In February 1936, amidst the profound economic despair of the Great Depression and the ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl, Los Angeles Police Chief James E. Davis initiated the infamous California Bum Blockade. This unprecedented measure sought to halt the influx of poverty-stricken families, primarily from the dust-torn states of the Midwest, who were desperately seeking a new life in California.
The California Bum Blockade represented a drastic and controversial attempt by a state to manage the overwhelming human migration caused by widespread hardship, sparking debates about constitutional rights and social responsibility.
The Dust Bowl Exodus: A Nation on the Move
The genesis of this mass migration lay in the devastating Dust Bowl, a period of severe drought that gripped the Southern and Midwestern plains beginning in 1931. Years of unsustainable farming practices, coupled with the lack of rain, turned fertile farmlands into barren expanses. “Black blizzards” of dust literally blew away topsoil and crops, rendering over 100 million acres useless across states like Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Hundreds of thousands of people, dispossessed and destitute, were forced to abandon their homes. Many saw California as a land of opportunity, a “promised land” where agricultural work was plentiful. Approximately 200,000 of these drought refugees made the arduous journey west, their hopes often clashing with the harsh realities awaiting them.
Upon arrival, migrants discovered a labor market already saturated by the Depression. The available jobs were few, and the surplus of workers drove wages down to unsustainable levels. Even when entire families toiled, they often couldn’t earn enough to support themselves. Many resorted to living in makeshift “ditchbank” camps along irrigation canals, creating significant public health concerns. For those who found agricultural work, life remained transient, demanding constant movement to follow seasonal harvests across the state.
California’s existing infrastructure, already strained by its own share of the Depression’s burdens, was overwhelmed by the daily arrival of up to 6,000 migrants. Though these refugees hailed from various states, Californians often pejoratively lumped them together as “Okies” or “Arkies.” They became easy scapegoats for the state’s economic woes, accused of everything from petty crimes to overcrowding schools and stealing jobs from native Californians.
Warnings and Initial Responses
As the migration intensified, calls to deter new arrivals grew louder. On August 24, 1935, the Los Angeles Herald-Express published a stark warning, urging indigent transients to “Stay Away From California.” H. A. Carleton, director of the Federal Transient Service, explicitly stated that newcomers would be sent back to their home states, citing California’s heavy relief load and the closure of transient shelters. He estimated the daily influx at 1,000 people, underscoring the perceived crisis.
The state government briefly attempted a program in 1935 to construct camps for these migrants, but the initiative was quickly taken over by the federal Resettlement Administration. Despite this federal assistance, many Californians feared the escalating costs of welfare relief and public education, setting the stage for more extreme local measures.
Chief Davis and the “War on Bums”
It was against this backdrop of anxiety and perceived burden that Los Angeles Police Chief James E. “Two-Gun” Davis, with significant backing from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, various public officials, railroads, and financially strapped state relief agencies, declared “war” on these emigrants. In February 1936, he initiated the California Bum Blockade, deploying 136 police officers to 16 major points of entry along the Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon borders.
These officers were given explicit orders to turn back any migrant with “no visible means of support.” Davis justified his actions by loosely interpreting California’s Indigent Act of 1933, which criminalized bringing indigent persons into the state. He maintained that his officers required no special approval, asserting that “any officer has the authority to enforce the state law.” While many border-county sheriffs deputized Davis’s officers, some refused, notably Modoc County, which expelled 14 LAPD officers for attempting to turn away local residents returning home.
Davis optimistically projected that the blockade would save $1.5 million on “thieves and thugs” and an additional $3 million in welfare payments. Most contemporary newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, championed the effort, even likening Chief Davis to England’s 16th-century Queen Elizabeth I, who allegedly “launched the first war on bums.” However, the now-defunct Los Angeles Evening News offered a dissenting voice, editorializing that the blockade “violates every principle that Americans hold dear… the right of any citizen to go wherever he pleased.”
Despite these protests, the deployed officers were highly effective, turning back hundreds of railroad-fare evaders, hitchhikers, and families in overloaded vehicles. Railroads cooperated by halting freight trains near police outposts, giving “captured” migrants a stark choice: leave California or face a 180-day jail term with hard labor.
When critics denounced the blockade as an outrage, The Los Angeles Times defiantly responded, “Let’s Have More Outrages,” further praising the initiative as a necessary measure to protect taxpayers’ money and keep out “imported criminals… radicals and troublemakers.” Even when California’s Deputy Attorney General Jess Hession declared Davis’s methods illegal, he was overruled by Governor Frank Merriam, who essentially gave his tacit approval by stating it was “up to them [Los Angeles officials] if they can get away with it.”
The Blockade’s End and Lasting Impact
The California Bum Blockade ultimately concluded after a couple of months. Questions arose regarding the use of city funds for the operation, and the threat of numerous lawsuits mounted. In early April, Chief Davis recalled his officers, yet he proclaimed the blockade a success, attributing the “absence of a seasonal crime wave in Los Angeles” to the 11,000 people reportedly turned away.
Even after the formal blockade ended, efforts to control migration continued. In 1937, the federal Resettlement Administration’s program was transferred to the newly formed Farm Security Administration, which established 13 migrant camps. These camps aimed to temporarily house 300 families each in tents on wooden platforms, fostering self-governing communities where residents worked for room and board. However, these efforts proved insufficient. Many migrants, even those who found work, were still forced to live in squalid tents and shantytowns, famously dubbed “Hoovervilles”—a bitter testament to their plight and discontent with President Herbert Hoover’s administration. These makeshift communities proliferated across areas like the Arroyo Seco, San Gabriel Canyon, and Terminal Island.
Border control measures persisted, albeit in different forms. In 1939, district attorneys in several California counties most affected by the Dust Bowl migration began to aggressively enforce the 1933 Indigent Act, indicting and convicting more than two dozen individuals who had merely helped their relatives move to California. This severe application of the law caught the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the prosecutions. The issue eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in a landmark 1941 ruling, affirmed that states had no right to restrict interstate migration by poor people or any other American citizens, a crucial victory for civil liberties.
The Farm Security Administration continued its temporary housing program throughout World War II. By 1942, it operated ninety-five camps, housing seventy-five thousand people, as the focus shifted to mobilizing sufficient farm labor for the war effort. However, the burgeoning defense industry, fueled by the war, dramatically improved California’s and the nation’s economy. Many migrants either joined the military or found stable employment in West Coast shipyards and defense plants. This new stability allowed numerous Dust Bowl refugees to finally put down permanent roots in California, where their descendants reside to this day, marking the eventual integration of a population once deemed unwanted.
Conclusion: A Controversial Chapter in California’s History
The California Bum Blockade remains a controversial, yet significant, chapter in American history, illustrating the extreme measures taken during periods of intense economic hardship and mass migration. While short-lived, it highlighted fundamental tensions between states’ rights, individual freedoms, and humanitarian concerns. The blockade, born of fear and economic strain, ultimately underscored the resilience of the American spirit and led to a crucial Supreme Court decision that reinforced the right to interstate travel for all citizens, regardless of their economic status. This period profoundly shaped California’s social fabric and legal landscape, reminding us of the complexities inherent in managing societal crises.
