A Know section article today explored the huge impact of Dust Bowl-era immigrants on California.
By 1937, officials from counties all over the state met in Sacramento to try to figure out what to do about the flood of needy immigrants. “Los Angeles is the most seriously hit of all the counties of the state,” declared a July 11, 1937, San Francisco Chronicle article on the upcoming summit. Officials said nearly 20 percent of Los Angeles County’s estimated 2.3 million population was on relief, a forerunner of welfare. Between April 1936 and April 1937, more than 2.9 million people had entered California by auto; of those, 74 percent said they planned to settle in Southern California.
If you want to learn more about the era, check out these links:
See Dorothea Lange’s haunting photos of Dust Bowl refugees
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