THE DUST BOWL MIGRATION

American Exodus

Theme: Migration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAQsGdcLl4c

Dust Bowl Ecological Effects

What and When

Period of severe dust storms and drought “Black Blizzards” and “Black Rollers” due to reduced

visibility

Major ecological and agricultural damage1930-1936

Some areas until 1940

American andCanadian Prairie

Why?

Agricultural practices that encouraged erosion Bare fields in winter Burning stubble prior to planting

Severe drought coupled with extensive farming without crop rotation

Deep plowing killed the natural grasses Normally kept soil in place Trapped moisture

Topsoil grew dry and was simply carried away by the wind

Dust aggregated in the air, forming immense dust clouds Preventing further rainfall

Prevention

Established Soil Erosion Service in 1935 Now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service

Planted a huge belt of more than 200 million trees from Canada to Texas Act as a wind break, hold soil moisture and hold the soil

itselfEducate farmers on soil

conservation and anti-erosion techniques Crop rotation Strip farming Contour plowing Terracing

Summary

Conditions could occur again Likely candidates:

China Africa Australia North America

Lasting consequences Demographics and political economy fundamentally changed Collapse of small scale farming

Families experienced permanent, significant increases in household incomes as non-farm workers Guaranteed no desire to return to farming

Advances in agriculture, transportation and business Cost of returning lands to useful agricultural production too high

Need to protect delicate soil costly Would have led to product prices uncompetitive with other regions in

the U.S.

THE GREAT MIGRATION

AND THE MYTH OF CALIFORNY.

Dust Bowl Socio-economic Effects

Dust Was Everywhere!

Timeline

October 24, 1929: Stock Market Crash Starts the Great Depression

In 1931: an over-abundance of wheat caused prices to crash leading to over planting of wheat and more native grasses being removed.

May 9, 1934: A major dust storm starts in Montana and the Dakotas, by nightfall it had reached Chicago, by morning dust had reached Boston and New York. Street lights were on in midday and cars had to use headlights

April 14, 1935: “Black Sunday” the worst of the Dust storms, five days later the dust reaches Washington D.C. blacking out the windows of congress.

By 1935 an estimated 850 million tons of topsoil had blown off the southern plains

25% of the population in effected states migrated: Almost 2.5 million people.

An Entire Region

Desolate and

Empty

The Great Depression increased the economic hardship of the dust bowl.

Together this decimated the Mid-West Economy

Farms were ruined, and jobs were scarce

“Okies” had no choice but to look west toward “Californy” in hopes to find work.

California offered hope for a new start and new jobs

Beaches, Babes and Jobs?

Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American History By 1940, 2.5 million

people moved 500,000+ Americans

left homeless

The Myth of California

It was a Long Rough Journey

Many packed everything they had, or all they could fit on their Model T ford and headed west.

Some fell ill and diedDust Bowl exodus was

the largest migration in American History By 1940, 2.5 million

people moved 500,000+ Americans

left homeless

California: Now What?

•There were no jobs for the millions migrating.•Cities and States actively discouraged migrants.•Rehabilitation Camps were set up to house the migrants

Where to Find Hope?

Art and Music:Relief from the Struggles of

Migration

The King Family plays music in one of the migrant camps. - Robert Hemmig

Folk songs about social issues originated.

Woody Guthrie wrote folk songs about hard living.

Jack Bryant wrote a song about his travels and struggles.

ArizonaBy Jack Bryant

We were out in ArizonaOn the Painted Desert groundWe had no place to call our own homeAnd work could not be found.We started to CaliforniaBut our money , it didn't last longI want to be in OklahomaBe back in my old home.A way out on the desertWhere water is hard to findIt's a hundred miles to TempeAnd the wind blows all the time.You will burn up in the day timeYet you're cold when the sun goes downI wanna be in OklahomaBe back in my home town.You people in OklahomaIf you ever come westHave your pockets full of moneyAnd you better be well dressed.If you wind up on the desertYou're gonna wish that you were deadYou'll be longing for OklahomaAnd your good old feather bed.

Woody Guthrie

Semi-autobiographical, chronicling Guthrie's experience as a so-called "Okie"

Songs contain an element of social activism.

***An important influence on later musicians, including Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

(2009). Woodie Guthrie. Retrieved Oct. 13, 2009, from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, San Francisco, California. Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie.

Photographs Show Us the People’s Stories

Dorthea Lange's 1936Migrant Mother

•Innovative photographer •Pioneer in social documentation.•The lives of migrant and poor people

•Starkly realistic artistic style. •To bringing an awareness of;•Conditions of people •To affect change in social policies.

A group of children under Farm Workers Community Sign, El Rio, Calif., 1941. - Robert

Hemmig

Dust Bowl Artist Influences

What are some effects that Woody Guthrie and Dorothea Lange have on people today? Artists of the depression area paved the way for artists

today by pioneering the use of real life issues. Opposite- subjects determined by the powerful and

wealthy. • Not decorative styles commissioned focus on rich lifestyle

subjects. • Also the creative themes do not seem anti-political such as

in Modern art movements. Currently it is considered suitable to include modern

realistic social issues as subject matter and an artist can become successful.

Art Through Construction

Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps Built lasting architecture that still stands today.

Timberline Lodge Golden Gate Bridge

Government Posters Had a Distinctive Style

Art Standards Support Integration

Art Standards focus on history and social influences. CCG; Understand how the arts can reflect the environment and

personal experiences within a society or culture, and apply to one's own work.

Explain how works of art reflect the artist's personal experience, environment, society and culture and apply this knowledge to one's own work.

  Describe and distinguish works of art from different societies, time periods,

and cultures, emphasizing their common and unique characteristics.  

Explain the influence of events and conditions on an artist's work. *Students apply use of ideas to their own work. Reflection on results can lead to skill goal development. Apply the use of ideas, techniques and problem solving to the

creative process and analyze the influence that choices have on the result.

Language Arts: A Great Compliment to Every

Subject

Common Themes in Writings of the Time

Return to traditional ideals Traditional family and gender concepts Small town vision of America Interest in “the folk” or “the people” and documenting

their lives and traditions: workers and everyday people are emphasized

Life is a Struggle, but people and relationships endure

The Grapes of Wrathby John Steinbeck

Classic American Novel

.

Follows the Joad family

from Oklahoma to California.

Published in 1939.

Steinbeck won both the Nobel

Prize and a Pulitzer.

Grapes of Wrath Motifs

Improvised Leadership Structures Revolution, woman figure, traditionally powerless, has

taken control.

Parallels upheaval in larger world economic hierarchies.

Weedpatch camp govern with their own rules fairness and equality rather than power-hungry ambition or love of authority.

Theme-Man’s Inhumanity to Man

The privileged divided from the migrant poor and as the primary source of evil and suffering in the world. Historical, social, and economic circumstances separate people into;

Rich and poor, landowner and tenant. People in the dominant roles in a vicious struggle to

preserve their positions. Portrays the state as the product of land-hungry

squatters . Who took the land from Mexicans and, by working it and

making it produce, rendered it their own. California landowners to protect themselves .

Create a system in which the migrants are treated like animals. Shuffled from one filthy roadside camp to the next. Denied livable wages. Forced to turn against their brethren simply to survive.

To Kill a MockingbirdBy Harper Lee

"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself.  The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." -Atticus (114)