Fourteen Photographs of Migrant Farm Workers in Arizona, in a Camp Where Children Were Reported Starving, 1950.
San Francisco: San Francisco Examiner, 1950. Silver press prints, the images measuring 5 3/4x8 1/4 inches and slightly smaller, sheets approximately 7 ¼ x 9 inches. Some light wear, editorial marks to versos, near fine condition overall. Near Fine. Item #List1008
Offered here is a series of fourteen photographs taken in a migrant workers’ camp fourteen miles west of Phoenix, Arizona, in March of 1950. Juvenile Court Judge Thomas Croaff reported that 100 children were starving at the camp, drawing press coverage and state aid. The photographs show the workers and their families in camp. One shows a Creek family playing outside at the camp, with several camp structures shown in the background. Several show a nearby store offering aid to children from the camp. Though the judge’s decision helped alleviate the situation in this instance, there were many other labor camps in similar situations, with Governor Dan Garvey calling attention to similar migrant farm worker camps in Mesa, Bisbee, and Pinal counties.
While the plight of migrant farm workers was documented to a degree in the 1930s, poor conditions persisted into the 1940s and 1950s onward, partially due to the government’s misuse of the Bracero program. Camps such as the one shown in this series were rarely documented, partially due to their geographical remoteness and largely due to neglect and lack of political support for migrant workers.
Price: $1,200.00