Chapter Six: Weedpatch School Summary and Analysis

Hart informed the President of the School Board that he was removing the Okie children from the public schools due to overcrowding. The school board president was jubilant and didn't care what reason was used to remove them, he was just happy that that the problem that had been plaguing him was over. Hart was granted permission to build an emergency school for the Okie children which would be constructed and operated at no cost to taxpayers.

Hart had become acquitted with Dewey Russell, who managed the Weedpatch Camp and who was a close friend of John Steinbeck. Hart was allowed to lease a ten-acre site of federal land next to the camp for $10. The school became known as Weedpatch School and began in a forlorn patch of dirt with two old dilapidated buildings that...