What was an Okie in the 1930s?
“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 were Okies treated during the Great Depression?
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.
Was the Okies a positive or negative name?
In the early twentieth century people from Oklahoma were occasionally nicknamed “Okies,” a special appellation that seemed a natural shortening of the state’s name. With the publication of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, however, “Okie” took on negative connotations.
What were Okies during the Dust Bowl?
These Dust Bowl refugees were called “Okies.” Okies faced discrimination, menial labor and pitiable wages upon reaching California. Many of them lived in shantytowns and tents along irrigation ditches. “Okie” soon became a term of disdain used to refer to any poor Dust Bowl migrant, regardless of their state of origin.
What became of the Okies?
In the end the Okie spirit and determination triumphed for the migrants who had arrived in California with nothing. “Many of them quickly moved out of farm work into better-paying jobs in the oil industry and, when World War II broke out, in the burgeoning Southern California defense plants.
What path offered the best chance for a better life for the Okies in the 1930’s remaining in the Dust Bowl or migrating to the West?
Finally, many left when relatives and friends, already in California, beckoned them to a land of better prospects. The families packed their belongings and set out on a journey of three days or more down Route 66 to a supposedly better life in the Far West.
What impact did the Okies have on California?
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.
What is the meaning of Okies?
Okies is defined as a disparaging slang term for migratory farm workers from the state of Oklahoma, or a person who left the midwest during the Great Depression and the droughts of the 1930s and 1940s. An example of okies are the characters in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
Who were the Okies of the 1930s quizlet?
Who were “Okies”? “Okies” was the name given to the migrants from the Great Plains. Although only about 20 percent of the migrants were Oklahomans, the name “Okies” stuck to them all. “We was living on it [a dollar a day wages].
Where did the Okies go?
What does it mean when a girl says Okieeee?
“Lovely”, “Cutie”, “Handsome”, “Bubba”, “Okie”, = You Got a Crush.
Who were the Okies?
OAKIES “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.
Where did the Okies go during 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 California’s Central Valley. Dunbar-Ortiz (1998) argues that “Okie” denotes much more than being from Oklahoma.
Who are the Okies in Hello Again Oakies?
OAKIES. “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. The refugees came from several states, including the drought-ravaged corners of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico but especially…
What hardships did the Okies face in California?
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.