I'm doing some research on the mass migrations caused by the 1930's Dustbowl catastrophe that affected 400,000km2 of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, along with parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. I understand that there were some Poles in these parts who had arrived in the 1850's, following larger German immigration.
The course I'm putting together is on the theme of protest through popular song, and I wondered if any PF-ers had any family history of being among the largest displacement in US history (by 1940 2.5m out of the great plains). Any other resources on protest songs from this period would be greatly appreciated (not my hero Woody, though - got loads.) Thanks.
As we see from the map, the catastrophe affected mostly central states of USA. And at this time Polish emigrants were concentrated in two places: Illinois (especially Chicago) and New York (mainly the city of New York, Buffalo and Rochester). The Polonia formed also smaller clusters in the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. So luckily Dust Bowl missed the majority of Polish diaspora. Of course I'm not saying that it does not directly touched any Pole, it surely does some (no metion about it however in any Polish source), but Polish community as a whole felt only the indirect negative effects of those dust storms.
