Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) - Migratory field worker, leader of the cotton strike of October 1938

Migratory field worker, leader of the cotton strike of October 1938, which took place just before the election. Kern County, California
Exhibition print from DOROTHEA LANGE - PHOTOGRAPHIEN, Galerie Bilderwelt, Berlin 1998

The 1938 Cotton Strike: In the autumn of 1938, migrant workers in California’s cotton fields organized under the UCAPAWA union (affiliated with the CIO—Congress of Industrial Organizations). They protested against extremely low wages—75 cents per 100 pounds of picked cotton—and demanded an increase. The man in the photo proudly wears two CIO union buttons on his lapel. The campaign poster in the background: Behind the strike leader hangs a political poster for the upcoming California gubernatorial election in November 1938. It shows the face of Culbert Olson, the Democratic candidate at the time. Olson ultimately won the election and became California’s first Democratic governor of the 20th century, having received strong support from workers and migrants hit hard by the Great Depression. FSA Documentation: Dorothea Lange took the photograph on behalf of the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Her mission was to document the harsh lives and dignity of impoverished farm workers—often referred to as "Dust Bowl refugees"—in the Southwestern and Western United States, in order to garner political support for New Deal relief programs.