 Welcome to the National Archives Know Your Records program. My name is Andrea Matney, the program's coordinator and one of the chat moderators. Thank you for joining us. Before I introduce our presenter, Gabrielle Hutchins, please know that we are excited to try out something new with this video. We are taking your questions during the broadcast instead of waiting until the end. As the video plays, you can ask the presenter questions in the chat section at any time and then she will respond in the chat. Also use the chat to interact with other audience members, myself and the other moderator, Amber Forrester. To participate, first log into YouTube and then type your questions into the chat. For another tip, look under show more for links to the presentation slides for live captioning and the events evaluation form. The goal of the Know Your Records program is to provide you with educational resources on how to access and do research using U.S. federal government records. And today's program is entitled Migrant Farm Workers and the Evolution of Farm Labor Programs in the United States by Gabrielle Hutchins. Dr. Hutchins is an archivist in the Accessioning and Basic Processing Division at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. Dr. Hutchins is a native of Chicago, Illinois by way of Palm Bay, Florida. She's a scholar of African American, Caribbean and Latin American history with over 10 years of professional experience in field of archival science, museum and public history. She earned her doctorate philosophy in Caribbean and Latin American history from Howard University in 2015. Her research focused on West Indian migrant farm workers in the United States. Dr. Hutchins also pursued her studies at Florida AMU University while she studied and earned a B.S. in political science in 2009 and an M.A. in history in 2010. She is a member of the National Council of Negro Women, the International Council on Archives, and the Association of African American Life and History. She is also a member of the Say It Loud African American Employee Affinity Group where she served as chair. She has presented research related to farm workers at many conferences such as the Southern Labor Studies Association, the Caribbean Studies Association, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Her philosophies are based on the premise of making a connection between the historian, the archivist, and the community. I am now turning the broadcast over to Dr. Hutchins. Thank you, Andrea. Thank you to the National Archives and my fellow researchers. I appreciate you all having me here today. Throughout this presentation, I will examine federal records documenting migrant farm workers' participation in farm labor programs within the United States. The lecture will highlight federal records related to migrant workers and their participation in the Rossero and H2A guest worker programs. I will demonstrate how other record groups can be examined to identify these migrant workers' stories. So this is just a brief presentation outline. I'm going to cover the Rossero program, more details about the migrant experience, and highlighting the H2A program. Historically, farm laborers in the United States have been imported from other countries for centuries, ranging from enslaved Africans brought here to work as domestic servants, and farm laborers, and we have indentured servants, prisoners of war. Over the years, we have issues of the Black Coals limiting the rights of African Americans to work in the farm industry. African Americans or farmers traveling north to take advantage of the industrial jobs that were offered, dealing with sharecropping, and of course the impact of the Jim Crow laws. Furthermore, the impact of World Wars, we have World War I, World War II, the Great Depression. It seems to have a huge impact on the people, the economy, and overall our livelihoods. And many farm labor programs were created to accommodate these ongoing changes within our cultural industry, lots of changes, and today I will go in depth about these two programs and speak about our unsung heroes. During World War II, the fight against Germany, Italy, and Japan, many Americans suffered from food and labor shortages. The agricultural industry actually faced many challenges, which while rowers joined the armed forces to fight in the war, many young men and women, children took the lead in assisting with the cultivation of crops. However, you have many farmers traveling across overseas to fight in the war. We are dealing with a major labor shortage scarce via food within the United States and overseas as well. Farm labor was the key to financial survival for the United States. So many immigration and labor policies transpired to allow Mexican, West Indian, and other immigrant workers to travel to the United States to work seasonally on temporary contract labor. So the, for example, the Brassetto program, the British West Indian Temporary Alien Labor Program, and the H2 program are three major programs that assisted with seasonal agricultural labor over the years, and I'll go in more detail throughout the rest of the presentation. The U.S. government recruited workers not only from Mexico, but from the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as, of course, prisoners of war. So here's just a brief historical timeline of farm labor. Just wanted to highlight major changes within the farm labor history. So, for example, we have the Wagner Act of 1935, which made employment available to Mexican and West Indian migrant workers. So this is just the beginning of the, in terms of the timeline of them bringing in migrant workers. It wasn't until 1942 that they officially created the Brassetto program to assist in wartime emergencies. 