California's 'Bum Blockade'

Summary

Introduction: The Dust Bowl Migration

In the early 1930s, the Great Plains of the United States were ravaged by severe dust storms, a phenomenon later termed the "Dust Bowl." These relentless storms made the region nearly uninhabitable, decimating crops, homes, and the health of thousands. Oral histories from individuals who lived through this period vividly capture the terror and devastation. One participant recounts, "The dust was relentless and inescapable. It covered every inch of people's homes...—[04:04].

The Exodus to California

Facing hopelessness, millions were compelled to abandon their farms, embarking on one of the largest internal migrations in American history. Over 300,000 migrants journeyed to California, seeking refuge and opportunity in what they believed to be a land of prosperity. The iconic Route 66 became the main artery for these "Okies" and other displaced families, symbolizing both hope and hardship. As historian Elisa Minoff notes, "By 1942, half a million people had moved out of the Plains states and over 300,000 of them made their way to California...—[23:03].

James Davis: Rise of a Controversial LAPD Chief

Amidst this influx, James "Two Gun" Davis emerged as a pivotal figure in Los Angeles. Appointed as the interim Chief of Police in 1926, Davis quickly modernized the LAPD, enforcing standardized uniforms and rigorous marksmanship training. His aggressive tactics against vice and drug dens earned him both fame and notoriety. One Oral History Participant describes him as "a suave, tough, and authoritarian man...—[11:03].

The Bum Blockade: An Attempt to Halt Migration

As the Dust Bowl migrants continued to pour into California during the Great Depression, local leaders grew increasingly anxious about the strain on resources and potential social unrest. In response, Chief Davis orchestrated what became known as the "Bum Blockade" in February 1936. Deploying 135 officers along California's extensive borders, Davis aimed to prevent the entry of migrants deemed undesirable. A surveyor's account highlights the subjective enforcement of this policy: "If it's a rundown car, it might be stopped. A man traveling alone is more likely to be stopped...—[37:51].

Public and Political Backlash

The blockade faced significant opposition from various quarters. Media outlets, neighboring states, and advocacy groups criticized the policy as unconstitutional and discriminatory. Notably, California State Senator Martin derided it as "dammable, absurd, and asinine...—[43:10]. Additionally, grassroots movements led by organizations like the ACLU began challenging the legality and morality of the blockade, further eroding its support.

Legal Challenges and the Downfall of the Blockade

The legal system ultimately proved unfavorable for Davis's blockade. In March 1936, California's Attorney General declared the blockade unconstitutional, stating, "Organized government, state, county or municipal should not attempt the achievement of a laudable purpose by unlawful means...—[47:18]. Coupled with mounting public dissent and financial burdens, the blockade was quietly dismantled by early April 1936, marking its swift demise after barely two months.

Legacy and Historical Impact

Though the Bum Blockade was short-lived and largely ineffective, its legacy persisted. It highlighted the malleable definitions of belonging and the ease with which policies could target vulnerable populations during times of crisis. The eventual Supreme Court decision in Edwards v. California (1941) underscored the unconstitutionality of such exclusionary practices, ensuring the protection of interstate migration rights for U.S. citizens. Historian Mark Wilde reflects, "The blockade shows the malleable definition of who deserves to belong or not belong in a community...—[51:07].

James Davis's career eventually ended in disgrace, revealing the darker facets of his tenure as LAPD Chief. However, the Bum Blockade serves as a historical lesson on the complexities of migration, societal fear, and the balance between security and civil liberties.

Conclusion

"California's 'Bum Blockade'" delves deep into a tumultuous chapter of American history, illustrating how economic despair and societal fears can lead to restrictive and controversial policies. Through personal testimonies, expert insights, and historical analysis, the episode paints a comprehensive picture of the challenges faced by migrants and the lengths to which authorities like James Davis went to control demographic changes. This episode of Throughline not only recounts past events but also prompts reflection on contemporary issues surrounding migration and public policy.

---

Notable Quotes:

• "You just felt like you were going to choke. You know, that dust was just, you couldn't hardly breathe. If you knew anything about the scripture, you know what it says that the moon will turn dark and this, that and the other. So we just had the feeling that this is the end of time. I thought that was the end of the world." — Oral History Participant [03:20]

• "He believes maybe there's some fights, maybe there's some people hurt, but if he gets those criminals, it's okay." — James Davis [11:43]

• "Organized government, state, county or municipal should not attempt the achievement of a laudable purpose by unlawful means." — California Attorney General [47:18]

• "The Constitution was framed upon the theory that the peoples of several states must sink or swim together. And that in the long run, prosperity and salvation are in union and not division." — Oral History Participant [50:36]

Transcript

[Sponsor Message]

This message comes from Hometap. What if you could use your home equity to pay off your debt without monthly payments so you could focus on reaching your other financial goals with a Hometap home equity investment. You can see if you Pre [e-mail].

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Hey everyone, before we start the show, you may have heard that President Trump has issued an executive order seeking to block all federal funding to npr. This is the latest in a series of threats to media organizations across the country.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Millions of people, people like you, people like me, depend on the NPR network as a vital source of news, entertainment, information and connection. We are proud to be here for you. And now more than ever, we need you to be here for us.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

It's time to join the movement to defend public media. Visit donate.NPR.org and if you already support us via NPR or another means, thank you.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Your support means so much to us. Now more than ever, you help make NPR shows freely available to everyone. We are proud to do this work for you and with you now on to the show.

