The Dust Bowl

“Tractored Out” With farm prices low in both the 1920s and 1930s, small family farms found it difficult to survive, even before the Dust Storms of the 1930s. Many of these small farmers were “tractored out” by large corporate farms who had the capital to operate on the scale necessary to make profits.

The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck “You jus’ goin’ wes’?” “Jus’ on our way.” “You ain’t never been in California?” “No, we ain’t.” “Well, don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself.” “Yeah,” Tom said, “but a fella likes to know what he’s getting’ into.” “…People gonna have a look in their eye. They gonna look at you an’ their faces says ‘I don’t like you, you son-of-a-bitch.’ Gonna be deputy sheriffs, an’ they’ll push you aroun’’… They hate you cause they’re scairt. They know a hungry fella gonna get food even if he got to take it. They know that fallow lan’ a som am’ somebody’ gonna take it. What the hell! You never been called ‘Okie’ yet.” Tom said, “Okie? What’s that?” “Well Okie use’ ta mean you was from Oklahoma. How it means you’re a dirty son-of-a-bitch. Okie means you’re skum.” Steinbeck’s book portrayed migrants sympathetically. It’s outcome also implied that the frustration felt by many unemployed migrants, if allowed to continue to build, might eventually lead to class warfare.

Dorothea Lange Lange and other photographers were employed by the Farm Security Administration to document living conditions among the migrant workers who were forced to abandon their farms in the Dust Bowl. They helped make Americans more sympathetic to the plight of “Okies” and other migrants.

New Aid to Farmers During the New Deal, a number of programs provided aid to farmers. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) tried to help raise farm prices by providing subsidies for farmers who did not produce to full capacity. The Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration launched programs designed to help poor farmers in the Dust Bowl. Farmers receive government subsidies.

Migrant Worker Camps

Camp Council Meeting

The WPA “Dollar”

Kansas City from Politics, Farming, & the Law Thomas Hart Benton, 1936 Kansas City from Politics, Farming, & the Law Thomas Hart Benton, 1936

Artists of the WPA

The Annual Move by Otis Dozier, 1936

Construction of the Dam by William Gropper

Women of Flint, MI by Joseph Varak

The Cradle Will Rock, 1937 Orson Welles & John Houseman The theater, when it’s good, is always dangerous!

WPA Bookbinding

The American Guide Series

Former Slave Interviews