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Description

These photographs make me thankful for my life and our time. Colorizing these really brought the reality of their struggle to our modern eyes. Here is the backstory.

These photographs by Dorothea Lange are part of a well-known collection taken of Florence Thompson with several of her children during the Dust Bowl. The photo collection, known as the "Migrant Mother" series, shows Thompson with her children in a tent shelter in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration.

The mother in this photo is 32 years old and has seven children.

Florence Owens Thompson was born Florence Leona Christie on September 1, 1903, in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. Both of her parents claimed Cherokee descent. Her father, Jackson Christie, allegedly abandoned her mother, Mary Jane Cobb, before she was born, and her mother married Charles Akman (of Choctaw descent) in the spring of 1905. The family lived on a small farm in Indian Territory outside Tahlequah. Cherokee Nation tribal records indicate that Jackson Christie's blood quantum was either full blood or one-half. Mary Jane Cobb claimed she was Cherokee on her May 27, 1894, marriage record to Christie but later testified under oath before the Dawes Commission that both of her parents were white. While many sources claim Christie abandoned Cobb, he disputed the allegation. Christie served three years in a federal penitentiary in Detroit, Michigan.

Aged 17, Thompson married Cleo Owens, a farmer's 23-year-old son from Stone County, Missouri, on February 14, 1921. They soon had their first daughter, Violet, followed by a second daughter, Viola, and a son, Leroy (Troy). The family migrated west with other Owens relatives to Oroville, California, where they worked in the sawmills and on the farms of the Sacramento Valley. By 1931, Thompson was pregnant with her sixth child when her husband Cleo died of tuberculosis.

Thompson then worked in the fields and restaurants to support her six children. In 1933, Thompson had another child, returned to Oklahoma for a time, and then was joined by her parents as they migrated to Shafter, California, north of Bakersfield. There, Thompson met Jim Hill, with whom she had three more children. During the 1930s, the family worked as migrant farm workers following the crops in California and, at times, into Arizona. Thompson recalled periods when she picked 400–500 pounds (180–230 kg) of cotton from first daylight until after it was too dark to work. She said: "I worked in hospitals. I tended the bar. I cooked. I worked in the fields. I done a little bit of everything to make a living for my kids."

The family settled in Modesto, California, in 1945. Well after World War II, Thompson met and married hospital administrator George Thompson. This marriage brought her far greater financial security than she had previously enjoyed.

She died in 1983 at the age of 80

Description

These photographs make me thankful for my life and our time. Colorizing these really brought the reality of their struggle to our modern eyes. Here is the backstory.

These photographs by Dorothea Lange are part of a well-known collection taken of Florence Thompson with several of her children during the Dust Bowl. The photo collection, known as the "Migrant Mother" series, shows Thompson with her children in a tent shelter in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration.

The mother in this photo is 32 years old and has seven children.

Florence Owens Thompson was born Florence Leona Christie on September 1, 1903, in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. Both of her parents claimed Cherokee descent. Her father, Jackson Christie, allegedly abandoned her mother, Mary Jane Cobb, before she was born, and her mother married Charles Akman (of Choctaw descent) in the spring of 1905. The family lived on a small farm in Indian Territory outside Tahlequah. Cherokee Nation tribal records indicate that Jackson Christie's blood quantum was either full blood or one-half. Mary Jane Cobb claimed she was Cherokee on her May 27, 1894, marriage record to Christie but later testified under oath before the Dawes Commission that both of her parents were white. While many sources claim Christie abandoned Cobb, he disputed the allegation. Christie served three years in a federal penitentiary in Detroit, Michigan.

Aged 17, Thompson married Cleo Owens, a farmer's 23-year-old son from Stone County, Missouri, on February 14, 1921. They soon had their first daughter, Violet, followed by a second daughter, Viola, and a son, Leroy (Troy). The family migrated west with other Owens relatives to Oroville, California, where they worked in the sawmills and on the farms of the Sacramento Valley. By 1931, Thompson was pregnant with her sixth child when her husband Cleo died of tuberculosis.

Thompson then worked in the fields and restaurants to support her six children. In 1933, Thompson had another child, returned to Oklahoma for a time, and then was joined by her parents as they migrated to Shafter, California, north of Bakersfield. There, Thompson met Jim Hill, with whom she had three more children. During the 1930s, the family worked as migrant farm workers following the crops in California and, at times, into Arizona. Thompson recalled periods when she picked 400–500 pounds (180–230 kg) of cotton from first daylight until after it was too dark to work. She said: "I worked in hospitals. I tended the bar. I cooked. I worked in the fields. I done a little bit of everything to make a living for my kids."

The family settled in Modesto, California, in 1945. Well after World War II, Thompson met and married hospital administrator George Thompson. This marriage brought her far greater financial security than she had previously enjoyed.

She died in 1983 at the age of 80