Similar
A black and white photo of a man standing outside of a house, Virginia. Farm Security Administration photograph
Bunkhouses under constrtuction in preparation for the expected increase in employment at the nearby powder plant. Childersburg, Alabama
Winding up belt which extended from tractor to operate corn grinder, Grundy County, Iowa
Coal miner, his wife and two of their children (note child's legs). Bertha Hill, West Virginia
Mr. Lee Meade does some farming near Centralhatchee. Heard County, Georgia
[Untitled] - A black and white photo of two women standing in a doorway
Frank Hopkins been sweeping at Belton Mfg. Co. 3 months 50 cents a day. Location: Belton, South Carolina
Installing a pump at a house rebuilt for a family who had moved out of the Santee-Cooper basin. Near Bonneau, South Carolina
Related
Native Texan farmer on relief. Goodliet, Hardeman County, Texas. "Tractored out" in late 1937. Now living in town, and on the verge of relief. Wife and two children. "Well, I know I've got to make a move but I don't know where to. I can stay off relief until the first of the year. After that I don't know. I've eat up two cows and a pair of horses this past year. Neither drink nor gamble, so I must have eat'n 'em up. I've got left two horses and two cows and some farm tools. Owe a grocery bill. If had gradutated land tax on big farms, that would put the little man back again. One man had six renters last year. Kept one. Of the five, one went to Oklahoma, one got a farm south of town and three got no place. They're on WPA (Works Progress Administration). Another man put fifteen families off this year. Another had twenty-eight renters and now has two. In the Progressive Farmer it said that relief had spoiled the renters so they had to get tractors. But them men that's doing the talking for the community is the big landowners. They got money to go to Washington. That's what keeps us from writing. A letter I would write would sound silly up there."
The Dickerson Family, Dependent Parents. Father (not in photo) works in a machine shop. All except mother and two babes work in the cotton mill, Winona. Mother said, "Father earns good pay. The children all together earn twelve to fourteen dollars a week. Been here two years. Came from the farm, but we couldn't get the children back onto the farm now. They like the mill work." Home was bare and poorly kept. Queries:- Where does the money go? Where is the need for the little ones working?. Location: Winona, Mississippi
Family of B. F. Clark, 219 N. 4th Street. This family has worked in 8 different mill villages in the past five years. Clark was a prosperous farmer, before that, but his farm ran down. He says mill families get the habit of moving from place to place. "And mills are writing all the time, giving great inducements and trying to fool you too." Some of the families around here have moved much more than we have. Moving eats up a heap of money." The father and all in group except mother and baby are in the mill. Home bare and ill-kept. Location: Columbus, Mississippi.
Migratory worker in auto camp. Single man, speaks his mind. "Them WPAs are keeping us from a living. They oughtn't to do it. It ain't fair in no way. The government lays them off (that is in Work Projects Administration - 1939) and they come in because they're locals and take the jobs away from us that never had no forty-four dollars a month. I came out of Pennsylvania, used to be an oil worker. I'm getting along in years now and I seen lots of presidents and lots of systems. Voted for Roosevelt both times and I don't know of any president that ever leaned toward the laboring man like him, but this system they've got here in the fruit is a rotten system the way they work it." Yakima Valley, Washington
Brawley, Imperial Valley. In Farm Security Administration (FSA) migratory labor camp. Family of mother, father and eleven children, originally from near Mangrum, Oklahoma, where he had been tenant farmer. Came to California in 1936 after the drought. Since then has been traveling from crop to crop in California, following the harvest. Six of the eleven children attend school wherever the family stops long enough. Five older children work along with the father and mother. February 23, two of the family have been lucky and "got a place" (a day's work) in the peas on the Sinclair ranch. Father had earned about one dollar and seventy-three cents for ten-hour day. Oldest daughter had earned one dollar and twenty-five cents. Form these earnings had to provide their transportation to the fields twenty miles away. Mother wants to return to Oklahoma, father unwilling.She says, "I want to go back to where we can live happym live decent, and grow what we eat." He says, "We can't go the way I am now. We've got nothing in the world to farm with. I made my mistake when I came out here."
Farmer from Nebraska in emergency camp for migratory workers during pea harvesting says "I put mine in what I thought was the best investment -- the good old earth--but we lost on that, too. The finance company caught up with us, the mortgage company caught up with us. Managed to lose twelve thousand dollars in three years. My boys have no more future than I have so far as I can see ahead." He had been on the road a little less than a year. Calipatria, Imperial County, California
Brawley, Imperial Valley. In Farm Security Administration (FSA) migratory labor camp. Family of mother, father and eleven children, originally from near Mangrum, Oklahoma, where he had been tenant farmer. Came to California in 1936 after the drought. Since then has been traveling from crop to crop in California, following the harvest. Six of the eleven children attend school wherever the family stops long enough. Five older children work along with the father and mother. February 23, two of the family have been lucky and "got a place" (a day's work) in the peas on the Sinclair ranch. Father had earned about one dollar and seventy-three cents for ten-hour day. Oldest daughter had earned one dollar and twenty-five cents. Form these earnings had to provide their transportation to the fields twenty miles away. Mother wants to return to Oklahoma, father unwilling.She says, "I want to go back to where we can live happym live decent, and grow what we eat." He says, "We can't go the way I am now. We've got nothing in the world to farm with. I made my mistake when I came out here."
Dependent (able-bodied) Parents. Smith Family, West Point, Miss. Three girls (in front) work in the mill. This boy and others work up town. Came from an Alabama farm six months ago. Smallest spinner runs two sides. "Father just putters around. Don't work steady." "We all like the mill work better'n the hot sun on farm." House barren and run down. Location: West Point, Mississippi.
Native Texas tenant farmer. Near Goodliet, Texas. Aged seventy; seventeen years on the same farm. Is to be "tractored out" at the end of 1938. One son has been tractored out and has been on WPA (Work Projects Administration) for two years. Another son was tractored out in 1937. Has moved to town and remains temporarily off relief by selling his livestock. "What are my boys going to do? It's not a question of what they're going to do. It's a question of what they're going to have to do. They're not any up there in Congress but what are big landowners and they're going to see that the program is in their interest. As long as the government is paying the landowner more to let the land out than they make by renting it, they won't rent it."
Madera County, family from near Dallas, Texas. Rent is five dollars a month. "There's no future here. I've been following the work (migratory labor) but there's no chance for a fellow to get a holt hisself in this country. The last job I had is tractor driving for thirty-five cents an hour. Had that job for five months until a Filipino comes along for twenty-five cents an hour. I was raised on a cotton farm my father owned a little place back there and I'm plumb willing to leave this country for good before I get too old, If I could get the chance to farm."
Summary
Public domain photograph of rural California, dust bowl refugees, 1930s-1940s, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description
Tags
california
madera county
migrant camps
nitrate negatives
madera
dallas
texas
rent
dollars
five dollars
month
future
work
labor
chance
fellow
holt
country
job
job i
tractor
thirty five
cents
thirty five cents
hour
five months
filipino
twenty five
twenty five cents
cotton
farm
cotton farm
father
place
great depression photographs
great depression
philippines
american farmers
library of congress
Date
01/01/1939
Contributors
Lange, Dorothea, photographer
Location
california
Source
Library of Congress
Link
Copyright info
No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/071_fsab.html