[Oral History Participant]

The only time that I really remember that I was scared was that dark.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Sunday, Oklahoma, April 14, 1935.

[Oral History Participant]

We can see a cabin. It rolled in smoke almost.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

On the horizon. A wall of black dust over 500ft tall stretching as far as the eye could see.

[Oral History Participant]

It'd be just death. Quiet. Neighbor said there was birds flying ahead of that storm.

[Mark Wilde]

And.

[Oral History Participant]

That storm hit.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

60 mile per hour winds.

[Oral History Participant]

You couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

The storm ripped through six states from Nebraska to Texas. In some places, total darkness lasted an hour.

[Oral History Participant]

Black. Whole black. It was as black as the ace of spades.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

It was a day that haunted the minds of those who lived through it. They called it Black Sunday.

[Oral History Participant]

You just felt like you were going to choke. You know, that dust was just, you couldn't hardly breathe. If you knew anything about the scripture, you know what it says that the moon will turn dark and this, that and the other. So we just had the feeling that this is the end of time. I thought that was the end of the world.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The very next day, a journalist coined a new term to describe what was happening across the Great Plains. He called it the Dust Bowl. What you just heard were oral histories conducted with people who lived in the heart of it.

[Oral History Participant]

But those dust storms just devastated the country. They were perpetual and you can depend on it.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

The dust was relentless and inescapable. It covered every inch of people's homes. It choked the crops. It filled people's lungs, cleaning, causing hundreds, maybe thousands of people to die from dust pneumonia. The Dust bowl made the Great Plains nearly uninhabitable.

[Oral History Participant]

So many of them left went to California. Lots of folks back east, they say, leaving home every day, feeding the hot old dusty way to the California line.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Woody Guthrie, the Dust bowl troubadour, immortalized this time in song.

[Oral History Participant]

Across the desert sands they roll. Getting out of that old dust bowl. They think they're going to a sugar bowl, but here's what they find.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Looking east from Los Angeles, the city's top brass became began to panic. The Dust bowl migrants were not the kind of people they wanted coming to their shining city. So they began to hatch a plan to stop them.

[Oral History Participant]

Now the police at the port of entry say you're number 14,000 for today. Oh, if you ain't got the Doraem, folks, you ain't got the Doraine.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

I'm Rund Abdelfakhtah.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And I'm Ramtin Arablouei.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Today on the show, producer Anya Steinberg tells the story of one of the largest internal migrations in American history and the rogue police chief who tried to close California's borders to stop it.

[Oral History Participant]

California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see. But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot if you ain't got the door. Hi, this is Kyle from Boystown, Nebraska. You are listening to Throughline from npr.

[Sponsor Message]

This message comes from Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

This message comes from bluehost. Bluehost can make building a great website easy and offers a 30 day money back guarantee. Customize and launch your site in minutes with AI, then optimize with built in search engine tools. Get your great [e-mail] this message comes from NPR sponsor Tools and Weapons, the podcast hosted by Microsoft's Vice chair and president Brad Smith. Across three exclusive conversations on the company's 50th anniversary, Microsoft's CEOs Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella share the stories, dreams and drive that fueled the digital revolution and explain why it may be at its most exciting point yet for these and more conversations with other thought leaders. Search Tools and Weapons Wherever you listen.

To podcasts, this message comes from Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and Auto policies. Try [e-mail], progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

[Narrator]

Part 1 the Great White Spot It's a balmy February day in Los Angeles, California. The year is 1926, just a few years before the Dust bowl begins and Detective Lieutenant James Davis, otherwise known as.

[James Davis]

Two Gun Davis because of his incredible.

[Narrator]

Marksmanship, is sitting at his desk at.

[James Davis]

The Detective Bureau office, a very proper man.

[Narrator]

Just then a reporter barges through and informs the 36 year old Davis that he's just been named the interim chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Davis blinks in surprise as he realizes that he's now in charge of all police officers in the nation's so called wonder city that's quickly becoming a shining metropolis driven by the riches and glamour of Hollywood, oil and real estate for whoever can afford it.

[James Davis]

Davis started his life very poor.

[Narrator]

Born in 1889 in Texas to a strict Methodist mother.

[Oral History Participant]

Once as a youngster I found a.

[Sponsor Message]

Pack of playing cards.

[Oral History Participant]

I took them home and asked my mother what they were. She told me and hurriedly threw them in the fire.

[Narrator]

Davis upbringing shaped his worldview.

[James Davis]

He lived a lifetime of sobriety.

[Narrator]

This is Bill Lasher, author of the Golden California's Border War on Dust Bowl Refugees.

[James Davis]

He was a very brusque, very authoritarian man.

[Narrator]

At age 16 he ran away from home for a while. He farmed and worked hard labor jobs. Then he joined the army and was stationed in the Philippines.

[James Davis]

The army brought discipline to his life, a sense of order and stability.

[Narrator]

The military was a good fit. But once he left the army his future was less clear. So like many others, he migrated to.

[James Davis]

California and arrived in Los Angeles penniless and unsure what he was going to do next.

[Narrator]

He was so poor that all he had to wear was his army uniform. Until he heard about a new opportunity with the lapd.

[James Davis]

He signs up and gets work as a as a beat officer.

[Narrator]

But it doesn't go well. He gets kicked out. He drifts for a while, traveling across the US doing odd jobs.

[James Davis]

But then he writes a letter to the then police chief asking for another chance.

[Narrator]

And he gets it. In 1912 he returns to the LAPD. After a while he's placed on the vice squad.