1943, that's when they specifically start targeting West Indians to cut sugarcane. And in 1952, the Temporary Guest Worker Visa Program, also known as the Walter McCarran Act, was established, which is a major turning point within the farm labor history. I also like to keep in mind the Silver Rights Act of 1964, which banned forms of institutional discrimination. And, of course, the Information Reform and Control Act of 1986 is also a major change within the farm labor industry. So here is a migration patterns map. I just wanted to give you an idea about where our immigrant or migrant workers are traveling to and from. So if you look on the east coast of the map, starting from Florida to the, from South Florida to the northeastern seaboard, when you look at this, think about who's in the backyard of Florida. We have the West Indian migrant workers traveling from the Caribbean throughout Florida, primarily to cut sugarcane. And during the off season, they were able to travel along the south towards the northeast and seabirds, specifically in the apple industry. You have a major population of West Indian migrants working. And they were able to cultivate, pick other vegetables as well, but those are the two major crops that the West Indians worked with. And then we have Central and West Coast of America. And in the backyard, we have Mexico. So Mexican migrant workers are able to travel throughout Texas, California and heading north, picking vegetables ranging from lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, cotton, grapes, you name it, our immigrant workers were there to help. So these are just examples or, yeah, examples of federal records documenting migrant farm workers from the War Food Administration, the Department of Labor, the records of the Office of Secretary of Agriculture. All of these record groups or these institutions worked hand in hand to accommodate the workers in terms of transportation, wages, recruitment, healthcare. More specifically, for example, the War Food Administration was responsible for any functions related to foreign labor except for the placement of foreign laborers. We have, you'll find information about the transportation supervisors housing burial services within this record group. Farm Service Agency, record 145 implemented, they were in charge of employment agreements, they maintain the records of employment history with the workers, they were in charge of public relations, advertisements, interviews, and farm training. Another highlight of, we had the Immigration and Naturalization Service, they were in charge of the visas, providing visa services for those who joined in the Bracero program, which was actually operated by the Department of Labor. I will go more detail throughout the rest of the presentation about what you can fire throughout these records, but that's just a synopsis. So the Bracero program, Bracero means one who works using his arms. I want you to keep that in mind while we dive into the migrant worker experience. Bracero is a Mexican laborer allowed to work in the United States for a limited period of time as a seasonal agricultural worker. The official name was Mexican, the Mexican farm labor program, or Mexican farm labor agreement, which was signed between United States and Mexico in 1942. Since 1942, or until 1964 when the program ended, the Bracero program presented many opportunities for over five million laborers, five million contracts were signed. This program provided and guaranteed housing, minimum wage, transportation, healthcare services, education, and food. The program was mainly operated by the Department of Labor, Department of State, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and you'll find a plethora of records within these record groups. The migrant labor agreement of 1951 Public Law 78 actually was created to assist with the issues of illegal immigration and mistreatment of farm laborers within the United States. American farm companies valued the Bracero program because it assured them financial security within their crops. They recruited or requested many American farmers to work on the land. However, due to the war in other situations, labor shortage was still present. Labor unions programs such as the United Farm Worker, the AFL-CIO, the National Art Cultures Union, and the NAACP all fought for equal treatment for migrant workers, fought for fair wages, and other issues presented by the migrant workers. So with a lot of investigations of workers being mistreated, this actually assisted with the push to end the Bracero program in 1964. So this here is just a telegram from Yuma County Water Users Association to Earl G. Harrison regarding the shortage of agricultural labor. So I wanted you to take a look and get an idea about the situation in America and why immigrant workers were recruited and to provide World War II relief. The migrant experience, while capturing their stories throughout these records, you will find contracts, copies of contracts, issues of transportation throughout the United States and also coming from the West Indies and Mexico. You'll find information related to the crops in terms of cotton, lettuce, sugarcane, apples, how many workers were on the farm. You'll find their historical, I'm sorry, you will find their work history between what farm industries they worked with, information about wages, healthcare, housing conditions, and living and working conditions. Here is an example we have from record group 16. This is a Mexican boy, age 13, coming in from the cotton fields and he picked about 27 pounds of cotton earning 45 cents. Here we have an example of the housing conditions for Mexican cotton pickers. And this is actually from the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Record group 16 is the office of the Secretary of Agriculture. You will find a lot of information or photographs especially related to the Brassetto program here. This series actually branched off from the Department of Agriculture and the photographs document the administrative history of the office of the Secretary and the Department of Agriculture describing the phases, the many phases of our culture in the United States. So you'll find information ranging from tenant farming, migrant labor, and finance. Here we have a Mexican irrigator chip honing from ditch to field. Just wanted to give you an idea about the type of worker and work conditions that migrant workers were involved in. We also have Mexican girls bunching broccoli and they earned about two dollars and 50 cents a day. So I'm going to briefly go into detail about record groups and some of their holdings as it relates to Mexican migrant