This resource is under development and we are looking for teachers willing to pilot this collection. If you are interested please be in touch with aakanksha@reimaginingmigration.org. Expect a model lesson for using this resource in the summer of 2019.
This post is the second part of a two-part article. Read Part One for background information on labor shortage claims by larger agricultural companies and the work of Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard. Dorothea Lange, “First Braceros,” photograph, 1942, Oakland Museum of California, Online Archive of California, accessed http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft3x0nb000/?order=1 The U. S. government began importing Mexican laborers […]
In 1942, headlines in Indiana newspapers warned: “Acute Labor Shortage Perils Midwest Farms” –(Valparaiso) Vidette-Messenger of Porter County but also “No Labor Shortage” – Indianapolis Recorder So which was it? An acute labor shortage endangering the farms of the corn-belt, and in turn, the country’s war production? Or no labor shortage at all? The answer is […]
“Home Government Bars Indiana to Mexican Workers,” Indianapolis Recorder, February 23, 1946, 10, accessed Hoosier State Chronicles. Note: The Indianapolis Recorder served a primarily African American readership. MEXICO CITY — Indiana and seven other American states were ruled out by the Mexican Government last week, as areas where Mexican laborers may be employed in the […]
Elmer Carter, “Plain Talk: What About U.S. Workers?” Evansville Argus, April 2, 1943, 4, accessed Hoosier State Chronicles. NoteL The Evansville Argus served a primarily African American readership. The Florida fruit and vegetable growers want to import 18,000 Negroes from the Bahama Islands to work on their plantations. There are a hundred thousand unemployed disinherited […]
“Islanders Ease Labor Shortage,” (Greencastle) Daily Banner, July 24, 1943, 1, accessed Hoosier State Chronicles. PRINCETON, In. July 24 (UP) – Jamaicans, who said they missed their native rum most of all, are relieving the farm labor shortage in Gibson county. Twenty natives, among 4,300 sent to the United States to work on farms, are […]
“Jobs in California,” (Greencastle) Daily Banner, October 12, 1942 Caption: Manpower is so short on farms of San Joaquin Valley, Cal., that Farm Security Administration arranged importation of Mexican workers. Here are some of them at Stockton carrying American and Mexican Flags.
The national defense program is causing Indiana farmers no end of inconvenience from labor shortage on the farm, according to Edmond C. Foust, director of information for the Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc. This situation is brought about by two conditions: first, the farm boys leaving for army camps, and secondly, by others going to the […]