[James Davis]

He was an early drug warrior. He saw it as a moral contagion to be a drug addict.

[Oral History Participant]

The underworld fears but does not hate him. He'll play square. His victims tell you.

[Narrator]

Close your eyes and imagine a cop from a film noir movie. Well, that's pretty much James Two Gun Davis.

[James Davis]

He is Known for sort of daring raids on things like drug dens and vice dens.

[Oral History Participant]

His friends call him Jim and his enemies give him lots of elbow room.

[James Davis]

At one point he like, swung through a window to, you know, arrest some criminals.

[Narrator]

And the local papers like the LA Times eat it up.

[Oral History Participant]

He's got guts is the consensus of opinion among the gentry that ought to know.

[Narrator]

The press is obsessed with him. They wax poetic about his, quote, eyes blue and keen and his, quote, thick, wavy hair.

[Oral History Participant]

He knows what it is to have the muzzle of a revolver pressed up against his rib.

[James Davis]

He believes maybe there's some fights, maybe there's some people hurt, but if he gets those criminals, it's okay.

[Narrator]

In 1921, after years of paying his dues in the rank and file, the higher ups at the LAPD finally start to take notice of Davis. They give him his first promotion.

[James Davis]

Then it's like wildfire.

[Narrator]

Davis moves fast.

[James Davis]

Bust after bust after bust.

[Narrator]

He becomes head of the vice squad.

[James Davis]

Promotion after promotion after promotion until that.

[Narrator]

Fateful day in 1926 when he learns that he's been chosen as the interim chief of police. Shortly after, Davis gets the job for good. And he immediately starts to reshape and modernize the force into a more professionalized.

[James Davis]

Standardized uniform police force.

[Narrator]

Under his watch, Davis, LAPD officers have to look a certain way.

[James Davis]

He enforces wearing the uniforms, a certain militaristic style, and they have to know.

[Narrator]

How to use their guns.

[James Davis]

He insists that members of the LAPD are top marksmen.

[Narrator]

Davis is a showman when it comes to his raids. But he's making all these other changes quietly.

[James Davis]

He is what the LA Times describes as soft spoken and hard fisted. This is the picture that his friends will paint you of the youngest chief of police in the history of the city. That soft spokenness, that idea that he's not saying anything but he's taking action is the image that he wants the entire police force to promote.

[Narrator]

La, civic and business leaders as well as the press like the LA Times, applauded his efforts. He was exactly the kind of police chief they wanted running la because they had plans for what this up and coming city should look like and be like. New friends and their money, its resources are unlimited, its wealth untold, its possibilities unsurpassed.

[James Davis]

Especially through the 1920s, a lot of the leadership of the city is wanting to be sort of a beacon that literally they articulate as the, quote, white spot of the United States.

[Narrator]

Yeah, you heard that right. The white spot, the prosperity of this great white spot is the talk of the country, even though LA was formerly part of Mexico and continued to be a vibrant, multi ethnic city, a lot like it is today, it didn't matter. It was about the image of what it could be more than the reality. Los Angeles is the great white spot on the industrial map of the United States. Cash in on this great era of prosperity.

[Mark Wilde]

Los Angeles very quickly recognized that its key to prosperity lay in advertising and promoting images.

[Narrator]

This is Mark Wilde, a history professor at Cal State Los Angeles.

[Mark Wilde]

The Los Angeles Times put out something called a midwinter edition every late January, early February, right in the teeth of the winter for the Northeast and the Midwest. And they would send it out and it would be full of pictures of people sitting in their gardens growing these huge oranges, these huge fat babies on the lawn. And they'd say, you know, it's 75 and sunny here in Los Angeles. Why don't you come out?

[James Davis]

This image becomes produced of a city of empty land, of a place where anyone, the right kind of person, and there is a. There's a very clearly articulated idea of people with money already who can come and invest and build on this quote, unquote, empty land. That's in Los Angeles.

[Mark Wilde]

The business plan is to promote it as a place of prosperity, to promote it as a place of good investment. And a corollary to that is that there is a docile, willing workforce that's not going to cause trouble.

[Narrator]

Which was an important bit of marketing because in recent years, labor organizers had taken aim at big business across the country. There were headlines about unrest, disruptions, sometimes even violence. Louisiana. Was like, no, no, none of that here.

[Mark Wilde]

And the city government is really in tune with promoting those interests and making sure that the image persists and that it's not threatened by working class communities, immigrant communities that might be engaged in activities that would undermine it.

[Narrator]

And Davis, the crusader against vice, becomes a symbol of this effort.

[James Davis]

And he's constantly talking about the threat, about the external threat to Los Angeles, whether it's from drug users or vagrants or communists or perceived communist labor agitators. This idea that people with ill intent are coming from one source or another to harm the safe and orderly process of life in Los Angeles.

[Narrator]

For Davis, that threat had to be dealt with by any means necessary. As one columnist put it, Davis quite.

[Oral History Participant]

Honestly and sincerely believes that the country would be better off if the whole question of constitutional rights was forgotten.

[Narrator]

To do this, he ramped up the work of the LAPD's nascent Los Angeles Intelligence Squad, better known as the Red Squad, which as its name implies, engaged.

[Mark Wilde]

In a number of activities, including surveillance.

[Oral History Participant]

Red squad of police in city augmented.

[Mark Wilde]

They would spy on people who were suspected of radical activities and keep tabs.

[Narrator]

On suspected communists and labor organizers.

