Migrant Mother

[giza]

For those of you that recognize this picture:



Here's the story behind it.

For those of you who don't, the picture is of Florence Owens Thompson, a migrant pea picker who was living in a roadside camp in California during the Great Depression. The day after that picture was taken, it appeared on the front page of many newspapers, as a symbol of the poverty that migrant workers were living in. Within a few more days, local citizens arrived at the camp with food and clothing for the migrants. Doctors provided medical care and others helped the migrants with car repairs.

Ironically, Florence didn't see any of this. The day her picture appeared on the newspaper, it was spotted by her oldest son, Bill, who was living with his Uncle. His Uncle got in his car and picked up Florence and her children that same day. What a guy.

Comments

[shep-shepherd.livejournal.com]

That's an iconic picture. It was interesting to learn more about it :)

[simbab.livejournal.com]

Why do I think that if that picture was taken in this day and age, the reaction would not be as it was then but rather a cacophony from the Fox News Noise Channel and it's ideological environs about how the liberal media had an agenda and how her plight was her fault.

That is, if the picture got any coverage at all. Whatever happened to the power of journalism for good? Oh, right. (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fairnessdoct/fairnessdoct.htm)

[skippyfox.livejournal.com]

I'm a little confused about some of the story...Did Cleo's family really hate Florence so much that they wouldn't help HER at all? And if so, why do nothing about it until she appears in the paper? Was she better off staying with her son's Uncle?

[omnibahumut.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I studied a different picture of this woman breifly in one of my classes. I'm pretty sure it was on the cover of a National Geographic magazine at some point, but I didn't see it mentioned in that article...