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    Rural African American Life In The 1930s-40s

    These remarkable color photographs were taken for the Farm Security Administration between 1939 and 1941. They depict African American tenant farmers and their families living in the rural South during World War II. Despite the efforts of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU), living conditions were often deplorable.

    Baby Praying Mantis
    by Baby Praying Mantis

    Community Contributor

    African American Tenant Home, Mississippi

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wolcott in September 1939.

    Marcella Plantation, Mississippi

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in September 1939.

    Day laborers picking cotton in Mississippi

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wolcott in September 1939.

    Marcella Plantation, Mississippi

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in September 1939.

    Fishing in a creek, Mississippi

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in October 1939.

    African American tenant home, Louisiana

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wolcott in June 1940.

    African American family, Louisiana

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wolcott in August 1940.

    Children on a porch, Louisiana

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in August 1940.

    Bayou Bourbeau Plantation, Louisiana

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in August 1940.

    Storefront, Louisiana

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in July 1940.

    Farm workers, Southern U.S.

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in 1940.

    Chopping cotton on rented land, Georgia

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Jack Delano in June 1941.

    Cutting Burley tobacco, Kentucky

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in September 1940.

    Living Quarters and "Juke Joint" in Florida

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in February 1941.

    Migratory workers outside "Juke Joint"

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in February 1941.

    Migratory worker shacks, Florida

    Flickr: library_of_congress

    Photographed by Marion Post Wollcott in February 1941.

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