[Oral History Participant]

Reds arrested after rioting but it wasn't.

[Narrator]

All in the shadows. The squad also knew how to put on a show to make it clear who did and didn't belong in la.

[Oral History Participant]

Quick arrests have been ordered to forestall any anti American move.

[Mark Wilde]

They would engage in public intimidation. They would clear demonstrations. They would bully people. They like to pull out their batons and crack heads.

[Narrator]

Police Chief James Davis had his critics, but they didn't slow him down until.

[James Davis]

There'S a kidnapping in early 1928.

[Narrator]

Mother believes her son kidnapped the mystery.

[Oral History Participant]

Surrounding the case of Walter Collins, nine.

[Narrator]

Years of age remains impenetrable.

[James Davis]

Police say.

[Narrator]

In March 1928, a young boy named Walter Collins goes missing and for months the LAPD cannot find him. It's a bad look, and the pressure on the LAPD keeps growing. But then one day, the boy shows up in Illinois. Collins YOUTH found in East Mother hears good news. His mother immediately sends the money to have Walter brought back to her in Los Angeles. But when they reunite, she looks at the child and says, that's not my son. And the LAPD is like, yes, he is. And when she insists that he's not.

[James Davis]

They arrest her and commit her to a mental institution. This causes eventually a tremendous scandal when it turns out that they haven't caught.

[Narrator]

The kidnapper and they haven't found Walter either. The boy they brought back is an imposter, a runaway pretending to be Walter. There's a huge fallout. People are angry at the LAPD.

[Oral History Participant]

Removed from office Chief of Police James E. Davis on the grounds of incompetency, inefficiency and failure to properly enforce the laws.

[Narrator]

Tensions continue through 1929 and then.

[Mark Wilde]

The.

[James Davis]

Stock market crashes and that begins the Great Depression.

[Narrator]

Everything is in chaos. And shortly after the market crash, Davis loses his job as the police chief. But before long, he'll get another chance.

[Jose Hernandez]

This is Jose Hernandez from California, and.

[Mark Wilde]

You'Re listening to a line from NPR.

[Sponsor Message]

This message comes from BetterHelp. This Mental Health Awareness Month. BetterHelp is encouraging everyone to take care of their well being and break the stigma associated with mental health. BetterHelp works to make people healthy and happy. Because when people are taken care of, everyone benefits, including families, colleagues and communities. Visit betterhelp.com NPR to get 10% off your first month.

This message comes from HomeTab with a home equity investment From Hometap, you get access to your home equity in cash without monthly payments to use for whatever you'd like, from paying off debt to making renovations or handling emergency expenses. Receive your funds in just a few weeks, start pursuing your financial goals and start getting more out of life. See if you pre qualify for an [e-mail] that's hometap.com this message comes from Mint Mobile.

If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees and free perks, Mint Mobile might be right for you with plans starting from 15 bucks a month. Shop plans [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of 45 dollars for 3 month 5 gigabyte plan required new customer offer for first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint mobile for details.

[Narrator]

Part 2 California is closed.

[Oral History Participant]

I remember blue every day. Sometimes in the mornings you could see the imprint of your head on the.

[Narrator]

Pillow would have been that dusty in the 1930s. The Dust bowl and the economic devastation of the Great Depression wreaked havoc on the lives of people across the country, but particularly the Great Plains.

[Mark Wilde]

It's the south, it's the Northern Plains. Lots of farmers lose their farms or become convinced not to farm anymore because prices crash.

[Elisa Minoff]

I think there's a lot of desperation.

[Narrator]

This is Elisa Minoff. She's Director of Economic Security and a senior fellow in Policy History at the center for the Study of Social Policy, and she wrote her PhD dissertation all about internal migration during this time period.

[Elisa Minoff]

By the mid-1930s there have been so many bad years that people sort of lose hope in being able to sustain themselves on the farms.

[Narrator]

Once bustling family farms fell silent and nearly a quarter of the country's workforce was unemployed.

[Oral History Participant]

So many people were down on their luck and didn't have anything to eat and no job. You couldn't buy a job, you couldn't get a job.

[Narrator]

By 1942 and a half million people had moved out of the Plains states and over 300,000 of them made their way to California. Entire families packed up their belongings and hit the road.

[Elisa Minoff]

What would strike us about it today is that the journey was long, much longer than you know. Driving down Route 66 today.

[Narrator]

Route 66 in 1930, the mother road, as John Steinbeck would later dub it in his novel the Grapes of wrath, was over 2,400 miles long and stretched from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles.

[Mark Wilde]

You had a steady stream of people coming across and oftentimes these broken down looking jalopies with all Their, you know, life's possessions piled on top of them, families with kids. And that that procession was real.

[Narrator]

The journey was difficult and lonely.

[Elisa Minoff]

As people passed from one town to the next, they were likely to have experienced a xenophobia. Local sheriffs in these towns that people passed through were very intent on ensuring that families moved on and did not stay.

[Jose Hernandez]

All a transient hears is no work, no relief, keep moving.

[Elisa Minoff]

And that really only sort of foreshadowed the difficulties they would have once they arrived in California.

[Narrator]

Is this the dumping ground for the country's unemployed?

[Mark Wilde]

Louisiana Times 1932 in overall terms, migration.

[Narrator]

To California slows, but people are still coming in. It's just not the kind of people Los Angeles city leaders wanted to attract.

[Mark Wilde]

From the perspective of LA civic leadership, the character, the makeup of that population changes dramatically. There's a lot more folks coming in looking for work. Without capital, they're not going to be buying a home, they're not going to be moving into these middle class districts. They're desperate.

