Following the crop took its toll on laborers and their families. Because they were constantly on the move, children missed school and fell behind in their grade levels. Field work didn’t pay much. Many families scraped by, relying on donations of food, clothing, and medical care. Health problems for some folks came about because they didn’t realize the importance of, or have access to, good nutrition and cleanliness.

Most people were glad to see the laborers return each year.  Farmers needed their crops harvested.  Merchants had goods and services for sale.  Churches wanted to minister to the needy.  However, as welcome as the laborers were, there often was an economic, class, and educational gulf between them and the local community.

Omer Bynum with grandchild, 1957.
Caroline Price Clark Collection/Howard Clark, photographer
S-2001-82-327

“As volunteers rock babies in the nursery or play with older children, the question each one asks is—What will become of this child? Must he, too, be a migrant? If so, must he live under these same unsanitary, crowded conditions and face the same insecurities and the same isolation from school, church and community?”

Cassandra Stockburger, state director
Division of Home Missions,
National Council of Churches
1957

“[A teacher] ...related one child telling that her mother had sold her wedding rings to buy medicine for their baby. She also said children telling of one of their parents leaving home was not unusual.”

Ruth Ann Snipes, journalist
The Springdale News
8-6-1965

“There never is much time for food for breakfast: a piece of bacon and white gravy poured over heavy skillet-fried biscuits or pieces of loaf bread.…Babies are fed hurriedly from the mother’s plate and then, if lucky, are given a bottle of canned milk to drink on the way to the field where big sister, age three or four, will mind them at the edge of the field...”

Cassandra Stockburger, state director
Division of Home Missions,
National Council of Churches
1957