Remembering "Black Sunday," 90 years ago during Oklahoma Dust Bowl days

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12-04-2025

While there are perhaps few Oklahomans with living memory of that consequential Sunday onApril 14th, 1935, there are probably fewer who have never spent time listening intently to theirelders describe the hardships that came with it.
I can still remember my grandfather Fred Lucas telling me about Black Sunday. At a familygathering 45 years ago, he went into great detail about that fateful day: Like a scene out ofChristopher Nolan's Interstellar, our community in Crawford, Oklahoma came together for abaseball game – as they did every Sunday afternoon – when that ominous dust cloud rolled in.To the God-fearing men and women of Western Oklahoma, who had just finished a multi-nighthellfire and brimstone revival, the scene was more akin to Sodom and Gomorrah thanInterstellar. The great Oklahoma songwriter, Woody Guthrie, captured the apocalyptic thoughtsof his neighbors that day by writing, 'it fell across our city like a curtain of black… we thought itwas our judgement, we thought it was our doom.'
Rushing home, my family spent the next day sheltering the worst storm they'd ever known.When the dust finally settled, the effects left in its wake changed their lives forever.That cloud did not stop in Oklahoma, however. Like a bat out of hell, it steamrolled its wayacross America before reaching our nation's capital. Ironically enough, the storm disrupted theHouse Agriculture Committee's meeting that day to discuss the very issue that caused it:conservation efforts – or rather, the lack thereof.
It would almost be poetic if it weren't such a tragedy; because that cloud was only a symptom ofthe greatest economic depression our country has ever known, and it was the policy mistakes inWashington that led to it.
The perils of the Dust Bowl can be dated back to the Homestead Acts in the late 19th century, inwhich policymakers in Washington allowed millions of Americans to claim land in the West atzero cost. When these settlers came to Oklahoma some decades later in search of a better life,they were unaware of the unique needs of the land.
The sandy soils that blanket the western half of the state were susceptible to erosion when notprotected by vegetation. When the newly arrived settlers began plowing up the grasslands andplanting their crops, it only took a few years before they realized the damage it would cause.The first erosion surveys taken in 1931 estimated that 13 million of the 16 million acres ofcropland had been destroyed by erosion. The situation would only worsen when a severedrought hit the Great Plains just a few years later.
The Homestead Acts intended to bring settlers abundant land in the West and elevate them outof poverty, but these well-intentioned policies would prove of little merit when Oklahomans andAmericans were experiencing the worst of the Great Depression in the early 1930s.As the members of the House Agriculture Committee peered out the window that day in 1935,they could see Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas in the air. The crisis was no longer confined to theplains – it was now on their doorstep in Washington. The call to action could not have beenmore clear.
On April 27th, 1935, only 13 days after Black Sunday, President Roosevelt signed into law H.R. 7054. This consequential bill ultimately gave the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) permanent agency within the United States Department of Agriculture.
The SCS quickly got to work. By June 1936, the Service had 147 conservation demonstrationprojects underway – averaging 25,000 to 30,000 acres each – and 23 full-fledged researchstations. These did not just provide prudent conservation practices, but also the labor andmaterials that farmers recovering from the Dust Bowl so desperately needed. Because of theseefforts, we went from cataclysmic dust storms and depression to having some of the cleanestair, water, and ecosystems in the world.
When I arrived in Washington in 1994, I brought with me many of these stories that mygrandfather told me. They equipped me with a burning desire to avoid the same policy mistakesof the past which brought so much pain and suffering.
My grandfather's stories – while bleak and grey – also encourage me to build on the successes that ultimatelygot us out of that pain and suffering, like the fruitful conservation programs of the 20th century.It's been over 90 years now since Black Sunday, and like the men whose meeting was disruptedin 1935, I too serve on the House Agriculture Committee. It's my mission to avoid the mistakesthey made. Because we have come so far since then, and our mission is to ensure we never goback.
U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas is a fifth-generation farmer from Western Oklahoma. In his Washington,D.C. office, he keeps photos from the Great Depression taken in his Third District as a reminder of thepast.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: A dark cloud symbolizing the impact of the Great Depression | Opinion