English: African American migrant workers from Florida on their way to harvest potatoes in Cranbury, New Jersey. The photograph was taken near Shawboro, North Carolina.
Date
July 1940
Part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program, the Farm Security Agency was created in 1937 to combat rural poverty. The FSA hired 11 photographers to document the state of farmers and their families. Their job was to capture images showing people’s living conditions and use them to report back to Congress. Some people didn’t like the program. They didn’t want Americans shown like this. But the pictures made a difference. They made Americans aware that families were suffering and starving. They helped to save lives.
