Tag Archives: Teviston

Black Migrants Exhibition

August 13, 201860s, Black Migrants, Black Okies, exhibitionexhibition, farm worker, South Dos Palos, Tevistonadmin

Black Migrants is an exhibition of African-American farm worker photos I took in the 1960s curated by Michele Ellis Pracy at the Fresno Art Museum. The exhibition is now available for showing new venues.

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

Teviston mother and children pause from doing laundry on front porch

October 1964

Ernest Lowe checks out a Bolex in a cotton field near Cororan. November 18, 1961. photo by Phillip Greene.

Ernest Lowe in a Mexican restaurant in Dos Palos. photo by Joel Pickford March 2015

The elder who put Tonto on his living room wall. Teviston, November 1964

They named their football field The Dust Bowl. Some went on to play college and pro football. Teviston, November 1964

Woman crossing one of the few paved roads in Teviston. November 20, 1961

Patching holes in the roof in between storms. November 20, 1961

Blossom St Grocery South Dos Palos July 12, 1961

Reverend R. D. Daniels praises the Lord at Friendship Baptist. Teviston, October 1964

Fellowship after service at Friendship Baptist Church. Teviston, October 1964

There's little work in the Winter so you stand around all day.”

Thomas Spencer inspects his kitchen garden. Teviston, October 1964.

A family's kitchen. Teviston, October 1964.

Thomas Spencer's library. Teviston, October 1964

You my friend. Tonto not let you die!" (Lone Ranger radio show)

Living room of a Teviston windower's home. October 1964

Teviston's children improvised their playgrounds and toys. Lester Perry about to swing on rope pulled by Goldie Beavers and Delores Perry. Benjamin Beavers and toddler Donald watch from porch

A Hwy 99 underpass linking the West and East sides of Teviston. November 1964

A fringe of Teviston along the frontage road for Hwy 99.

A link to the outside world for Mutt and Blanche Jones who were building their house from scrap lumber. Teviston, November 20, 1961

The sun came in low under dark clouds, reflecting from the puddles. Teviston, November20, 1961

Willie Mae's Place, a juke joint in South Dos Palos. July 12, 1961

Outhouse behind a Teviston church, November 1964

. . . shacks here, shacks there . . . a few nice buildings and some . . . shame on 'em." Teviston October 1964

A row of houses in distance, muddy road

Teviston, November 20, 1961

Teen age girls in dining room of a rundown Victorian home. Stockton, September 3, 1960

Stockton, September 3, 1960

Door of unfinished Holiness church. Jericho March 21, 1961

Jack of all trades sign in Jericho, March 22, 1961

Three generations in an East Mendota shack. March 21,1961

You come with me, take a picture of the place I’m livin’ ”

East Mendota, Fresno County, March 21, 1961

Joe Marshall, Willie Brewster, and Lee Marshall, with Joe's Mercury, a cart made of a melon crate they used to haul produce, water, and ice around the neighborhood. South Dos Palos, July 12, 1961

Zella Marshall, unknown, Lee Marshall, and Sylvester "Bronco" Marshall. South Dos Palos, July 12, 1961

Cafe in East Mendota March 21,1961

Charles Beavers hauls water three miles from Pixley for the Beavers and other families. They had no water they could drink at home. Teviston, October 1964

Fixing the car for work next Spring. Teviston, November, 1964

William McKinley "Buck" Ashmore's back yard car repair shop

William McKinley “Buck” Ashmore repairs cars after a life time of picking cotton. Teviston October 1964

A boy harvests onions in 100+ weather. a field along Hwy 33 on west side of Fresno County, July 11, 1961

Pausing in a cotton field for a potrait near Pixley. November 11, 1961

It takes real skill to pick cotton fibers from the boll quick enough to fill hundred pound sacks we drag along behind

A Black woman puts her 100 pound sack on the scales, which were often rigged. Pickers would compensate by adding rocks to their load.

Woman climbing down ladder after dumping her bag full of cotton. Cotton field near Pixley, November 11, 1961

See, the machines are pickin' most of the cotton. There's just little patches the machine can't get to that the people get to pick." November 18, 1961. Near Corcoran in Kings County

Net income from the San Joaquin Valley's cotton industry was the highest on record in 1964. October 1964 near Corcoran

A day's wages for chopping sugar beets, East Mendota March 21,1961

Walking home from cotton field near Pixley. November 11, 1961

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.

The naming of Teviston

March 22, 201660s, Black OkiesBlack Okie Communities, Hwy 99, Land Baron, Lloyd Tevis, Tevistonadmin

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?
6902308 [link-library settings=”1″]

The Beavers: a Teviston success story

Bertha Mae and Benjamin Beavers in Oklahoma around 1945

Benny Beavers lights the Box King stove. Donald Beavers in the background.

The Beavers’ home on the west side of Teviston in 1964.

Benjamin and Bertha Mae Beavers after they migrate to California

Lula Jenkins, Annie & Goldie Beavers,and Deloris & Joyce Perry, riding in the back of a pickup hauling water to homes in Teviston.

Beavers kids and their friends play on a rope swing.

Lester Perry helps Barbara Beavers start swinging.

Connie Beavers hanging on the rope swing by the family house

Bertha Mae Beavers views a photo of her daughters taken in 1964

Charles Beavers delivering water to a friend’s milk cans.

Ruth Beavers proudly holds her sports trophies.

Ruth Beavers in 2015. She worked in a college cafeteria.

Mae Beavers at the Beavers-Reid family reunion. She worked at J. C. Pennys.

Annie Ellis Beavers in 2015. She works in a local post office and a school cafeteria.

Ben Beavers Jr. with group of students in the Earlimart Band.

Ben Beavers Jr. in 2015. Worked as nurses aid and home caregiver.

Goldie Beavers holds 1964 photo with her in the middle. She is also central to the photo behind her.

Barbara Beavers, retired owner/manager of daycare center in Stockton

Donald Beavers on shoulder os sister Connie. The older children took care of the younger ones.

Roger Beavers, administrator in Tulare County Government. not yet born in 1964

Gloria Beavers, not in 60s photos. She worked as a manager at a Tulare hotel.

Charles Beavers running with the ball in Teviston’s Dust Bowl. He and two of his brothers went to college on sports scholarships.

Teviston slideshow: a Black Okie Community

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.

Teviston, a Black Okie Community

Teviston’s dusty roads become a lake when the storm hits.

Tonto’s owner sits in the shade outside his home

Black Okie History

July 24, 201560s, Black OkiesBlack Okie History, farm worker, Joel Pickford, Mark Arax, Michael Essinger, rural African-Americans, rural black families, rural poverty, Tevistonadmin

The West of the West Center has produced Black Okies, a documentary on the history of Teviston directed by Joel Pickford. You can view this film by going to this site:
https://vimeo.com/user25968631/blackokies Enter the password (case sensitive): Bokies0415

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.

Revisiting Black Okie Communities

July 24, 2015Black OkiesAfrican-Americans, Black Okie Communities, farm worker, Merced County, rural poverty, South Dos Palos, Teviston, Tulare Countyadmin

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.

Harvesting my life

Six decades of Ernest Lowe's offerings to the world