As American citizens, we are co-owners of one of the most remarkable bodies of social documentary art in existence anywhere. I'm talking about the incredible treasure of FSA photography preserved by the Library of Congress. The prints and actually negatives are available to all, and can be accessed here among other entry portals. Since this archive was produced by the Federal Government, it is the property of all Americans; you can download and even print the digital files if you like.
This remarkable collective resource was highlighted by an excellent PBS program, Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker and the F.S.A./O.W.I. Photographers. It aired last night in my area, but in many large metropolitan areas it wlll be airing next week. It's well worth your while.
Nowadays any attempt to bring some genuine populism to the political table is promptly slapped down by the Traditional Media™. "Class warfare", they'll sneer. It's not just the right wing corporate shills, but a broad range of nominally "centrist" voices shouting down any mention of inequality or class in America. But in the 1930's this wasn't just an exercise in political leverage; it was a matter of survival. In the aftermath of the Great Depression, literally millions of rural farm workers were displaced refugees within the United States. Millions more were desperately poor share-croppers or tennant farmers, their poverty deepening by the day due to depressed crop prices. Then as now, the first Government attempts to ameliorate the crisis went directly into the pockets of the landlords and owners without a nickel reaching the intended beneficiaries.
Franklin Roosevelt's "brain trust" pondered potential solutions to the crisis. One of the greatest impediments was the notion that any relief would be "charity" or "Communism". It's difficult to imagine nowadays, but any kind of direct government assistance was widely considered some kind of "slippery slope" to evil socialism; the level of corporate resistance was absolutely ferocious. Even at the nadir of the Depression, with roughly 25% of American workers unemployed, there was still a reflexive loathing for aid to the dispossessed that today seems frankly deranged.
Roy Stryker was an unflinching progressive/populist in charge of the FSA (Farm Security Administration) 'historical division' to publicize the plight of rural agricultural refugees, and the FSA's mission to aid them. He was a fearless and cunning bureaucratic knife-fighter, and he managed to keep his program funded despite repeated efforts by Congressional Conservatives to kill it. He hired the best young photographers of the day: Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, John Vachon, Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, Jack Delano, Arthur Rothstein, Carl Mydans, and the young unknown Gordon Parks. Together they produced a peerless collection of 80,000 photographs, many of which have become icons. Migrant Mother in particular is probably the most widely recognized and reproduced image of its kind. By 1943 the FSA's work was largely done, with most of the rural refugees relocated and wartime economic development driving relative prosperity. Conservatives in Congress tried hard to have the entire archive burned, to erase any evidence this had ever happened in America. Thankfully it was perserved for all of us.
Check it all out if you wish. It demonstrates that there was once a time when the United States government worked diligently to assist the poorest and lowest of its citizens, and tried to persuade more affluent Americans that this was necessary and worthwhile.
Today?
Not so much.