[Narrator]

At first. There's a lot of sympathy for these migrants.

[Mark Wilde]

Los Angeles had this network of support for destitute people. And so you had a lot of the missions and settlement homes and different types of institutions that would cater those folks sort of in downtown la.

[Narrator]

This was the case in cities across the country.

[Mark Wilde]

The understanding basically was we were taking care of our own people. The care for these folks was really the duty of the communities in which they resided.

[Narrator]

But the Depression changed everything.

[Mark Wilde]

Things got so tough so quickly, so many people lost their jobs, lost their homes, lost their way of livelihood, that it swamped this private network of support that had existed. Completely overwhelmed the community chest organizations, the soup kitchens. There was just no way they could handle it. And so as the decade progressed and the Great Depression continued, folks began to try to find ways to try to manage this burden. And one of the ways for communities where people were coming in was to try to exclude folks who they would claim didn't belong.

[Narrator]

And an easy target was all the newcomers. Driving into LA on Route 66, some.

[Mark Wilde]

Folks began to say, all right, folks who aren't working now, they have different options. Maybe they should be getting back to work. And if they aren't, then why not?

[Narrator]

Newspapers and politicians at the time often referred to these migrants as indigents, vagrants, transients or bums.

[Mark Wilde]

People are exhausted and I think some of their sympathy is starting to run out.

[Narrator]

In 1933, La elects a new mayor. His name is Frank Shaw and he has a reputation for, for being anti migrant.

[James Davis]

Shah advocated for A county wide anti indigent ban in the 1930s and sort of the early days of the Depression.

[Narrator]

But there's a catch.

[James Davis]

The problem is that Shah was born in Ontario, Canada.

[Narrator]

Shah is Canadian. He is ironically a migrant himself.

[James Davis]

And also there's not good evidence that his parents ever had him or his brother naturalized.

[Narrator]

And if that's the case, it means he's not actually eligible to be LA's mayor. It's a scandal in the making. And when Harry Chandler, the publisher of the LA Times, catches wind of the story, he sees an opportunity. He goes to Shaw and says, let's make a deal.

[James Davis]

As the story goes, at least he agrees to hold back these reports that are alleged to prove that Shaw is in fact a Canadian. And in exchange he gets Shaw to agree to reinstall Davis as Chief of Police.

[Narrator]

James Davis, as in the recently fired police chief who tends to play it loose when it comes to people's civil rights, all in the name of preventing crime.

[James Davis]

Chandler and others, people in the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce want someone like Davis, who isn't as concerned about the criticisms that happen with anti labor activities to be there at the head of the LAPD.

[Narrator]

And it works. Davis is reinstated as the LAPD's chief of police with the express purpose of picking up where he left off.

[James Davis]

The gloves are off, I guess, and he runs with it. Davis hits the ground running.

[Narrator]

It's not long before the Red Squad, the anti communist policing unit, is again starting to infiltrate political movements and things.

[James Davis]

Like that and starts to try to smear people perceived to be labor agitators.

[Oral History Participant]

War. War to the finish. War in which every radical head will be stomped back into the earth as quickly as it rises.

[Narrator]

And of course Davis keeps the interests of Chandler and other business leaders of LA in mind and they in turn scratch his back. We appreciate that Chief Davis and his co workers in Los Angeles are fighting the battle of all of Southern California.

[Sponsor Message]

When they hold firmly in check the subversive activities of radical agitators.

[Mark Wilde]

The Los Angeles Times, which as much as anyone really supported them, would report how they, how they were sort of controlling the Reds and getting rid of the criminals and all of that suppression of violence.

[Oral History Participant]

Commended Colonial War Society praises Chief Davis.

[James Davis]

And local police forces.

[Narrator]

This time around, Davis gravitated to the attention. He wanted everyone to know that he meant business.

[Mark Wilde]

He was a very media friendly person. He loved to take pictures of himself, looking tough, pointing guns at the camera. He really embraced the image.

[Narrator]

The state's incoming migrants quickly became the focus of his policing work. By the mid-1930s, these efforts were particularly poor, pointed at single men, which Davis and critics would call hobos or vagrants.

[Mark Wilde]

Those were the folks who were considered a threat. They're unattached, they're potentially prone to criminality, they're prone to labor disruption. And if you have a single male who doesn't have a family to provide for, no children, provide for all. Those types of responsibilities tend to engender non owners only sympathy but responsibility.

[Narrator]

Speaking to a group of Hollywood Women in 1934, Davis made it clear that his fight to rid the city of vagrants was an extension of his work to rid the city of communists.

[Oral History Participant]

Americans are asleep. In two to six years Communism will.

[Sponsor Message]

Be a reality in the United States.

[Oral History Participant]

If drastic steps are not taken to check it.

[Narrator]

Davis and LA's business elites feared that poor migrants coming into the state were more likely to join a labor movement or vote for socialist ideas, which they saw as a growing threat. In California we mean mass production.

[Oral History Participant]

Under modern conditions, the land workers are to have the best land and the factory workers the best machinery.

[Narrator]

In 1934, Upton Sinclair, most famous as.

[Mark Wilde]

A muckraking journalist, he wrote a book called the Jungle about the Chicago meatpacking.

[James Davis]

Industry and until very recently a socialist.

[Mark Wilde]

He runs in the Democratic party and to everybody's shock he wins the Democratic primary and he runs for the governor of California. And he devises a plan called Epic.

