some things i've heard about migration to California

[freepcrusher]

One thing I was surprised about was how such a large population in California is from the south. I have read several documents that much of the state's growth in the post World War II era was from poor farmers from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee etc all moving to LA to work in the aerospace and defense industry. There were other industries to such as Firestone that had plants in LA. The neighborhoods south of downtown LA also had a huge population surge with many poor blacks moving in from the deep south to find better jobs. Elton Gallegly is one of those people whose father came to LA from Arkansas before he was born.

Another thing I've heard is that these migrants from the south forever changed the politics of the state. In the early 1950s, California was largely run by progressive republicans. People like Earl Warren had a monopoly over the state and often won by huge margins due to crossfiling. By 1958, the Republican party in California experienced an apocalypse when they lost everything - the legislature, the governorship, and a senate seat. I have heard that the influx of New Deal Democrats from OK, AR, TN had all brought their voting habits with them and had come to fruition by 1958.

Another thing I've noticed is that the parties essentially converged in the 1960s. The New Deal Democrats who represented labor interests such as Chet Holifield, Clyde Doyle etc were pretty much shoved to the curb by a brash new group of democrats such as Don Edwards, Phillip Burton etc who, although they supported labor, they focused much more on postmaterialist issues such as Civil Liberties and in support of the abolition of the HUAC and reduction of the military industrial complex.

At the same time, many of the new migrants weren't only from the south. Many were Chicago Tribune midwesterners who had grown up as isolationists and skeptical of the New Deal. They were Republicans and people like Hiestand, Rousselot, Utt etc began taking control of the state GOP. This culminated in 1968 when Tom Kuchel, who was an Earl Warren type republican, was defeated in the primary by a hard right conservative. He won the primary 57-42 elsewhere but lost 60-40 in LA, SD and OC counties causing him to lose. The senate seat was captured by the dems and hasn't been recaptured since.

My question is this: Is the upper south character of many of the residents largely gone?
I would think that because many of the migrants from AR, OK, TN etc have largely died and their children have lost the accent and assimilated more, that the culture they brought with them has long since died.

[Sbane]

There is definitely a bit of the south in California still. Places like Bakersfield, or a lot of inland Southern California comes to mind. But mostly I think it's midwesterners that have settled Southern California. And they tend to be Republican leaning but also apt to swing. The Bay Area is more like the northeast.

[Torie]

The culture of California pre WWII, particularly southern California, was more Midwestern in tone with the rather Jewish and NY Hollywood veneer. In the 30's, there used to be Iowa picnics in Long Beach that attracted 60,000 people. That is where most came from. The south thing was concentrated in just certain areas, like Bakersfield, as has been noted.

The accent in CA, particularly SoCal,  is also Midwestern, due to that.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Didn't Orange County have a lot of migrants from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc.?

[phk]

Grapes of Wrath

[Torie]

Didn't Orange County have a lot of migrants from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc.?

No. It started with with German farmers and Dutch dairymen, and then a resort area in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach emerged, with the service personnel living in Costa Mesa, and then OC gradually became suburban, as the midwesterners moved on down from LA County and so forth.

[freepcrusher]

Didn't Orange County have a lot of migrants from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc.?

i don't think so. If it did, OC would have been much more dem. Most of the migrants from OC were either from LA or from conservative parts of the midwest.

The southerners who came to CA came in two waves

. The first was the poor dirt farmers who came to Kern County in the 30s

. The second wave was during and after WWII and also made up of poor farmers but instead of coming to areas like Kern County they moved in to LA. Most of them settled in Clyde Doyle and Chet Holifield's district. Areas I'm talking about would be like  SouthGate, Bell Gardens, Montebello etc.

[jimrtex]

Didn't Orange County have a lot of migrants from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc.?

No. It started with with German farmers and Dutch dairymen, and then a resort area in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach emerged, with the service personnel living in Costa Mesa, and then OC gradually became suburban, as the midwesterners moved on down from LA County and so forth.

In 1980, 45.3% of Californians were born in the State, 38.5% were from other States, 1.0% were natives born abroad or in Puerto Rico, etc., and 15.2% were foreign born.

Leading sources were:

TX 715
NY 711
IL 638
OH 409
PA 400
OK 394
MO 345
MI 336
IA 269
AR 264
MN 254
WA 252

Definitely very small movement from the south east of the Mississippi.  A lot of midwesterners with some other areas like NY and PA ranking high because of the large number of persons born in those states.

Based on where persons born in a State were living in 1980, California was the #1 destination from every state west of the Mississippi, except AK, MT, ND, and LA, which had WA, WA, MN, and TX, respectively by a small margin over California.  

California was also the 1st choice of the 5 states of the Old Northwest.  But cross the Ohio River and California was 7th among Kentuckians.  It was the 9th choice among Carolinians, both North and South.  Generally folks in the east moved north or south.

Massachusetts also preferred California, probably because the neighboring New England states could not absorb large numbers; they didn't want to support the Yankees, and moving north or south to Newfoundland or Haiti didn't have much appeal.

[bgwah]

^ Where did you find those numbers?

[jimrtex]

^ Where did you find those numbers?

http://www.census.gov/hhes/migration/about/placeofbirth.html

The one for 1980 had a pretty simple format:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/migration/about/files/80pob.txt

State of birth v state of residence has been something the census bureau has generated reports on for a long time.  Many of the older censuses have been scanned, but since they are PDFs it takes a long time to find anything.