“Okies”

   The term Okie was an abbreviation of Oklahoman but was applied to the thousands of migrant workers and others who left the Midwestern states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri, driven out by the economic collapse in the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. It became a pejorative term: As a character in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath said, it used to mean you were from Oklahoma, “Now it means you’re a dirty son of a bitch. Okie means you’re scum.” The majority of migrants headed West to California, Oregon, and Washington, where they were often met with resentment and discrimination. They did not assimilate into the local population until well into World War II.