These photographs document a disappearing group of black sharecroppers who migrated to California’s San Joaquin Valley over a half century ago. Unlike their white counterparts -- the "Okies" of John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath -- the story of these migrants has gone largely untold. Today, just a handful of surviving migrants and their descendants still live in the Valley, scattered in remote communities built amid the cotton fields. These photographs chronicle daily life in these disappearing communities, and document this forgotten chapter of American rural life. |