workers as well as Caribbean migrant workers. Like I already mentioned, the record group 16 records of the office of the Secretary of Agriculture. I'd like to highlight the record group 59, the Department of State, specifically the Economic Affairs Labor Advisor subject files. So here you'll find correspondence reports, notes, material relating on a broad scale relating to farm labor, specifically specific topics. You'll find this information about the importation of farm laborers from the British West Indies, the Mexican Mexico, also from Mexico, and the Department of Labor. You'll find information about manpower issues and the President's Commission on Migrants throughout the Department of State. And keep in mind the Department of State worked hand in hand with the Department of Labor as well as INS Immigration and Naturalization Services. The Department of Labor record group 174 has records related to Mexican labor, the Brasero Program from 1950 to 1964. It has a lot of insights on Mexican immigration and labor history, including many controversies that came about throughout the farm labor movement. And I mentioned earlier a lot of union organizations helped assist in fighting for the rights of the migrant workers. You'll find a lot of information related to the program till it's end in 1964. Also some investigative case files. You will find violations of labor contracts, non-payment of wages, employment of eligible work and eligible workers, and findings of fact by agency officials, copies of federal court documents, lots of information. I definitely would check out the investigative case files related to Mexican labor. I would also check out the Francis Perkins Migratory Labor subject files as well. The War in Manpower Commission from 1936 to 1951 has records as it relates to communication with Jamaica, Barbados and the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and also Mexico under the Brasero Program. And they focus on who were placed in certain agricultural transportation and industrial jobs. We have collections such as the Truman administration official files. And here I would definitely recommend checking out the Truman administration official files. You'll find a lot of information in terms of the perspective of the U.S. government on how they approach the Brasero Program and also the Godwin papers, Goodwin papers inside. These files contain charts, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, and printed material, photo copies of reports and whatnot. And these documents or files contain issues, I'm sorry, contains information about personal management, migratory labor, Medicare, and official criticisms of the program. This is a few, quite a few record groups that also highlight the holdings of Caribbean migrant workers. A lot of information is in record group 33, the extension service. You'll find information about the farm labor mobilization program and emergency farm labor program, which highlights a lot in terms of transportation and recruitment of migrant workers from the West Indies. Records of the farm service agency record group 149, this record, they were in charge of helping U.S. citizens located in rural areas and people in the armed forces. It is mostly the Greenbelt area of America that provided services to small industries from small industries and farm industry companies. They kept farmers in the same area, they were in charge of recruitment, food, and payment of workers. You can also find information in terms of accident reports, monthly narratives, newspaper clippings, personnel files, booklets related to the Mexican farm labor agreement, and also documents regarding a health and welfare of the workers and the sanitary conditions of the camps, the food and housing, etc. Wages. There's also collections highlighting Caribbean migrant workers. The Cecilia Ross's subject files has information related to the H1B and H2A programs, which I'll go in more detail later, but they have memos, notes, press clippings regarding the H2AB labor programs. So this is a letter from Walter Schmidt, field representative from the United Packing House, Workers of America. This letter discusses issues of discrimination against resident workers and the prevailing wage. The union, the American CAO, United Packing House, all spoke on behalf of migrant workers about the prevailing wage rate and how it was defined, the effects of the public law 78, and how they regulate the movement of migrant workers. So with this, I just wanted you all to take a look and keep an eye about issues of wages, certain farm labor organizations that help assist on speaking on behalf of the workers and agencies that were working together like the Department of Labor. Here is a news, news press release discussing the refusal of employee employment of Mexican farm workers unless they hire domestic workers first. These employers lost their authorization to employ Mexican workers, so they're under investigation here. This is the Coachella Valley Farmers Association discussing the agreement between Mexico and United States. What's interesting is, as I mentioned, some of these, you'll find a lot of key points highlighting their stories. So we have here tomato pickers and the repeated warnings that this company must hire domestic workers first and also them working with the Employment Security Bureau. So with domestic workers, it's important to highlight, you know, when we say labor shortage, we have people that are not only traveling overseas to fight in a war, traveling north escaping, Jim Crowism, you know, what's going on politically and socially with the United States, but just some folks just did not want to take the jobs or the employment, the work conditions that came along with the job. So the migrant workers, immigrant workers were recruited for this and it became an issue in terms of, you know, farm programs preferred immigrant workers because they can abuse the wages, abuse the time used because the countries traveling to America or anywhere else to find work, its employment was very scarce throughout Mexico and the West Indies. So keep that in mind. We have many minutes from the Somos Farm Labor Association and the Regional Director of Bureau of Employment