At the beginning of the 1930's, many states like Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Colorado were affected by the Dust Bowl (a storm of dust and sand). It causes a drought, because of it the soil was very dry and the plantations died.
The farmers couldn't stay in this situation because they earned no money so they chose to leave their farms and went to a place where they were supposed to live in a better way.
The refugees flee the dust bowl. This dust bowl destroyed the economy in the state they lived.
The migrants affected by the dust storm are usually farmers or modest people. This people are forced to migrated to find hope for a new beter life. They migrate to the weast in states like california, where the work is described as abundant and where daily life is easy. But to arrive in California there is a long, exhausting journey to make. This migrations are majority carried out in route 66 because it's a main migration road to the USA.
We are happy to show you our exhibit of the exodus of the Okies during the Dust Bowl years. The Dust Bowl started in 1940’s. It was a dust storm and a difficult period for migrant farmers. We report their journey with 8 photographs. They fled from the Dust Bowl to California. They left their farms behind and travelled on Route 66 by car or by foot with their remaining belongings because the drought caused a cessation of agricultural production. On the way, the migrants went across many states and many towns. It was a very long and exhausting trip.
In the 1940's, a lot of the American population whose farmers and Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, population headed to the west cost more precisely to the state of California. The migrants left from The Great Plains, they left farm and their goods behind and travelled on Hightway 66 by car or by foot with their remaining belongings.
In the 1930s the Dust Bowl touch a large part of America like Oklahoma, Arkansas… The locals migrante and are largery farmers. They migrate aboard their car or on foot taking away with their families and some possesions. They then embark on a long journey to major cities or states such as california route 66 is a long natioal road leading from Missippi to bakersfield. It is also knownw as the mother road decause it was the main migrant road during the Dust Bowl.
Our exhibition is made of eight pictures with captions in the style of Dorothea Lange. Most of these images were taken by this woman and are parts of her work as a photographer and reporter for the American government in the 1930's.The main topic of this exhibition is the Great Okie migration during the Dustbowl, between the 1930's and the 19404's. The natural disasters which hit the Great Plains repetitively during this period led to a mass migrations. Oklahoma is the the state located in the Great Plains with the highest number of people who left.
