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The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl. (This ain’t a college football game). Mrs. Janiak U.S. History. Opener:. List the three main causes that helped create the Dust Bowl.

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The Dust Bowl

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  1. The Dust Bowl (This ain’t a college football game) Mrs. Janiak U.S. History

  2. Opener: • List the three main causes that helped create the Dust Bowl.

  3. 1931Severe drought hits the Midwestern and Southern Plains. As the crops die, the “black blizzards” begin. Dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed land begins to blow. • 1932The number of dust storms is increasing. Fourteen are reported this year; next year there will be 38. • May 12 1933 The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allots $200 million for refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing foreclosure. The Farm Credit Act of 1933 establishes a local bank and sets up local credit associations. • June 18 1933 The Civilian Conservation Corps opens the first soil erosion control camp in Clayton County, Alabama. By September there will be 161 soil erosion camps • April 14 1934 “Black Sunday” The worst “black blizzard” of the Dust Bowl occurs, causing extensive damage. Twice as much dirt as was dug out of the Panama Canal (+300,000 tons of dirt) in the air. • May 1934 Great dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area. The drought is the worst ever in U.S. history, covering more than 75 percent of the country and affecting 27 states severely. • December 1934 The “Yearbook of Agriculture” for 1934 announces, “Approximately 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land have essentially been destroyed for crop production…. 100 million acres now in crops have lost all or most of the topsoil; 125 million acres of land now in crops are rapidly losing topsoil….”

  4. Surviving the Dust Bowlvideo notes

  5. Additional Facts: • A popular method to make it rain: kill a snake, hang it belly side up on a fence= dead snakes hung for miles in southwest Kansas • “Rain merchants” claimed they could make it rain by exploding dynamite on a kite in the clouds= farmers spent their last $ in despair= no rain (rain merchant would move to the next town) • Large amounts of bugs, crawling into homes after dust storms • Starving families resorted to cooking tumbleweeds to eat

  6. #4 California Migrant ExperienceOpener: • Four rows closest to the wall- explain why people stayed in the Southern Plains. • Three rows closest to the windows- explain why people left the Southern Plains.

  7. Exodus(exit) • ¼ of the Plains population would flee to the West • Abandoning S. Plains= tight-knit communities began to unravel  Businesses failed, schools & churches closed • Families packed up their few belongings, heading west  Route 66 to California

  8. Grapes of Wrath (novel) • Written by John Steinbeck in 1938 • The title of the film was taken from the Battle Hymn of the Republic, by Julia Ward Howe ("Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on") • Won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize. • The major reason for Steinbeck's 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature. • Translated into nearly every language of the world. Is an accepted masterpiece of world literature. Considered one of the most enduring works of fiction by an American author. • But the book brought controversy as well as success. Detractors accused the author of everything from harboring communist sympathies to exaggeration of the conditions in migrant camps. The uproar drew the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt, who came to Steinbeck's defense, and eventually led to congressional hearings on migrant camp conditions and changes in labor laws.

  9. Grapes of Wrath film questions: • What are the “dusters?” • Why were Muley Graves and the Joad family kicked off their land?

  10. Many traveled along the infamous Route 66

  11. Migrants Experience • People were led to believe that California was the Eden or Paradise of farming with plenty of work • Fliers advertised workers needed • When they arrived in CA- many couldn’t get a job and searched the state looking endlessly for a job, staying in migrant camps • Californian locals often were cruel or stereotyped the migrants, calling them “Okies”- a negative term for all migrants.

  12. Grapes of Wrath (movie) • Came out in 1940 • There were a total of seven Academy Award nominations for the film - with two wins: Best Supporting Actress (Jane Darwell) and Best Director (John Ford)

  13. Grapes of Wrath film questions: • What impression of California did the Joad family have from the work flier they read? • Describe the treatment of the Joad family and other migrants in California.

  14. Death threats? Why? • Banks and the large farming corporations that controlled most California farms were not keen on the original novel (it was banned in some states and in several counties in California, and the book was not carried in the municipal library of author John Steinbeck's home town of Salinas, California, until the 1990s) and were even less thrilled that a film was being made of it. The Associated Farmers of California called for a boycott of all 20th Century-Fox films, and Steinbeck himself received death threats.

  15. Song analysis- “Do Re Mi” • Woody Guthrie What do you think “Do Re Mi” means according to the song?

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