Security wanted to highlight also another labor association working. This letter actually highlights a number of employee farmers of domestic versus immigrant workers. It discusses the peace rates and hourly rates earnings the migrant workers were offered. This is one of my favorite pieces actually, the correspondence between Roy Wilkins and President Harry S. Truman as it relates to Mexican agricultural workers. Roy Wilkins was a prominent activist in the civil rights movement in the United States throughout the 50s, 60s, well into the 70s. Wilkins is most notable for his role and leadership within the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and NAACP. Here in this letter he addresses the agricultural problems farm laborers were experiencing. The letter discusses information about the Presidential Commission on agricultural problems and work conditions opportunities offered to people of color and this is so significant. This letter is very significant because it reveals the volume of collaboration between organizations working for equal rights and labor for all races increase. Everyone's working together and so you'll see that represented throughout this letter and the issues of our cultural problems that were that migrant works are dealing with. And here is another letter I would like to highlight. This is in response to the importation of Mexican farm workers being used in the strikes of cotton pickers in California. I'd like to also highlight Mr. H. L. Mitchell from the farm labor union who also fought for the and fought and helped assist with the investigation of the workers conditions. This letter also highlights the President or calling out the President to investigate the conditions of the work conditions of the Mexican Anglo Americans and people of color farm workers. I just wanted you to keep that in mind when looking at the correspondence the key key key moments the key. Here we have a teletype report I wanted to about our cultural labor disputes. So here is discussing a preference or not a preference but a preference paying 90 cents per hour instead of and they're they're getting paid 90 cents an hour and they are demanding a dollar and 25 cents. This is back in the 1960s. So also discussing that 18 domestics were hired and then there's 53 nationals. So this is another example of showing you what's out there in terms of of them hiring domestic versus immigrant workers. The number take a look at the number here we have another example of our cultural labor disputes. This is a press release a copy of a press release president's commission on migratory labor. This discusses the government agency's view on migratory labor problems. You have the Department of Labor the Department of Agriculture the Department of State Department of Justice and Federal Security Agency reporting problems such as manpower issues existing legislation housing difficulties industries using farm workers international complications and welfare problems. You'll see this depicted throughout the press release. So I wanted to highlight not only the agency's working hand in hand to file this report but also that it highlights issues of illegal immigration domestic workers social economic and health conditions throughout the United States. Here is a newspaper article discussing wage discrepancies for farm growers in Imperial Valley. We have here a transcribed news of U.S. charges falsified by several paybooks so you can get an idea about the peace rates offered here it says 22 cents a carton of lettuce which would be about two dollars and 20 cents for an hour and 13 dollars and 20 cents for six hours to give you an idea about the the peace rates offered and this course this story actually talks about how farm employers are falsifying paybooks. Here is a report from the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the Arizona State Federation of Labor. A report to President Truman's commission on the migrant and alien labor. Here I wanted to point out that the report is based on what the AFL CIO organizations observed and our cultural industry. Their main objective was to oppose against Mexican alien farm laborers free access into the United States. So what you see is an example of their observations in the reports. It compares numbers of domestic workers versus alien workers opportunities to earn work and wages the harsh relationships between domestic and foreign workers as well. And this is the other half of the letter discussing issues in the cotton fields the opportunities for education housing conditions church health care offered to the workers. As I mentioned earlier over the years the H2 program developed under the boss set of programs. So they pretty much coexisted. And so a lot of the records you will find testimonies and reports and correspondence related to of course Mexican migrant workers as well as West Indian workers. And this advertisement speaks volumes on the need of farm workers and that Jim Crowism is the key concept to remember. So people are traveling nor trying to rid themselves of slave-like labor. And here is an advertisement used by the United States Employment Service in 1940 to recruit black American workers to cut sugar. And throughout this time some sugar companies were under investigation for for implementing slave-like labor. I'm sorry enforcing slave-like labor. And in 1943 the West Indian workers the first West Indian workers were brought to Florida to cultivate sugar. So I want to make sure this was highlighted because it speaks in terms of the times in 1940s. So and the need for workers World War II our unsung heroes are also the West Indian sugar-hanging apple pickers overall for our farm workers. The Walter McCann Act of 1952 is a huge game changer within farm labor history. Also known as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 this act governed immigration to the United States and also who can obtain a citizenship. This act actually established a preference system that determined which ethnic groups were desired in terms of traveling and being placed in America. So they highlight the importance of labor qualifications and they prefer immigrants with special skills. So special skills for example when you