The Bum Blockade: Los Angeles and the Great Depression . The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the. American settlement westward, explain American development. Turner's essays described the frontier as the time and place. The social upheaval and. Great Depression changed the very concept of the. Americans as travelers to that. Dust Bowl migrants. Protection of. the civilization that existed in the West meant that all savage infringements. Los Angeles had to be prevented. Southern Californians, shaped by their imagined community, did not want to relate to Depression- era America, and instead . An embodiment of this fear. Bum Blockade, a border patrol set up by Los Angeles Chief of Police. James E. Davis at California's borders to deny those deemed undesirable from. The. development of Los Angeles' imagined community rested on regional nationalism. Southern Californians. The. imagined community is the idea that myths perpetuated through literature and. It is imagined, according to. Benedict Anderson, . He has no idea what they. But he has complete confidence in their steady. An excerpt from Radio's America: The Great Depression and the Rise.The. myth of Southern California's self- image was largely shaped by the early. Southland's local authors. The myth included the idea. Los Angeles was the most civilized community in the West, which made. Angelenos resent future migrants who were not as refined as they perceived. Los Angeles was the merging of traditional Protestant and. Another idea that shaped the. Angelenos was the special relationship residents of Southern California had with the beautiful natural surroundings; horizons and lands that. Europe. Angelenos considered themselves culturally. America's colonial roots, but saw themselves as. The Angelenos were the civilizers, the settlers of the untamed and. West, and their accomplishment in this regard made them hold themselves. These beliefs furthered their perception that other people. While. the myths linking Southern Californians are different from myths uniting other. The imagined community of Southern California was created through. For Anderson, the tool to create the imagined community is print- language. His idea. of the imagined community derives its origins from early stages of nationalism. European civilization. In a way. the novel and the newspaper were . In 1. 87. 4, Truman published the. Semi- Tropical California, which endorsed California as . The Southern. Californian farmer would be . Frederick. Jackson Turner argued that the . Turner further emphasized. This is because, historically. The community would become . Considering the vast differences that shaped. United States, comparisons are drawn between the United States and the collection of. European continent. These factors are evidenced in the. Southern California's imagined community throughout the. Therefore, Southern California was a. Southern Californians were linked by the. Along. with rising regional nationalism, Turner argued that . Many. Los Angeles residents perceived the so- called . The migrants were seen as culturally inferior to Angelenos. Now it means. you're a dirty son- of- a- bitch. Okie means you're scum. Don't mean nothing itself. They were. promptly stereotyped, exactly as a racial minority.
They were called Okies and. Arkies: they were shiftless and lazy and irresponsible and had too many. Once I went into the foyer of this third- rate. Growing up during the Great Depression. Most West Virginians didn't see what was so great about it. One of the great attractions to the radio listener was that once the cost of the original equipment was covered, radio was free. Radio pioneer David Sarnoff predicted the following in. Bakersfield and I saw a sign: Negroes and Okies. The Okies were. seen as ignorant, shifty, and incestuous, while Angelenos considered themselves. Christian. The. regional identity and territoriality of Southern Californians after the close. Americans from other regions, notably the Okies. The. idea that feelings of nationalism . This. nationalism and group conscious could . Anti- Chinese. sentiment had existed in California since the mid- eighteenth century, and the. Chinese were seen as . It was. also believed that the Chinese were . However, a key difference between the closing of California borders. Japanese, Chinese, African- Americans, and Mexicans and closing its. Dust Bowl migrants is that the Dust Bowl migrants were white. During the Depression, Angelenos distinguished between desired and. Angelenos. perceived Okies as a different ethnic group from themselves based on their. Angelenos were then united by a common . This hostility was epitomized by. Southland in the 1. The. All- Year Club of Southern California, established in 1. Los. Angeles businessmen as a response to the lack of tourism during the summer. Southern California, contributed to the print- language discourse. Los Angeles' imagined community. The All- Year. Club aimed to boost the economy and improve the character of Los Angeles by. With the onset of the Great Depression, the. Chamber of Commerce insisted that . Legislation. was proposed by the State Assembly as early as May 1. California. On May 1. Jones- Redwine Bill was proposed in the California State Assembly which aimed to . In April 1. 