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The Dust Bowl leads to the migration of 2.5 million people out of the Great Plains.

1931

The Story of Rural Health
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In the "Dust Bowl," 125 million acres of topsoil on the Great Plains blow away as the result of a 10 year drought and the widespread destruction of native prairie plants. The migration that follows sends 2.5 million people to the West coast, who will be referred to with the pejorative term "Okies." The majority are poor white people, but about 30,000-40,000 are Black migrants. Settling in California along with the white migrants, they will experience the double-bind of discrimination for being migrants from the Dust Bowl and also being Black.