What was life like in California 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.

Who was baked out blown out and broke?

For many in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas who were “baked out, blown out, and broke,” their only hope was California, whose rains still brought bountiful harvests and potential jobs for farmworkers. Oklahoma lost 440,000 people, or a full 18.4 percent of its 1930 population, to outmigration.

Why did migrant workers move to California in 1930?

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.

When was the photo migrant mother taken?

1936

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.

Did the Dust Bowl affect California?

The storms, years of drought, and the Great Depression devastated the lives of residents living in those Dust Bowl states. Three hundred thousand of the stricken people packed up their belongings and drove to California. The great Dust Bowl migration transformed and reshaped California for years to come.

Who was Dorothea Lange and how did the Dust Bowl impact her work?

In the 1930s, Lange worked for a government program that documented relief sent to farmers who had been hit hard by the collapse of the U.S. economy. Her images of desperately poor families told the stories of those who had been unfortunate. They also drew the sympathy and support of the American public.

How many people migrated to California in the 1930s?

400,000 migrants

Who did Dorothea Lange influence?

Lange’s America included Mormons, Jews, and evangelicals; farmers, sharecroppers, and migrant farmworkers; workers domestic and industrial, male and female; citizens and immigrants not only black and white but also Mexican, Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese, notably the 120,000 Japanese Americans locked in internment …

What is the message of migrant mother?

From the moment it first appeared in the pages of a San Francisco newspaper in March 1936, the image known as “Migrant Mother” came to symbolize the hunger, poverty and hopelessness endured by so many Americans during the Great Depression.

What were the two major components of Lange’s upbringing How did these influence her life and her work?

Art and literature were big parts of Lange’s upbringing. Her parents were both strong advocates for her education, and exposure to creative works filled her childhood.

Which group of people living in California were forced from the United States 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.

What was the effect of the photograph Migrant Mother?

In 1936, photographer Dorothea Lange captured an image of a mother and her children living in poverty that became one of the most defining images of the Great Depression and a lasting, infinitely reproduced symbol of courage and endurance.