[Oral History Participant]

End poverty in California.

[Narrator]

This is Upton Sinclair speaking later in his life about his upstart campaign.

[Oral History Participant]

And of course Epic suggests something important and something wonderful.

[Mark Wilde]

And this stuns the civic leadership in Los Angeles and across the state. They're scared to death because these policies seem to reflect a direct assault on business as usual.

[James Davis]

They fear that their hold on power is going to faltering.

[Narrator]

So they get to work on a smear campaign to discredit Sinclair.

[Mark Wilde]

They develop a message to counter Sinclair's campaign. They paint him as a radical, they paint him as a leftist.

[Narrator]

They even suggest he's a Russian agent.

[Oral History Participant]

I'm going to vote for Upton St. Clair. Will you tell us why? Upton St. Clair is the author of the Russian Government and it worked out very well there and I think it should do here.

[Mark Wilde]

And then they enlist the Hollywood studios who obviously want a part of this as well.

[Narrator]

A lot of Hollywood bigwigs do not want radical politics. They want a nice business friendly la. So they chip in and help produce so called newsreels that would run before feature films at movie theaters.

[Mark Wilde]

They create these fake newsreels, they have these actors hired to portray unemployed workers coming into California, riding the rails and saying, I'm coming to California because I heard Upton Sinclair is going to be governor. And once he's in there, I'm going to be able to take advantage of these great resources that are being able to provide for me.

[Oral History Participant]

California is going to be clear of poverty and everybody gets things for nothing.

[Narrator]

Upton Sinclair tries to fight it, calling it the lie machine, but it's a loud and inescapable campaign and it works.

[Mark Wilde]

He's defeated fairly easily.

[Narrator]

James two Gun Davis is watching this election unfold. He sees the growing fear of migrants. And he gets an idea.

[James Davis]

On February 3, 1936, 135 officers in squads of seven and seven leave Los Angeles. They drive to 16 stations around the state of California. So anywhere where there's a domestic state.

[Mark Wilde]

Line, Arizona, Nevada, all the way up to the Oregon border. So he spread them out along this huge border, hundreds of miles long, alongside.

[James Davis]

Highways and near rail crossings.

[Mark Wilde]

And he arranged for all of them to be deputized by the local police or sheriff's office up there to legally.

[James Davis]

Work as law enforcement officers in those counties.

[Narrator]

The papers call it the bum blockade. And all along the California border, LAPD officers set up and wait.

[Oral History Participant]

Hello, my name is Jeff Cooper from Bozeman, Montana. I love Throughline. Usually listen to it on the way home from skiing with my two young daughters or you'll catch me listening to.

[James Davis]

It on the way to my job.

[Oral History Participant]

As a flight paramedic. Keep up the good work. I love Throughline and it's a great show. Thank you.

[Sponsor Message]

This message comes From NPR Sponsor 1Password Secure access to your online world from emails to banking, so you can protect what matters most with 1Password. For a free two week trial, go.

To 1Password.com NPR this message comes from Bombas. Nearly 30% of marathoners end their race blistered. Bombas running socks are strategically cushioned to help. Say bye to blisters. Run to bombus.com NPR and use code NPR for 20% off your first purchase.

[Elisa Minoff]

Part three that do re mi.

[Oral History Participant]

While.

[Jose Hernandez]

The worker on the survey observed the officers, about half the automobiles were allowed to pass without any inspection.

[Narrator]

In 1936, the California state government released a nearly 400 page report on migrants to the state. And an entire section of it was devoted to surveyors eyewitness accounts of the LAPD's border blockade.

[Jose Hernandez]

A beautiful new Packard sedan with four passengers was signaled to pass. The officer turning to the worker, remarking, we would make enemies if we stopped people like that. A 1929 Ford Roadster, dripping water and oil with a homemade trailer attached came to a stop under the canopy. The police beckoned them to halt.

[Mark Wilde]

They would try to discourage people who looked like they were very poor from coming into California.

[James Davis]

It's being enforced very subjectively.

[Jose Hernandez]

The old car was lacking paint in spots, spattered with oil soaked dust, and probably not washed for a year or so.

[James Davis]

If it's a rundown car, it might be stopped. A man traveling alone is more likely to be stopped.

[Jose Hernandez]

The family totaled nine. The oldest boy, 18, sat alone in the middle of the trailer. Heaped around him were what appeared to be all the worldly possessions the family owned.

[James Davis]

Questioning them, asking why they're coming in, to say where they're coming from, who they are, what their name is, proof of work, proof of means, or proof you have somewhere to go.

[Jose Hernandez]

A check with the police revealed that the family were coming to California from for the first time to see the wife's sister. They had $30 in cash. The captain of the highway patrol informed the travelers that it would cost $20 to clear the licenses on the car and trailer. For 10 minutes or so, the scene was tense. The mother clutched her baby girl to her as she broke out in sobs. The boys sat quietly, staring into space, waiting for their parents to decide. The father, unshaven and unwashed, silently took his place behind the wheel. The battery was low and the motor did not respond, but when it did, it sounded as if it too was undesirable and in need of assistance. The father turned the forward around and the family of nine went back over the road they had traveled, having denied police the privilege of fingerprinting them as not wanted in California.

[Narrator]

Surveyors. Reports of the blockade told a story of inconsistency. The police stopped hitchhikers, cars, trains and buses coming into the state. In some places, migrants were fingerprinted and those prints were sent off to LA and to Washington D.C. to check for a criminal background. Some were detained in local jails. Others were just turned around and sent back across the state border to pull off the blockade. From a legal standpoint, the LAPD was relying on an anti indigent state law that had been passed in 1933 that.

