1.
Academic
Controversy
in
the
History
Classroom
This workshop is sponsored in part by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program, coordinated by Waynesburg University.
Historical Question:
Were citizens of the Plains region better off migrating to California during
the Dust Bowl?
Author: Andrew Spears
Class/Grade Level: High School
Overview:
The Dust Bowl occurred in the Plains region of the United States during the 1930s. Millions of Plains
residents migrated to California because they heard there was work there picking fruit. Once they got
there however, they realized that the workforce there was oversaturated and the migrants were not
getting work, and the ones that were getting work would work for low wages. The migrants faced
many of the same hardships such as no work and no food that they would have faced had they
stayed at their homes. Added to the migrants’ hardships was the fact that Californians did not want
the migrants in their state. This Structured Academic Controversy lesson will be used to show the
different perspectives of migrants’ choices during the Dust Bowl.
Document Summary:
Primary Source 1 is an audio file from Mrs. Flora Robertson. In it she describes the Dust Storms she
witnessed. This was a common description of many Midwesterners. This source would be used as
initiation for the students to the lesson. It would be used to show one reason as to why migrants
chose to leave their homes.
Document 2 is lyrics to a song called “Arizona” by Jack Bryant written in 1940. The lyrics address the
central theme of this activity which is to show the varying circumstances that went into a migrants’
decision to go to California. Jack Bryant wrote that he went to California because he had nothing left
at home. But when he got to California, he realized all of the hardships in California and wanted to go
back home. This document would be used to show that their life in California was just as hard as it
may have been back home.
Document 3 is a photo of a migrant home in California. I would add a disclaimer that said that this
was a home of a migrant in California. This source would be used with the next photo of a home of
Midwesterners that did not migrate to California. This photo would be used to support the idea that
Midwesterners would have been better off staying home.

2. Document 4 is a picture of a home in a Midwestern town. I would ass a disclaimer that stated that
this is a home in a Midwestern town. This source would be used for the students to compare and
contrast to Document 3 of a home in California of migrants. This document would be used to support
the idea that migrants were better off staying home
Document 5 is a poem recorded by Lois Judd who was a migrant. The poem is about her struggles
migrating as she was looking for cotton picking jobs. In it she states that she would travel from state
to state looking for work, and could not find anything permanent. After all of her trials, she finally
ended up in California where they found friendly people, but one day soon she would return to
Arkansas. At the end she was asked if she really wanted to go back to Arkansas and she stated that
she wanted to then but she did not want to now. This would support the side that migrants were right
in going to California.
Document 6 is a poem by Flora Robertson entitled Why We Come To Californy. In it she states the
reasons why they had to leave their home and be used as closure because the lesson was started
with an interview by Flora Robertson. This document would be used to support the idea that migrants
were better off going to California because the dust storm took all that they had, and they could start
off new in California.
Procedure (80 minutes):
1. Overview of the objectives of this lesson. (10 minutes)
2. Assignment of positions taken. (30 minutes)
a. Assign groups of four and assign arguments to each team of two.
b. In each group, teams read and examine the Document Packet
c. Each student completes the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2), and works with
their partner to prepare their argument using supporting evidence.
d. Students should summarize your argument in #3.
3. Position Presentation (10 minutes)
a. Team 1 presents their position using supporting evidence recorded and summarized on
the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2 & #3) on the Preparation matrix. Team 2
records Team 1’s argument in #4.
b. Team 2 restates Team 1’s position to their satisfaction.
c. Team 2 asks clarifying questions and records Team 1’s answers.
d. Team 2 presents their position using supporting evidence recorded and summarized on
the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2 & #3) on the Preparation matrix. Team 1
records Team 2’s argument in #4.
e. Team 1 restates Team 2’s position to their satisfaction.
f. Team 1 asks clarifying questions and records Team 2’s answers.
4. Consensus Building (10 minutes)
a. Team 1 and 2 put their roles aside.
b. Teams discuss ideas that have been presented, and figure out where they can agree or
where they have differences about the historical question
Closure:
For closure I would state the pros and cons of migrating to California. After I would state that the dust
storm made the Midwest inhabitable and the migrants had no choice but to go to California. I would
show them some of the letters the migrants got that stated all the opportunity California had to offer
and end by saying California was better than staying at home./

