The Dust Bowl Migration

American Exodus was written by James N. Gregory as an insight on the migration of south westerners to California. This migration occurred during the Dust Bowl years in the 1930s. The migration forces those who were migrating to reinvent their culture and coexist with those who were already in California. This was truly the impressive thing about the Dust Bowl migration. Cultural change from a migration was something that was remarkable and something that was still around fifty years later. Migration to California had been happening before but the migration was different this time. Prior to the Dust Bowl those who migrated to California were of working class and were able to live in the California cities. They were able to integrate into the city life with no issues, but this was not the case for those who migrated in the 1930s. The time of war caused for those who were migrating to be of a much lower level of living. The people that were coming to California were poverty stricken and with the current depression going on things only got worse for them. Those who were coming to California were from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri. The importance of the migration was not only the economic changes that came from the
The middle class of California began discriminating against the new migrants and created the “Okie” subculture. This subculture was looked at as a negative culture to belong to. Okie’s were seen to be uncultured, uneducated, dirty, dumb, and poor. The interesting aspect of the Okie subculture is that it was not territorial but had everything to do with the person and how they conducted themselves. Most Okie people were standoffish and did not engage with the community as they should have, according to the others who already settled there. The subculture that was once looked down is now an important aspect of the California