Summary:

In this Farm Labor Project episode, the historical narrators describe participating in Brooklyn College's Farm Labor Project. These students, children of immigrants, responded to the World War II farm labor shortage by volunteering to spend their summer as farmworkers. During the summers of 1942, '43, and '44, they worked on farms in Upstate New York picking peas and beans. The students describe the hard work of farming; encounters with America's migrant farm labor; the experience of being the "other" in small homogenous farming communities; and the adventure of living away from home, immigrant families, and urban life for the first time.

Interview Theme Index:

Background and Youth
Campus Life
Life on the Farm
After the project

Documents:

  1. "Girls at Brooklyn College Register for Summer Farm Work," New York World Telegram, May 5, 1942.
  2. "Majoring in Peas," New York Times, July 18, 1943.
  3. Editorial, The Bean Stalker, July 23, 1943.
  4. "Hinman Tells All, "The Bean Stalker, July 23, 1943.
  5. "Curfew' Or 'The Ten O'Clock Jump'," The Bean Stalker, July 23, 1943.
  6. "Snips and Snaps," The Bean Stalker, July 23, 1943.
  7. "Brooklyn Marches Onward," Marching Song of Brooklyn College Farm Labor Project.
  8. "1943 Farm Labor Project Leaves Room for Improvement," Brooklyn College Vanguard, April 24, 1944.

Sample Interview Transcript:

Marjorie Brockman

Farm Labor Project Narrators and Biographies:

Marjorie Brockman
Marion Greenstone
Frances Koral
Phyllis LeShaw
Elliot Levine