3. Assessment:
Students will be assessed by writing a three page paper stating why migrants had no choice but to go
to California.
Differentiation:
This lesson could be differentiated for an honors class by giving more documents from other places in
the United States to compare and contrast the effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in
different parts of the United States.

4. DOCUMENT PACKET
Document 1
As the Dust Bowl took hold of the Midwest, many Midwestern citizens chose to leave
their homes for California because they believed there was more opportunity in
California.
Flora: We looked in the north and thought it was a blue 'norther a 'comin. Such a huge
black cloud just looked like a smoke out of a train stack or something.
Interviewer: (This was about what time?)
Flora: About four o'clock, nineteen hundred and thirty four.
And, ah, it just came a rollin over and when it got nearer to the house we was all afriad
and we ran into the storm celler because we thought it was a storm. And we lit the
lamp and it was just so dark in there that we couldn't see one another. We just had,
even with the lamp lit, and we just choked and smothered. And my husband was out
after the cows and he stumbled up against the barbed wire fence and he followed the
fence 'til he come to the house. That was the way he was able to get to the house.
And we had to tie wet rags over our mouths. And just to keep from smothering, we'd
dip cloths into buckets of cold water and tie it over our mouths down the cellar. And
that one lasted so fierce for about two hours and then we took courage and seeing we
wasn't going to blow away and went in the house and we wet blankets and hung over
the windows. And then after the first one, of course, we were scared awfully bad. And
the old timers said they'd never seen nothing like that.
Flora: Our house was sealed but that dust come through somehow. Even those
stucco houses by all around the doors and the windows. The dust would be all piled
so high and you just had to mop real good when it was over to get it out. You couldn't
get it out no other way.
Interviewer: (How long did it last?)
Flora: Well, sometimes a real bad one would last for a half a day. Sometimes it would
be a week before we would see the sun. It was just dark. And sometimes the sod
would look black. Sometimes it would look red. It was according to which way the wind
comes whether it was the red dust that was blowing or the black dirt or according to
the way that the storm would come. And we had cattle. We had cows taht we gave
sixty dollars and some ninety dollars in dear old money. And it killed them that was out
in that. And we would cut their lungs open and it would look just like a mud pack or
something. And it just really showed it was the mud.
Interviewer: (First you had the flood, then the grasshoppers, and then the dust
storms?)

5. Flora: Yes. And we waited. It was about five years before we just really give up. But
every year we'd begin going back. And such a, in debt so much we thought we never
could get out.
Interviewer: (I think you would want to come to California.)
Flora: Well, you get afraid to stay in that. There's too many have dust pneumonia and
dying. And it kills too many people.
Interviewer: (And that's when you wrote that little poem about the dust storm? Could
we hear that? Would you mind reading it to us?)
Flora: Well, I'll try but I don't know how good it is.
I came to Oklahoma before it was a state.
Among the shining hills, I roamed from morn to late.
We were happy, healthy people, proud to live in that state.
One dark, gloomy day, what a sight we did see.
A thick smothering dust cloud spread over the prairie.
Killed many poeple and almost smothered me.
We waited and hoped almost five years through.
More people and cattle died. More dust storms come too.
Then we decided something we had better do.
We loaded a few things into an old car.
Hoping west to go very far.
We landed at the government camp on a flat tire.
So tired and hungry, hearts thick and dirty too.
Here we found food and shelter, too.
The California people sure are good to you.
In tents we are camped like Abram of old.
Thank God for a country and a land's that free.
We're so glad our flag's the red, white and blue.
Link to audio file:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/query/r?ammem/toddbib:@field%28DOCID+@lit%284120a1%29%29
Source: Interview with Flora Robertson.