93. 5, there. Despite. some beliefs that immigration restrictions were out of the State's power, . The. Bum Blockade was planned and established shortly after the failed passage of. Jones- Redwine Bill in the State Senate, and developed with two lines of. The first line was in Los Angeles, andincluded. Upon arrest, vagrants were. State line. The officers conducted vehicle and train. Treatment of migrants already in Los Angeles consisted of. Los Angeles Police Department, along with jail time. It may be contended that this requires a. Angelenos were able to perceive. Being white American citizens was not enough to travel. California. The. Los Angeles Police Department's plan of action in implementing the Bum Blockade. Evading the payment of railroad fare was . Those. arrested for evading railroad fares or vagrancy was given the choice of. An. additional section of the Penal Code made criminals out of those who helped. California; . According to. Los Angeles Police Department's Annual Report for 1. In a chart showing the seasonal trend of specified. Los Angles from July 1. January. 1. 93. 6, there are high peaks in crime during the winter months. Chief. Davis claimed that these seasonal trends are a result of the migration of. Los Angeles as a winter holiday resort, and claimed that one. California was because it was better to starve in. The numbers in correlation to the chart show that. The. LAPD Annual Report contained a number of exhibits showing the need for the. In. one of the exhibits (Exhibit V), showing . Comparing. the data from Exhibit V to that of Exhibit V- A - showed the number of crimes in. State of California for. Los Angeles. less than one year also had been in the State less than one year, meaning that. Okies. The exhibit showed that 6. Additional. reasons for the Bum Blockade stemmed from the fact that many of those arrested. California and had not been in the State for more than a year. The. Annual Report examined a preliminary check at Colton and Victorville from December 2. With. hundreds of nonresidents entering the state on rails in just sixty hours, the. This railroad check was confirmation for Chief. Davis that the border patrol and deportation of migrants from Southern. California was imperative for the maintenance of Los Angeles' imagined. Most migrants. attempted entry on the highways in both the Northern and Southern Areas. The. popular entry route in the Central area was by railroad. The chart depicted. April 1. 7, 1. 93. Police Department and. State numbered 1. The. closure of the Federal Transient Camps in October 1. California had the. The. Federal Transient Camps, operated by the Federal Transient Program in the early. As. displayed in Exhibit I of the annual report, the total individuals under. Federal Transient Camps throughout 1. California was responsible for the care of a significant number of migrants. When the. Federal Transient Camps were closed, California was left to deal with the. California, on average, was host to 1/7 of America's homeless population by the middle of. In. order to garner support for the Los Angeles Police Department's activities at. LAPD Chief Davis used the Los Angeles. Times as his main source of communication to the citizens of Los Angeles about the Bum Blockade. Times reports characterized the migrants as. Bolshevik bums, . The most. common statistic cited by the press during the Bum Blockade was the relation of. Davis reported a 2. Los Angeles after ten days of the Blockade. The LAPD's. fingerprinting campaign . Davis also reiterated that . A month. after the start of the LAPD program, the Veteran's Bureau announced the numbers. The. benefits of the Bum Blockade were noticed by more organizations than just the Los Angeles police. Other Southern California law enforcement agencies similarly reported. California residents once the blockade began. Davis emphasized the. Councilmen who voted on the resolution to keep the migrants out. California generally agreed with Chief Davis' concerns about undesirables. California citizens were financially hard- pressed. Due to the regulations of. Californians who owned any equity were not eligible to receive state. Angeles Mayor Frank L. Shaw reiterated his approval for the Bum Blockade the. State. City of Boston and Smith v. Turner helped the. LAPD's argument for the legality of the border patrol. They may prevent them from entering their territories, . The precedent set here exemplifies the negative image. Okie, as well as the necessity of preventing these migrants from. California. The language used by civic employees and. Los Angeles residents. Dust Bowl migrants. Most. outcries against the Bum Blockade arose from concerns about civil liberties and. American citizens. The American Civil Liberties Union criticized. LAPD's actions at the border. The Los Angeles ACLU director Ernest Besig. Federal criminal action against Los Angeles, claiming that policies. Governor Merriam said of the Los Angeles Police Officers. In a letter to the editor of The Nation. Rose Marie Packard criticized the Los Angeles Border Patrol as .
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