What are Okies in the Great Depression?
“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.Click to see full answer. Also asked, why did Okies leave Oklahoma?As the “double whammy” of drought and depression deepened on the Great Plains,…
“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.Click to see full answer. Also asked, why did Okies leave Oklahoma?As the “double whammy” of drought and depression deepened on the Great Plains, more and more farmers gave up or were forced off of their land. In fact, during the 30s hundreds of thousands left the plains for the West Coast. So many migrated from Oklahoma that they were dubbed “Okies” in the popular press.Also Know, how did the Okies affect California? Living conditions in California during the Great Depression Once the Okie families migrated from Oklahoma to California, they often were forced to work on large farms to support their families. Due to this lack of sanitation in these camps, disease ran rampant among the migrant workers and their families. Beside above, why did Californians hate Okies? 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.Where did most Okies migrate to?Explanation: California was the destination to which most Okies(as they were pictured in Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath)migrated in order to find jobs. They were not necessarily from Oklahoma, some were from Kansas, Texas, Missouri or Arkansas. They fled after the famous Dust Bowl had ravaged their crops.
