They came from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas . . . put down new roots in settlements like Lanare, Fairmead, South Dos Palos, or Teviston . . . camps such as Harris Tractor Farm or Cadillac Jack’s Camp . . . neighborhoods in Stockton, Hanford, and other Valley towns. They were the Black Migrants, moving from rural to rural settings, a little known part of the Great Migration out of the Jim Crow south.

Some were recruited by cotton growers like J. G. Boswell. Others traveled west on their own initiative, fulfilling a powerful ambition to succeed, along with hope to escape the bitter racism they’d come up under.

From 1960 to 1966 I photographed them in the Central Valley’s onion and cotton fields, in their unknown settlements, in their tarpaper shacks and trailers. I recorded their stories so the world could hear their voices.

I was a freelance activist documentarian, never pretending to objectivity. I’d walk up to people in a camp or field and say, “I hear you folks are getting a raw deal. I’d like to take your pictures and talk with you so people back in the city can do something about it.”  They seldom turned me down.

Although my work documented scenes of dire poverty and backbreaking work, I was also committed to showing the dignity and humanity of these hard working migrants. I saw their strong families and sense of community, even the joy of turning an old rope and tree into a playground for the kids. 

Unfortunately the people I met also told stories of how Jim Crow had migrated to the Valley with them: sundown laws, race riots after football games, threats of lynchings.  Mothers and fathers told their children, “Just walk on by. Don’t stoop to their level.”

Black Migrants also faced another challenge: by 1961 when I photographed workers picking cotton by hand in a field near Pixley, agro-engineers had developed mechanical cotton pickers that virtually eliminated the need for handpicking by the families I was photographing.

When I returned to Dos Palos and Teviston in 2015 I found many of the folks I’d photographed in the 60’s living successful lives. The children in my 60s photos had succeeded in escaping farm work for jobs in service, hospitality, and government. Their parents’ determination, powerful work ethic, and love had paid off. 

Ernest Lowe

return to Black Migrants gallery

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While covering farm workers’ life, work, and union organizing in the 1960s I visited a number of African-American settlements in California’s San Joaquin Valley. These towns are a little known part of history, the results of the rural-to-rural stream of the Great Migration out of the Jim Crow south.  more

Fresno Art Museum Director Michelle Ellis Pracy curated the exhibition.
Joel Pickford made the extraordinary prints.
Mark Arax and Michael Eissinger provided valuable background information on the history of the African-American settlements.
California Humanities Community Stories Program, Fresno Art Museum and its donors, and West of West Center for Narrative History of the Central Valley have provided funding.

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In 1961 I pulled off 99
into Teviston
as a storm ended
and the dark sky opened
to let the setting sun shine
upon the shacks of Black Okies.

Teviston was lit up
puddles reflecting day’s last light.
The homes
pieced together from scrap wood
glowed intensely.

How would Lloyd Tevis
have calculated the value
of this one and only memorial
to his great wealth?
[link-library settings=”1″]

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Their house looked better than many of Teviston’s homes, but it was small. The parents had one bedroom, the ten children born by 1964 shared the other one.

Benjamin and Bertha Mae worked hard, often taking their family out to work with them in the fields. He also worked as a truck driver and she in a tortilla factory in Tulare. The older kids filled in, taking care of their younger brothers and sisters.

Benjamin and Bertha Mae inspired the Beavers children to get out of low-paying farm labor and find employment in service industries.

I photographed their oldest son, Charles, hauling water for his family and others. His younger sisters and their friends would ride along in the back of the pickup.

Benjamin led work on an American Friends Service Committee project to get Teviston a pump and storage tank so they and others could end the drive to Pixley to collect the water and distribute it.

Later Benjamin led development of a self-help housing project and the Beavers and other families worked together to tear down many shacks and build attractive stucco homes. That was after my long visit in 1964.

The Beavers worked closely with other families in community improvement projects, child-rearing, and enjoyment of life. Their close network of Teviston families shared Benjamin and Bertha Mae’s work ethic and their determination to see their children succeed.

When I revisited Teviston in March and April of 2015 the grown up children I found said they never felt poor back in the day.

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In 2002 author Mark Arax and photographer Matt Black produced a series on Teviston in the L.A. Times . Then Mark recruited Joel Pickford to start shooting a Black Okies video documentary, including many of my stills. (see this page for links.)

In March of 2015 I revisited Teviston, bringing my old photos and a new camera. (Mark Arax, Mark’s son Jake, photographer and film-maker Joel Pickford, and historian/anthropologist Michael Essinger came along with me.) I hoped to find some of my subjects and photograph them in their middle age years. My hope was more than fulfilled!

Our day started with the churches, Friendship Baptist and St. Paul AME in Teviston and then First Baptist in Pixley, with one stop at the home of one of the Black families still living in Teviston. (The population now is primarily Latino.)

Folks responded to my 60s photos with great enthusiasm. The multi-congregation service at First Baptist of Pixley was on the theme Old Fashioned Day, with members dressing in their old clothes and artifacts across the front of the room. C.L Jones and Charles Carters held up Teviston antiques: a rusty milk can with spigot  (“our water supply” for hauling water from the well), a slop bucket.(“our indoor plumbing”) and a rotary phone (“our iPhone”)  drawing waves of laughter from the  congregation. Several members and Reverend Hairston spoke of the progress they’d made since the not so good old days of the 60s.

Following the service we laid out prints and people crowded around, recognizing themselves or their relatives in many of the ones of children.

We returned again in April, attending service at First Baptist, photo touring Teviston and Pixley, and recording interviews.

My Teviston photographs have appeared in my large multi-media exhibition at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco (1966), and in many books, reports, and magazines. Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, Los Angeles, and New York broadcast a documentary on Teviston and a life history of Teviston resident William McKinley “Buck” Ashmore.

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Michael Essinger is a doctoral student at UC Merced who is studying the forgotten history of  African-American communities up and down the Central Valley. You can view or download his papers at this site:
Black Okie History

Mark Arax, Director of the West of the West Center, wrote several articles on Teviston in 2002 when he was a reporter for the LA Times. These are available at:
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/aug/25/local/me-blackokies1
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/aug/26/local/me-blackokies2
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/aug/26/local/me-okieside26
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/aug/27/local/me-blackokies3

Mark speaks of the migration to rural California and some of the people he found in Teviston in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LPBEb5PXBk&feature=youtu.be

Acres of Aspiration by Hannibal Johnson documents the all Black towns established in Oklahoma from the 1890s to the 1920s. They attracted independent, hard-working families from the deep South. This helps explain the strength of the younger generation that moved to California in the 50s to found Teviston and other primarily Black communities in California. One can order from Alibris.com.

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Rolf did many folk, blues, and flamenco shows on KPFA in the early 60s, as well as a live series from his Berkeley club, The Cabal. I was his producer for most of this time.

You can read of Rolf’s journey from his family’s flight from Nazi Germany through his death in Santa Fe in 1994 at: http://folk.uio.no/alfs/rolf.html.

His family maintains a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ROLF-CAHN-HIS-LIFE-AND-MUSIC/318756167982

I wrote this poem for Rolf in 1971 when he urgently needed to get out of Berkeley.  Medicine Bundle

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