[Mark Wilde]

Prevented the importation of people in the state, quote, unquote, likely to become a.

[Narrator]

Public charge charge, a public charge, meaning they would be a drain on the city's coffers.

[Mark Wilde]

So the law itself is sort of representing that ideology and that then becomes the legal justification for the bomb blockade. They weren't trying to stop all Migration into California. They were trying to stop certain people from coming in.

[Narrator]

As soon as the LAPD's border blockade was rolled out, it made headlines.

[Oral History Participant]

Most public officials chatter at length in print about the desirable things they are going to do. A few do things first and talk about them afterward. While the interminable talkers at Sacramento are fuming and spluttering, 136 of the city's finest are on the job. Turning back undesirables.

[Mark Wilde]

I could find people who both supported and opposed it.

[Oral History Participant]

Hobos of America will fight in the courts if necessary to preserve their constitutional rights. In this city's current Border Patrol campaign against indigent transients, the debate turned on.

[Mark Wilde]

A question of character of the blockade's targets. Were they victims of economic circumstance who deserved sympathy? Or were they arriving due to some cultural or moral flaw? Were they unwilling to work?

[Narrator]

Why should California become the stamping ground for undesirables? Professional bums, men and women who come here merely to live off others?

[Mark Wilde]

The phrase that Davis often used was won't workers that they refused opportunities that were available to them in their home communities or in other parts of the country, and that therefore we did not owe them entry.

[Narrator]

In this sense, the blockade was building on sentiments that already ran deep. Cities and towns had always struggled with the question of what to do when desperate people showed up on their doorsteps. And anti vagrancy laws had existed since before the US was even founded in the 1930s. LA wasn't even the only place that tried out a blockade.

[Elisa Minoff]

There were similar actual border blockades.

[Narrator]

The governor of Florida had sent the state police out to the state's border two years before the LAPD's blockade.

[Elisa Minoff]

But still the LA border blockade attracts a huge amount of attention because of the theatricality of it in some places.

[Narrator]

Police Chief Davis blockade became a laughingstock. On the border with Nevada, some men from Reno put up a sign mocking the blockade that said stop Los Angeles city limits. Backlash against the blockade spread and it was reported out in newspapers across the region.

[Oral History Participant]

Bum blockade is merely LA publicity, says Oregon Governor Martin.

[Narrator]

A California state senator called the program.

[Oral History Participant]

Damnable, absurd and asinine.

[Narrator]

Some of the sheriffs and border towns refused to deputize Davis officers.

[Oral History Participant]

I do not intend to place county officers and taxpayers in a position which almost certainly would lead to lawsuits.

[Narrator]

And a newspaper publisher near the border of Nevada said, people here are anything.

[Oral History Participant]

But friendly to the plan. In fact, they don't like it a bit so far. They think it's just a lot of hoey.

[Narrator]

In the pages of the LA Times, Davis was given space to defend his blockade and to keep people updated on how he thought it was going.

[James Davis]

February 5, 1936.

[Oral History Participant]

I vowed if the people so ready with criticism of this plan, know the facts. The hordes of indigents are coming with the idea of getting on relief rolls, begging or stealing.

[James Davis]

February 10, 1936.

[Oral History Participant]

Within 36 hours after placing a blockade, the tide of foraging floaters was turned.

[Narrator]

And on February 12, he took to the airwaves.

[Oral History Participant]

Los Angeles police. Calling all cars. Attention all cars. Broadcast 116. Be on the lookout for Eddie Griffith. Described as American, age 23.

[James Davis]

Calling all cars. Was this sort of predecessor to shows like Dragnet and other cop shows?

[Narrator]

The show was based on real cases from the lapd.

[James Davis]

It's sort of a propaganda machine for the lapd.

[Oral History Participant]

And now we present Chief James E. Davis of the Los Angeles Police Department. Good evening, friends.

[Narrator]

That week, Davis had a special story prepared for critics of his blockade.

[Oral History Participant]

The killer whose career of crime will be unfolded for you here this evening was a typical migratory criminal who entered the state in the parlance of a hobo.

[Narrator]

The killer, a man named Eddie Griffith, had embarked on a crime spree, traveling from Seattle to California by hitchhiking and riding the rails.

[Oral History Participant]

He came into California without money, without any visible means of support. He sought to forage in green pastures, even if he had to rob and kill to do so.

[Narrator]

And before he launched into the story, Davis made his case.

[Oral History Participant]

Tonight's story is the true story of one migratory indigent whose criminal career under a proper fingerprint and border patrol program might have been nipped in the bud.

[Narrator]

If something like his border blockade had existed, Davis said Eddie Griffith never would have made it to California. The only hitch was there was no Eddie Griffith. The story wasn't true. It was a dramatized version of a couple of police cases stitched together and embellished. And the same was starting to seem true of the entire premise of Davis border blockade. His claims about hordes of dangerous migrants storming the border were seeming flimsier each day.

[Oral History Participant]

While Los Angeles city cops huddled in the high Sierras engaged in a war to save California from the hobos, A checkup showed the war was dying out due to an almost complete lack of hobos.

[Elisa Minoff]

Police Chief Davis claimed that they turned away thousands of migrants at the border. I think that's hard to verify.

[Mark Wilde]

They only actually stopped a small number of people.

