1. Taking into account Jim Gregory's article how would you interpret the performances of of Bob Wills and Merle Haggard as evidence of the evolution of Okie social status in California? How would you relate these songs to the stories told by John Ford in Grapes of Wrath or the songs of Woody Guthrie in the film Columbia?
2. According to Gregory what was the cultural and political impact of Okie migration in California? What are the ideological dimensions of Okie cultural production? (use the performances by Wills and Haggard and or search other artist performances cited by the Gregory article)
3. According to Gregory what did Steinbeck get wrong in his interpretation of the Okie experience in California?
4. How would you compare the Bracero program to the experience of Japanese or Chinese immigrants in the west?
5. How have economic outcomes for Okie immigrants compared to the economic outcomes of Latino and Asian immigrants in the mid to late 20th century?
6. What was the relationship between the Bracero program and the UFW and how was this relationship significant to the strike and grape boycotts of the mid 1960s?
7. How do you explain the simultaneous success of Chavez and La Causa and the landslide victory of Ronald Reagan in his race for Governor of California in 1966?
1. Compare the articles from The Black Panther to material from our last class, such as Reagan's speech and "Okie from Muskogee," what are some of the key political, economic, and social issues in the 1960s and early 1970s? What stance did the Black Panthers take on some of these issues?
2. How did liberal and conservative racial politics converge during the the Proposition 14 debates discussed by HoSang? Does a consideration of the results of the 1964 ballot help explain the creation of the Black Panthers?
2. Look at the Los Angeles Times articles for different perspectives on the violence in California during the 1960s.
4. Can you interpret Richard Nixon's speech on the philosophy of government as a reaction against movements like the black power movement in Oakland? Who does Nixon refer to when he mentions "the silent Majority"?
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