6. Document 2
As people started heading to California they realized that their hopes were
not enough for them to survive there. Many people started to question
whether they should have left their homes in the first place.
We were out in Arizona
On the Painted Desert ground
We had no place to call our own home
And work could not be found.
We started to California
But our money , h it didn't last long
I want to be in Oklahoma
Be back in my old home.
A way out on the desert
Where water is hard to find
It's a hundred miles to Tempe
And the wind blows all the time.
You will burn up in the day time
Yet you're cold when the sun goes down
I wanna be in Oklahoma
Be back in my home town.
You people in Oklahoma
If you ever come west
Have your pockets full of money
And you better be well dressed.
If you wind up on the desert
You're gonna wish that you were dead
You'll be longing for Oklahoma
And your good old feather bed
Vocabulary
Tempe: City in Arizona
Source: Poem by Jack Bryant, Arizona, 1940. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/query/r?ammem/todd:@field%28DOCID+st002%29

7. Document 3
Once the settlers got to California they realized that finding work and living
there was more difficult than they expected. Many migrants were in similar
situations that they would have been had they stayed home.
Source: Picture of a migrant’s home in California.
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8b31000/8b31700/8b31761v.jpg

8. Document 4
Once people got to California, they realized that the homes they made in
California were not too different from their homes they left.
Source: Abandoned home in Arizona.
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8b38000/8b38200/8b38292v.jpg

9. Document 5
Although Migrants did miss their homes, it was a common held notion that
their lives are better off in California than they would have been in the
Midwest.
Follow link for audio file:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/query/r?ammem/toddbib:@field%28DOCID+@lit%284096b1%29%29
Source: Poem by Lois Judd.

10. Document 6
The reason migrants did not stay home was because they had absolutely
nothing at home and believed that they could start off anew in California.
Here comes the dust-storm
Watch the sky turn blue.
You better git out quick
Or it will smother you.
Here comes the grasshopper,
He comes a-jumpin' high.
He jumps away across the state
An' never bats an eye.
Here comes the river
it sure knows its stuff.
It takes our home and cattle,
An' leaves us feelin' tough.
Californy, Californy,
Here I come too.
With a coffee pot and skillet,
I'm a-comin' to you!
Source: Poem by Flora Roberston, Why We Come To Californy, 1940.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/query/r?ammem/todd:@field%28DOCID+st116%29
Some of the language and phrasing in these documents have been
modified from the originals.

11. CAPTURE SHEET Don’t
forget
the
rules
of
a
successful
academic
controversy!
1. Practice
active
listening.
2. Challenge
ideas,
not
each
other
3. Try
your
best
to
understand
the
other
Were citizens of the Plains region better off migrating positions
to California during the Dust Bowl? 4. Share
the
floor:
each
person
in
a
pair
MUST
have
an
opportunity
to
speak
5. No
disagreeing
until
consensus-­‐
Preparation: building
as
a
group
of
four
1. Highlight your assigned position.
Yes: Citizens of the Plains region were better off Migrating to California.
No: Citizens of the Plains would have been better off staying home.
2. Read through each document searching for support for your side’s argument. Use the
documents to fill in the chart (Hint: Not all documents support your side, find those that do):
Document What is the main idea of this document? What details support your position?
#
3. Work with your partner to summarize your arguments for your position using the supporting
documents you found above:

12. Position Presentation:
4. You and your partner will present your position to your opposing group members. When you
are done, you will then listen to your opponents’ position.
While you are listening to your opponents’ presentation, write down the main details that they
present here:
Clarifying questions I have for the opposing partners:
How they answered the questions:
Consensus Building:
5. Put your assigned roles aside. Where does your group stand on the question? Where does
your group agree? Where does your group disagree? Your consensus answer does not have
to be strictly yes, or no.
We agree:
We disagree:
Our final consensus: