than jobs, wage rates dropped. Crowded, filthy squatter camps rose up along the roads and streams of the San Joaquin Valley, leading Californians to attribute the scene to the refugees' own regionally derived ignorance and sloth. Federal relief in the form of labor camps (such as Steinbeck's "Wheat Patch"), dubbed "Little Oklahomas," were hardly effective.
What relief did the Okies get?
Federal relief in the form of labor camps (such as Steinbeck's "Wheat Patch"), dubbed "Little Oklahomas," were hardly effective. Genuine relief for the Okies arrived in 1940, when federal defense dollars inflated West Coast industries, allowing many to abandon the orchards for shipyards and bomb plants.
What were the Okies in the Dust Bowl?
Many Okies–families from Arkansas, Missouri, eastern Oklahoma, and East Texas–were not Dust Bowl refugees but instead were tenant-farming casualties of sinking commodity prices and agricultural mechanization during the 1920s.
What is the Okie migration?
The Okie migration brought the dialects, denominations, politics, and attitudes of the Southern Plains to California, where they persist in places like Bakersfield. Although the Okie experience is best described in Steinbeck's works, it also affected popular culture in diverse musical genres, including the ballads of social radical Woody Guthrie, which inspired urban folk and rock music, as well as infusions into country music in the steely, apolitical, bumpkin sound of Buck Owens and the melancholy, oppressed-yet-patriotic ballads of Merle Haggard. Separated by ideology and a generation, both Guthrie and Haggard painted in their lyrics the imagery of a cruel, decadent California and a righteous, nostalgic Oklahoma. That image lasts in the regional meanings of "Okie": a California insult and an endearing nickname in the Southern Great Plains.
Why did the Okies move to California?
"Okies," as Californians labeled them, were refugee farm families from the Southern Plains who migrated to California in the 1930s to escape the ruin of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
How did the Dust Bowl affect the Texas panhandle?
The Dust Bowl exodus reduced the populations of Texas and Oklahoma panhandle counties by as much as onefourth and killed or stunted numerous towns. The images of the refugees–hungry, gaunt families riding overloaded jalopies over lonely Route 66–remain vivid in the American collective memory.
What happened in 1935?
Families suffered drought, wind, dust, and death from dust pneumonia for half a decade before the horrific dust storms and heat of 1935-36 forced many to abandon their homes and search for a new life in the Golden State.
Why were the Okies despised?
Because they arrived impoverished and because wages were low, many lived in filth and squalor in tents and shantytowns along the irrigation ditches. Consequently, they were despised as "Okies," a term of disdain, even hate, pinned on economically degraded farm laborers no matter their state of origin.
What was the impact of the Great Depression on Oklahoma?
During the Great Depression decade Oklahoma suffered a net loss through migration (outflow minus inflow) of 440,000 . Although Oklahomans left for other states, they made the greatest impact on California and Arizona, where the term "Okie" denoted any poverty-stricken migrant from the Southwest (Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas).
What states did Oklahomans migrate to during the Great Depression?
Southwesterners had been moving west in significant numbers since 1910. However, not until the 1930s did this migration, particularly to California, become widely noticed and associated with Oklahomans. During the Great Depression decade Oklahoma suffered a net loss through migration (outflow minus inflow) of 440,000. Although Oklahomans left for other states, they made the greatest impact on California and Arizona, where the term "Okie" denoted any poverty-stricken migrant from the Southwest (Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas). From 1935 to 1940 California received more than 250,000 migrants from the Southwest. A plurality of the impoverished ones came from Oklahoma.
What percentage of Oklahoma farmers lost their land?
Between 1931 and 1933, 10 percent of Oklahoma farmers lost their land to foreclosure, and tenant farmers (who comprised more than 60 percent of Oklahoma farmers in the 1930s) had little incentive to endure poor crops and low prices year after year. Mechanization of farming began to consolidate small farms into larger ones.
What did the Associated Farmers fear?
The powerful Associated Farmers (the growers) feared the "Okies" might unionize and demand better wages. Although the Committee for Industrial Organization (known as the Congress of Industrial Organizations after 1938) created the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), which led a number of strikes in the fields, the migrants did not have a very strong class consciousness. Many were demoralized, and most identified more with farm owners than laborers.
How many migrants were there in the cotton industry in 1937?
As many as thirty-seven thousand migrants, lured by the growers' intense recruitment effort, entered the state from 1937 to 1938 to harvest a bumper cotton crop. The number of workers may have been twice as many as needed. Some suspected an effort to depress wages and hinder unionization.
