Why did people move from the Midwest to California during the Great Depression?

During the 1930s, some 2.5 million people left the Plains states. The Modesto Bee on September 30, 2008 reviewed Dust Bowl migration to California. As families realized that the drought and dust storms would not end, some sold what they could not take and began to drive west on Route 66.

What caused workers and farmers to move to California during the Great Depression?

Migrants Were Feared as a Health Threat Many families left farm fields to move to Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay area, where they found work in shipyards and aircraft factories that were gearing up to supply the war effort.

What drew migrants to California in the 1930s?

Which best describes what drew migrants to California in the 1930s? The promise of fruit picking jobs. What did Herbert Hoover do to help Americans survive the Depression? He urged local governments to create jobs.

How did the Great Depression affect California?

In California, the Depression gave birth to bitter and sometimes violent struggles between labor and employers. By mid-decade, more than a hundred thousand Americans who had lost their farms and homes in the Dust Bowl were arriving in California each year, many of them joining the ranks of migrant farm labor.

Why did 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. The Dust Bowl years on the Southern Plains also had economic origins.

What was the impact on California of the migration of people from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl?

California: The Promised Land 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. They displaced the Mexican workers who had dominated the work force for nearly two decades.

Why was California not the promised land of migrants dream?

California was emphatically not the promised land of the migrants’ dreams. Although the weather was comparatively balmy and farmers’ fields were bountiful with produce, Californians also felt the effects of the Depression. Arrival in California did not put an end to the migrants’ travels.

What was California like in the 1930s?

California was hit hard by the economic collapse of the 1930s. Businesses failed, workers lost their jobs, and families fell into poverty. While the political response to the depression often was confused and ineffective, social messiahs offered alluring panaceas promising relief and recovery.

Did the Dust Bowl affect California?

In the 1930s, a series of severe dust storms swept across the mid-west states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas. The great Dust Bowl migration transformed and reshaped California for years to come.

When did the Great Depression of CA?

The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors.

What happened to the Okies in California?

Okies–They Sank Roots and Changed the Heart of California : History: Unwanted and shunned, the 1930s refugees from the Dust Bowl endured, spawning new generations. Their legacy can be found in towns scattered throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Well, the Okies certainly did not die out.

What impact did the Okies have on California farm workers?

The damaging environmental effects of the dust storms had not only dried up the land, but it had also dried up jobs and the economy. The drought caused a cessation of agricultural production, leading to less income for farmers, and consequently less food on the table for their families.

How did the Great Depression affect California in the 1930s?

The Great Depression: California in the Thirties. California was hit hard by the economic collapse of the 1930s. Businesses failed, workers lost their jobs, and families fell into poverty. While the political response to the depression often was confused and ineffective, social messiahs offered alluring panaceas promising relief and recovery.

Why did people move out of the Great Plains during the depression?

Migration Out of the Plains during the Depression. During the Dust Bowl years, the weather destroyed nearly all the crops farmers tried to grow on the Great Plains. Many once-proud farmers packed up their families and moved to California hoping to find work as day laborers on huge farms.

Why did farmers migrate to California in the 1930s?

Farmers moved west during the 1930s because the Dust Bowl destroyed many farmers’ crops and land on the Plains, farmers believed that California would have better jobs, and many farmers were forced to abandon their farms after going into debt. Similarly, why did the Okies migrate to California?

What was life like in California in the 1930s?

For California, the nation, and the world, the 1930s was a period of particularly hard times. The US stock market crash of 1929 set off the most severe economic depression in the Western world. In the American Midwest, this was compounded by a severe drought that destroyed crops and farms.