This is a little PowerPoint created by a buddy of mine for a class on 1930's America. I helped him out a bit.

1. Dust Bowl Migration
Okie use' ta mean you was from
Oklahoma. Now it means you're a dirty
son-of-a-bitch. Okie means you're scum.
Don't mean nothing itself, it's the way they
say it.“
- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, Ch. 18

2. Immigrant History in California
• Many minority immigrants faced discrimination
in California.
• Californians felt that immigrants would:
▫ fail to assimilate
▫ steal jobs
▫ commit crimes

3. Chinese Immigrants
• The Chinese Massacre of 1871 in Los Angeles,
California, led to the largest mass lynching in the
history of the United States.

4. Mexican Immigrants
• Operation Wetback (1954-1962) resulted in the
deportation of more than a million Mexican
citizens living in the United States. The program
resulted in the death of 88 individuals left to
fend for themselves in the Sonoran desert.

5. Japanese Immigration
• The Alien Land Law (1913) kept Japanese-
Americans from owning farm land in California.

6. Okie Immigration
• From 1935 through 1939 more than 300,000
people fled Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and other
Midwestern states to seek employment in
California.

7. The Dust Bowl
• The Okies left the Midwest states to escape
ecological and economic devastation. Outdated
agricultural methods, erosion, drought, and
unusually high winds, left farms in ruin.

8. Okie Discrimination
• The “Bum Blockade” (1936), set-up by the Los
Angeles Police Department , was designed to
keep Okies from entering California.
• The California Citizens Council fought for laws
that discriminated against Okies.
• Okies, unlike Mexican farmworkers, stayed in
the state; this fostered more bigotry against
them.

9. Okie Discrimination

10. World War II
• The onset of World War II kick-started the
economy. Jobs in California were plentiful. The
mass migration from the Midwest ended.

11. Okie Influence on California Culture
• Dorthea Lange’s photographs of Okies in
California are considered American classics.

12. John Steinbeck’s Novels
• Steinbeck’s novels featuring Okies were best-
sellers.

13. Okie Music
• Okie musicians, like Woody Guthrie, were
featured on California radio stations. Guthrie
fought for the rights of Okies and other people
who faced discrimination.

14. Okie Music
• Guthrie’s music was a strong influence on the
folk and protest singers of the 1960’s.

15. The Bakersfield Sound
• Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, both children of Okie
immigrants, developed the “Bakersfield Sound.” The
Bakersfield Sound, a country music genre featuring
elements of Okie music, was a rejection of the slickly-
produced Nashville Sound.

16. The Bakersfield Sound Influence
• “'Bakersfield' really is not exclusively limited to the town itself but
encompasses the larger California country sound of the Forties,
Fifties and on into the Sixties, and even the Seventies, with the
music of Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, the Burrito Brothers
and the Eagles -- they are all an extension of the 'Bakersfield
Sound' and a byproduct of it.”
-- Dwight Yokham

17. Okie Food
• Inexpensive “good ol’ plain cookin’” such as
biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, cornbread, etc.