Black Okie Communities Archives - Harvesting my life

The naming of Teviston

admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 19:51:59 +0000

Lloyd Tevis
once owned more land
than he could ride across
in a day’s time.
He fought Miller & Lux
for the water of the Kern River
way back before it became
a channel of dry sand.

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?
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The Beavers: a Teviston success story

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 18:27:07 +0000

In 1961 I met Benjamin and Bertha Mae Beavers, Teviston community leaders and parents to twelve children. Benjamin first came to California from Oklahoma in 1948 and brought Bertha Mae out in 1951. She said she almost went back to Oklahoma within a few days when whites threatened to attack Teviston over a mistaken identity.

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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Teviston slideshow: a Black Okie Community

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 06:51:20 +0000

I produced this narrated slideshow on Teviston—one of California’s Black Okie Communities—for the Framing Migrant Labor exhibit at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Agrella Gallery. My photos of the Wilson family are part of an exhibit that features Matt Black’s work, along with photos by Otto Hagel and Morrie Camhi.

http://ernestlowe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Teviston4SRJC10Nar.mp4

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Teviston, a Black Okie Community

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 23:48:22 +0000

Teviston is one of the largely forgotten Black Okie communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley. It straddles Hwy 99 between Tulare and Delano, sitting just 3 miles south of Pixley. I first visited in December 1960, returning in 1961, as part of a major photo and radio project on California’s farm labor. Then I spent two months photographing and recording interviews in Teviston in the Fall of 1964.

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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Revisiting Black Okie Communities

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 17:51:35 +0000

In the 60s I discovered a number of African-American towns in the San Joaquin Valley, later dubbed Black Okie communities by author Mark Arax. These towns are a little known part of California history, which my photographs and radio shows documented for the first time. In the Spring and Summer of 2015 I revisited South Dos Palos (on the west side of Merced County) and Teviston (on Hwy 99 in Tulare County). To my surprise I found several families of the kids I’d photographed. I was able to photograph them at church and at family reunions in both towns.

I’ll be uploading galleries of photographs from the 60s and the present day, as well as links to articles and academic research on this forgotten side of California history.

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