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Okies: a term for those who migrated from the American Southwest (primarily from Oklahoma) to California. Used with disparaging intent, the term was perceived as insulting, implying the worker was ignorant, poor, and uneducated. Okie Migration: the mass exodus of primarily farming families during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression era.
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Jan 15, 2010 · It would not happen. Instead, they began harvesting cotton and fruit, pushing out Hispanic and Filipino laborers. The influx of migrants depressed wages, satisfying farm owners, but the "Okies," unlike the Hispanics, tended to stick around after the harvests.
Aug 3, 2023 · Okies were cast as a health threat that would overrun and infest the state their poverty, poor health, and backward thought. Their southern drawls and simple values drew ridicule. Children were often teased in school for their speech and usually ragged clothing.
Sep 30, 2020 · Multi-ethnic American families have often been disparagingly, disgracefully, and inaccurately described as “white trash”. Some of these same people later appear on history’s stage as “Okies”.
According to this map by the US Department of Agriculture, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas were hit harder and longer by the ecological consequences of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Yet farmers forced to leave their homes and move elsewhere are popularly known as "Okies" (from "Oklahoma"). Why?
Okies is a term applied generally to people from the American Southwest who migrated to the Pacific Coast, particularly to California, during the Great Depression. This pattern became associated with Oklahoma because that state provided a plurality of migrants from 1935 to 1940, the peak of the phenomenon. Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas ...
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"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.
