'Crafting Sanctuaries' Sheds Light on Black Experience in the South During the Great Depression

"Between 1935 and 1944, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) spurred a unique documentary project. The government outfit, organized as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, provided aid to rural families during the Great Depression. The global economic crisis spanned 1929 to 1939 and was compounded in North America by the Dust Bowl, a severe drought exacerbated by poor agricultural practices and strong winds. Many farmers and their families were forced to migrate as, in some cases, their livelihoods essentially blew away."

"Roy E. Striker, head of the Information Division of the FSA, had the foresight to hire a group of renowned photographers to chronicle the realities of the living conditions in rural parts of the U.S. Throughout its 9-year run, the FSA tapped the likes of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Marion Post Wolcott, Gordon Parks, John Vachon, and Carl Mydans, among other luminaries."

"Initially, the project focused on documenting cash loans made to individual farmers as a visual record of the good money could do, along with suburban development initiatives. The second phase took a more ambitious approach by dispatching photographers to the rural South to focus on the lived experiences of sharecroppers, along with migratory laborers in the West and Midwest. Later, the project expanded to include rural and urban documentation and World War II."

The Farm Security Administration ran a documentary photography project from 1935 to 1944 to record rural living conditions and government aid during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. Roy E. Striker recruited prominent photographers to capture varied American experiences. Early efforts documented cash loans to farmers and suburban development. Subsequent phases focused on the rural South, sharecroppers, and migratory laborers in the West and Midwest, later broadening to rural and urban documentation and World War II. Dorothea Lange’s 1936 “Migrant Mother” became an iconic image. Selections from tens of thousands of negatives emphasized a predominantly white perspective. Tamir Williams, Ph.D., notes the omission presents a unique opportunity.

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