Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
This session was presented by James P. Gregory Jr., a doctoral candidate at the University of Oklahoma, for “Perspectives in History”: The Oklahoma History Symposium.
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, once housed a vibrant community of Polish immigrants who worked in the zinc smelters before and during World War I. They congregated in ethnic enclaves around the smelters outside the city's limits. As the city of Bartlesville grew, its need for expansion conflicted with these immigrant neighborhoods. To achieve its ends, the municipal government used nativist and progressive policies such as police interference, quarantining, and environmental rule in its efforts to remove the immigrants. The 1918 outbreak of influenza offered city leaders a distinctive opportunity to blame and further isolate the workers’ population and force them out of their homes. The city’s abuse of power erased an entire community from the area and its historical record.
This session was presented by James P. Gregory Jr., a doctoral candidate at the University of Oklahoma, for “Perspectives in History”: The Oklahoma History Symposium.
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, once housed a vibrant community of Polish immigrants who worked in the zinc smelters before and during World War I. They congregated in ethnic enclaves around the smelters outside the city's limits. As the city of Bartlesville grew, its need for expansion conflicted with these immigrant neighborhoods. To achieve its ends, the municipal government used nativist and progressive policies such as police interference, quarantining, and environmental rule in its efforts to remove the immigrants. The 1918 outbreak of influenza offered city leaders a distinctive opportunity to blame and further isolate the workers’ population and force them out of their homes. The city’s abuse of power erased an entire community from the area and its historical record.
