Anti-Okie Law

In 1937 California passed an "Anti-Okie Law," making it a misdemeanor to "bring or assist in bringing" any indigent person into that state. The law was later declared unconstitutional, but the bias remained. There are those who, like Will Rogers, believed that the migration of "Okies" to California raised the intellectual level of both states. In many western states "Okie" continues to be used as a derogatory term. In Arizona an "Okie" is a person with "a pee-stained mattress on top of his car," and an "Okie credit card" is a siphon hose and gas can. In other states an "Okie" is a calf of the lowest quality run through an auction ring.

In the late 1960s Gov. Dewey Bartlett attempted to make the word a complimentary name for Oklahomans, and in 1970 an Oklahoma writer, Mike McCarville, also attempted to dignify the term in his book Okie. Commercial companies joined the movement; the Tulsa Bottling Company even bottled a soft drink, "Okie Cola," for a short time. The attempts failed, for you cannot change a derogatory word into a compliment by declaring that it is merely an abbreviation for state origin. Most old-time Oklahomans still resent the insulting implications, for they are Oklahomans, not "Okies."