The Scourges of Poverty

The Okie people lived under incredible strife beginning when they lived in Oklahoma. Most of the Okie people were dry farmers—farmers that had no water reservoirs or irrigation systems and had to depend entirely on rain. These farmers suffered in the late 1930s when the perfect storm of a five-year drought and high, unrelenting winds merged to create the uninhabitable Dust Bowl. The people who only survived on what they earned on their crops faced bankruptcy and foreclosure. The Okies suffered the devastation that is connected with poverty—illness, malnourishment and death.

No one could blame the Okies for bailing out of the awful region that was their homeland—especially since farmers in California were urging the people to move there. They advertised that there were jobs and the good life for everyone. Unfortunately, the publicity did not live up to...