Post on 30-Dec-2015
description
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)