On this day in labor history, the year was 1965.
That was the day acclaimed photojournalist Dorothea Lange died.
She is celebrated for her work documenting the Great Depression for the Farm Security Bureau.
Lange’s photos captured images of migrant workers, sharecroppers and the rural poor.
Her iconic photo, Migrant Mother, is probably her most well known image.
It depicts a despondent, Dust Bowl mother surrounded by her hungry children.
Lange was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1895.
She suffered the effects of polio as a child, which left her with a permanent limp.
She studied photography at Columbia University in New York, and eventually settled in the Bay Area.
When the Great Depression hit, she began photographing labor strikes, breadlines and soup kitchens, the homeless and unemployed.
The Resettlement Administration hired her soon after.
Nowadays, we can access images from around the world at a moment’s notice that broaden our understanding of current events.
But until the 1930s, few Americans could access media that adequately depicted the desperate social conditions engulfing the nation.
Federal programs that funded projects like Lange’s brought Depression-era images into the public eye.
Americans soon realized their suffering wasn’t caused by personal failure; that millions across the country were experiencing destitution brought on by broader economic forces.
During World War II, Lange worked for the War Relocation Authority, where she documented forced evacuation and internment of Japanese-Americans.
Her images, especially of Manzanar, were withheld from the public until after the war and were accessible to the public through the National Archives.
After the war, she taught at San Francisco’s Art Institute and cofounded the magazine Aperture.
She has been heralded as an innovator and has influenced generations of documentary photography.
May 11 - Organizing in the Fields
May 10 - Bankruptcy Bonanza for Big Bankers
May 9 - The Historic ‘34 West Coast Maritime Strike Begins
May 8 - Mary Marcy is Born
May 7 - Popeye The Union Man
May 6 - FDR Rolls Out the WPA
May 5 - The Bay View Massacre
May 4 - UE Beats Back HUAC in Dayton
May 3 - First Workers Compensation Law is Passed
May 2 - Our Thing is DRUM!
May 1 - Mayday Marchers Attacked in Cleveland
April 30 - Refinery Workers Walk Off the Job
April 29 - Allis-Chalmers and the Road to Taft-Hartley
April 28 - OSHA Goes Into Effect
April 27 - Disaster in West Virginia
April 26 - National Guard Ousts Montgomery Ward CEO
April 25 - UAW Mobilizes Against Taft-Hartley
April 24 - The California Spinach Riot
April 23 - Sitting Down for Dignity at Ford
April 22 - The Red Jacket Mine Explosion
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