think about the West Indian migrant workers and the history of the Caribbean in sugar the familiarity with the crop. Jamaica has a lot of sugarcane as well as Trinidad, Bahamas, Barbados. So they were specifically targeted to assist with the sugarcane in Florida as well as Louisiana. And during the off season they traveled nor to pick apples and other vegetables and fruits. And here I wanted to point out the letter correspondence from A. Philip Randolph to President Harry S. Truman. A. Philip Randolph was a founder of the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Carquarters and this organization fought for labor rights of migrant workers as well. And you'll see throughout the letter highlights Caribbean, Mexican and Filipino workers, the issues of the McCarran bill, how it limits immigration from Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and the Honduras. And also he discusses just abolishing the issues of discrimination and segregation. This is also a letter from A. Philip Randolph to President Harry S. Truman discussing the African-American population and work conditions along with the migrant workers, work conditions and the .4 program. And the four point program was a technical assistance program for developing countries created by President Truman. And what's ironic or interesting about this piece is how can we have an image of knowing how to run a country in terms of health care, our culture overall, way of life if America was struggling with the flaws of discrimination and segregation. So that's what I gathered from A. Philip Randolph's letter here. The H2 program, the official, the Walter McCarran act actually led to the official name of the H2 program. And it wasn't until 1986 that the program changed to the H2B program, which I'll go into more detail. And keep in mind with these amendments with the Walter act of 1952, this led to the help push also the Silver Rights Act of 1964 to pass, which leads us to the Immigration Act of 1965. All of this influence abolished the origins of the quota system, limiting the amount of immigrants allowed in the United States. And I would like for everyone to keep those two acts in mind, or yeah, Silver Rights Act and the Immigration Act of 1965. So H2A temporary guest program, H2A workers are able to perform our cultural labor or services of temporary or seasonal nature within the United States. The H2B program is a non-immigrant program that permits employers temporarily hire non-immigrants to form not our cultural labor or services with the United States. So ranging from the tourism industry, working in domestic service or manufacturing, the H2B program is also offered. And the H2A program targets low-skilled labor, offers low-skilled, low-wage labor in our culture, and they target males for this program. And the H2B program actually predominantly recruits women to work in these industries from Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. The benefits of this program, we have the savings plan, healthcare, hourly wages offered, dormitory style housing, and transportation was paid for. Here we have the Farm Labor Contract Registration Act of 1964. And this actually regulates the activities of farm labor contractors, agents who recruit or otherwise are engaged in the transportation, employment, and housing of workers. So this act provided pretty much instruction and protection for both sides. We have the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. And this I wanted to highlight because it made it illegal for employers to knowingly hire individuals on the authorized to work in the United States. And it established a more secure system of verifying who's being hired. Here we have the Barbara Cho Files, which has a lot of information about the present day H2A program. And here it highlights information about the work conditions in the H2A program and wage discrepancies and issues with immigration policies at that time. We have here a newspaper article discussing the H2A Farm program. It highlights Stephanie Black's H2 worker film documentary that exposed many sugar cane corporations and their abuses of H2A farm laborers. Highly recommended to you all to check out that movie. We have here the another newspaper article, U.S. Sugar Revamps Cutters Pay System. And this is discussing issues of poor working conditions and wages within the H2A program as well. The article here specifically talks about housing, labor disputes, transportation issues throughout Florida, the work conditions of the sugar cane migrant workers throughout Florida. So here we have the another representation of the migrant worker experiences is discussing the legalities of temporary labor for immigrants, illegal, discussing illegal immigration. The fight to end labor exploitation is still present today. The H2A worker program still has its flaws and labor organizations and labor programs are still fighting and finding ways to create an awareness about our unsung heroes. And I'd like for everyone to remember what the story is behind the food that we eat. The labor movement and the civil rights movement have been intertwined from the beginning. And I leave you with this from A. Philip Randolph. The essence of trade is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden and the poor. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Dr. Hutchins. I feel like you just hit the very tip of the iceberg that there's so much more information. So really appreciate you're highlighting so much of these records. I'd also like to do a big thank you to our behind the scenes staff, Amber Forrester. She assisted us with our YouTube chat. Our audio visual staff include Jamie Atkinson, Brian Zipperly, Julie Reed, and Alexis Van Dyke. And we also have our captioning provider. Thank you. Thank you all. If we did not get to your question or you have one later, please submit it to Gabrielle.Downer at narra.gov. Please know that the presentation video recording and slides will remain available on this YouTube channel. We value your opinion, so please take a minute to complete a short evaluation. Find the link under show more. On behalf of the National Archives, thank you for joining us. This concludes our video broadcast.