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Throughout the twentieth century difficult economic circumstances have resulted in reduced employment opportunities. In-migrants have long borne the brunt of these limitations, facing open hostilities from residents who felt that these “outsiders” were undeserving of employment and social services. Within the context of the 1930s Depression in the Central Valley of California, such negative public sentiment was often directed at “Okies,” the 315,000 former residents of the “Western South” who crossed the California state line in search of employment in the agricultural fields of the Golden State.
In this dissertation, I examine the changing conceptualizations of Okie identity throughout the twentieth century in Californias Central Valley. In the early years after their arrival to the “Golden State,” Okies found themselves the subject a public discourse that classified them as socio-spatial transgressors, unfit for inclusion in California society. Denied by social and economic means from easily participating in this discourse, Okies turned to their own venues or expressing their own public identity. Okie migrant constructions of their own public identity developed in direct response to the labels bestowed upon them by Californians. While Californians drew boundaries of exclusion along state lines, Okies turned to notions of inclusion based upon their American heritage.
With the rise of World War II and a rebounding economy, Okies faded from public discourse for several decades. With their socio-economic rise, though, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Okies once again rose to public attention as they sought to reassert their own unique identity. Now a socially, economically, and politically dominant group in Californias Central Valley, Okies have gained their own voice and begun to re-establish their own unique public identity. Importantly, however, like the Okie identity of the