[Narrator]

On March 17, the Attorney General of.

[Elisa Minoff]

California finally issues an opinion and says that, no, the police chief cannot do.

[Narrator]

This, Calling the blockade Unconstitutional, he says.

[Oral History Participant]

Organized government, state, county or municipal should not attempt the achievement of a laudable purpose by unlawful means.

[Elisa Minoff]

California's one state in a sisterhood of states.

[Oral History Participant]

As other states must do unto California, so must California do unto them.

[Narrator]

By the end of March, things were looking grim for the blockade's future. The ACLU had organized a lawsuit against the blockade, which newspapers reported was only dropped after police intimidated the lead plaintiff. Bad press about the blockade continued to pile up. Most of all, it was expensive. And so in early April, after a little over two months, the blockade ended. Its demise came quietly, without any fanfare or headlines in the paper.

[Mark Wilde]

I think it was fairly obvious to most people at the time that this was for show that this was not making an appreciable difference in migration into the state. Lots of people were still coming in. It was fairly easy to get around the blockade if you needed to.

[Elisa Minoff]

Looking back from the perspective of history, no, it was not effective.

[Narrator]

In 1938, James Davis career as police chief ended for good this time he was forced to resign after it was revealed that he'd helped cover up the bombing of a private investigator who'd been looking into corruption in the lapd. Davis spent the final years of his life sailing aboard a tuna trawler and collecting his pension. Meanwhile, California's attitude towards migrants changed with.

[Mark Wilde]

The arrival of World War II. Suddenly, everything slams into reverse.

[Narrator]

The US starts ramping up the war effort in 1940, sending supplies to allied forces in Europe.

[Mark Wilde]

Suddenly California and many other places state want as many migrants as possible because of the building war effort. And so communities that might have wanted to exclude people before are now desperate for them.

[Narrator]

And in 1941 a Supreme Court case would cement that change. Edwards v. California. The case revolved around a 1933 law, the same anti indigent law that Davis used as legal justification for his blockade. The plaintiff had been caught bringing his brother in law, who had no job and no money, into California. And the justices ruled unanimously in his favor.

[Oral History Participant]

It is a privilege of citizenship of the United States to enter any state of the union.

[Mark Wilde]

We can no longer have any of these laws prohibiting interstate migration of citizens.

[Oral History Participant]

If national citizenship means less than this, it means nothing.

[Mark Wilde]

And so that eliminates that law precisely because of national defense. That this may be a barrier to sending labor to places where we're going to need it in case of a national emergency.

[Oral History Participant]

The Constitution was framed upon the theory that the peoples of several states must sink or swim together. And that in the long run, prosperity and salvation are in union and not division.

[Narrator]

In some ways, Davis's legacy, the border blockade, lived on, just maybe not with the effect he intended.

[Elisa Minoff]

It really did lead people to try and interrogate the rights that they sort of instinctively felt were being violated by the blockade. People said if citizenship means anything, it means that I should be able to move about the United States and to be treated like I belonged where I ended up.

[Mark Wilde]

I think the blockade shows the malleable definition of who deserves to belong or not belong in a community. Different people can come under attack, even those that you wouldn't expect, like native born white American citizens. The sort of instrumental morality of attitudes towards migrants and homeless people depending on social demand. It really does turn on a dime.

[Oral History Participant]

You want to buy you a home or farm that can't deal nobody harm? Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea? Don't swap your home old cow for a car? You better stay right where you are. You better take this little tip from me. Cause I look through the want ads every day but the headlines on the papers always say if you ain't got the do ray me boys, you ain't got the do re me why you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee, California is a garden of Eden, A paradise to live in or see. But believe it or not you won't find it so hot if you ain't got the do ray me.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

That's it for this week's show. I'm Rund Abdelfattah.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And I'm Ramtin Arablouei. And you've been listening to throughline from npr.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

This episode was produced by me and.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Me and Lawrence Wu, Julie Cain, Anya.

[Jose Hernandez]

Steinberg, Casey Miner, Christina Kim, Devin Kadayama, Irene Noguchi.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Voiceover work in this episode was done by Mark Roth, Kevin Jones, Tessa Hall, Ari Steinberg, Bergen Hoff, and Alice Oriola.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Thank you to Johannes Durgi, Edith Chapin and Colin Campbell.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Special thanks to Shelly Lemons, Steve Kight and the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at Oklahoma State University for access to the Dust, Drought and Dreams Gone Dry collection to Ludlow Music for permission to use Woody Guthrie's Do Re Mi. And to the Balch Art Research Library at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for their recording of Upton Sinclair.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Fact checking for this episode was done by Kevin Voelkel. The episode was mixed by Robert Rodriguez.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band Drop Electric, which.

[Oral History Participant]

Includes Naveed Marvi, Sho Fujiwara, Anya Mizani.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And finally, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, Please write [e-mail] and make sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify or the NPR app so you never miss an episode.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Thanks for listening.

[Sponsor Message]

This message comes from Warby Parker what makes a great pair of glasses at Warby Parker? It's all the invisible extras without the extra cost, like free adjustments for life. Find your [e-mail] or visit one of their hundreds of stores around the country. This message comes from Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right. They offer premium wireless plans for less and all plans include high speed data, unlimited talk and text, and nationwide coverage. See for [e-mail] Switch this message comes from Warby Parker Prescription eyewear that's expertly crafted and unexpectedly affordable. Glasses designed in house from premium materials starting at just $95, including prescription lenses. Stop by a Warby Parker store near you.