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Grapes of Wrath (the movie, 1940)

Grapes of Wrath (the movie, 1940). How would you describe their connection to the land? How did the economic system fail the Dust Bowl migrants? Why was it so difficult to assign responsibility? What kind of hardships did the Joads experience on the road?

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Grapes of Wrath (the movie, 1940)

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  1. Grapes of Wrath (the movie, 1940) • How would you describe their connection to the land? • How did the economic system fail the Dust Bowl migrants? • Why was it so difficult to assign responsibility? • What kind of hardships did the Joads experience on the road? • How did many “Okies” view California?

  2. Federal Aid • Federal Emergency Relief Administration • Hostility toward Mexican communities • Texas • New Mexico • Los Angeles, CA • Private charities overburdened • City work relief goes to whites

  3. Growers • Call for open border • U.S. Dept. of Agriculture • $38 million in federal monies had been invested in irrigation projects • A devious plan

  4. The Mexican “Problem” • Immigration Act of 1929 • President Hoover publicly denounces Mexicans • Repatriations as a solution • William N. Doak, Secretary of Labor • Publicizing raids and scapegoating Mexicans

  5. Repatriation • Local law enforcement • Sick and elderly • Texas • Los Angeles, January 6, 1931 • Scare-ahead tactics • La Placita Raid-Feb. 26, 1931 • Public space and psychological warfare

  6. Repatriation and the Mexican Family • U.S.-born children • climate of fear, few community resources • Mixups and screwups

  7. Consequences of Repatriation • Economic impact • Immigration Bureau » Immigration and Naturalization Service (1933) • FDR reviews repatriation • Banks hurt by repatriation • Mexicans emerge as the quintessential “illegal alien” • dismal plight of Mexicans and Mexican Americans • Disposal of human labor

  8. National Industrial Recovery Act, 1933 Section 7A The Farm Bloc and the New Deal Workers in ag. vs. industrial workers Agricultural Adjustment Act, 1933 National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) 1935 National Labor Relations Board Labor Activism and the New Deal

  9. Grapes of Wrath • John Steinbeck, 1939 • Set during GD • Joad family driven off their farm • Dust Bowl reached Texas and Oklahoma, parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas • Exacerbated economic depression • 100 million acres of land • By 1935, more than 500,000 Americans were left homeless • 1934 and 1936 worst years • Migrate to California • “Okies”

  10. Great Strike of 1933 • 1929 and 1933, wages dropped from $3.50 to $1.90 a day • Violence escalates-Oct. 10, 1933 • Strike receives national attention • Killings force gov’t. intervention • Growers resisting arbitration • Growers agree to federal mediation • Strikers refuse to return to work • Partial victory for strikers • Accepted 75 cents/hour

  11. Pixley, California, Cotton Strike. Pat Chambers speaks to a crowd of strikers during a rally.

  12. Pixley Cotton Strike leader Caroline Decker, a Communist organizer

  13. Pixley Cotton Strike. Procession (line) of trucks carrying strikers as a sort of mobile picket line. First truck has a sign on side: "Join the Picket Lines; Don't Scab."

  14. John Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle is a novel describing the Great Cotton Strike of 1933 by farm workers in the California Central Valley.

  15. Pixley, California, Cotton Strike, 1933. Overview of camp of evicted cotton strikers.

  16. At the Pixley, California,Cotton Strike in 1933, eight armed farmers wait to ambush strikers/unionizers as they cross over to the union hall.

  17. Pixley, California, Cotton Strike, 1933. A line of men (possibly farm owners) stands next to a long line of policemen, preparing for battle.

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