What was the story of the Okie?
The classic story of "Okie" migration involves those who settled in the San Joaquin Valley.
Where did the Okies come from?
Responses may vary but should contain some or all of the following information: Okies were migrants who chose to leave the Great Plains during the Depression. Although they were called Okies, most were in fact from other states, like Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas. They left their farms and headed west, hoping to find work. Most traveled to Arizona and California, where they were not welcomed. These states passed laws to discourage migration, like refusing to pay benefits to new arrivals, and even stationed police at the borders to turn migrants away.
What was the first economic crisis in the 1930s?
The first is the economic crisis of the 1930s that hit farmers particularly hard, because demand for agricultural goods fell sharply at the same time that there was a glut in production. The second is the Dust Bowl, a series of dust storms that wrecked the Great Plains, and hit Oklahoma especially hard.
What is the term for people from Oklahoma?
The Okies is a pejorative term to refer to the people from Oklahoma.
How did the Okies affect California?
Steinbeck did not foresee that most Okies would move into well-paid jobs in war industries in the 1940s. When a man named Oliver Carson visited Kern County in the 1930s, he became fascinated with the Okie culture and lifestyle. He travelled back in 1952 to see what the Okies had made of themselves and saw that the difference was astounding. They were not living in roadside encampments anymore or driving run-down cars. They had better living situations and better views on life.
What is an Okie?
" Okie ", in the most general sense, refers to a resident, native, or cultural descendant of Oklahoma, equating to Oklahoman. It is derived from the name of the state, similar to Arkie for a native of Arkansas. Beginning in the 1920s in California, the term came to refer to very poor migrants ...
Why were the Okie outhouses located near the irrigation ditches?
Unfortunately, because of the minimal space allotted to the migrant workers, their outhouses were normally located near the irrigation ditches, and some waste would inevitably runoff into the water. These irrigation ditches provided the Okie families with a water supply.
What is the Okie dialect?
Southern Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran. Related ethnic groups. White Southerners. " Okie ", in the most general sense, refers to a resident, native, or cultural descendant of Oklahoma, equating to Oklahoman. It is derived from the name of the state, ...
Why did the Shanty Town camps have no running water?
Also contributing to disease was the fact that these Shanty Town homes that the Okie migrant workers lived in had no running water, and because of their minimal pay medical attention was out of the question.
Why is the name of the Okie Girl on the roadside sign?
In the early 1990s the California Department of Transportation refused to allow the name of the "Okie Girl" restaurant to appear on a roadside sign on Interstate 5, arguing that the restaurant's name insulted Oklahomans; only after protracted controversy and a letter from the Governor of Oklahoma did the agency relent.
What was the Dust Bowl?
The Dust Bowl and the "Okie" migration of the 1930s brought in over a million newly displaced people, many headed to the farm labor jobs advertised in the Central Valley of California. Dunbar-Ortiz (1998) argues that "Okie" denotes much more than being from Oklahoma.
What did the Okies do to California?
The arrival of the Dust Bowl migrants forced California to examine its attitude toward farm work, laborers, and newcomers to the state. The Okies changed the composition of California farm labor.
Why did the Dust Bowl migrants come to California?
The Dust Bowl migrants came to California to stay, and they changed the culture and politics of the state forever.
How did the Okies affect the lives of Mexican and Filipino farm workers?
The Okies also disrupted the lives of Mexican and Filipino farm workers. Mexican and Filipino workers dominated the harvest labor force for 2 decades. They handled cotton, fruit, sugar beets, and vegetables with great skill for low pay. In the early 1930s, these workers organized and formed unions.
What was the greatest man-made ecological disaster in American history?
The Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was the greatest man-made ecological disaster in American history. At the outbreak of WWI, the government encouraged farmers to grow wheat. Land was cheap and farmers plowed millions of acres of virgin land. They removed the native grasses that held the soil in place.
What states were affected by the Dust Bowl?
The Dust Bowl, California, and the Politics of Hard Times. In the 1930s, a series of severe dust storms swept across the mid-west states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas. The storms, years of drought, and the Great Depression devastated the lives of residents living in those Dust Bowl states. Three hundred thousand of the stricken people ...
Where did the Dust Bowl migrants live?
100,000 Dust Bowl migrants chose to live in Los Angeles; 70,000 chose to live in the San Joaquin Valley.
What happened in California in the 1930s?
Two California governors and their administrations grappled with the influx of the hundreds of thousands who flooded the state throughout the 1930s. The great Dust Bowl migration transformed and reshaped California for years to come. The Dust Bowl.