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Full-Text Articles in History

California Farmworkers’ Strikes Of 1933, Kate Bronfenbrenner Mar 2012

California Farmworkers’ Strikes Of 1933, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] The spring of 1933 ushered in a wave of labor unrest unparalleled in the history of California agriculture. Starting in April with the Santa Clara pea harvest, strikes erupted throughout the summer and fall as each crop ripened for harvest. The strike wave culminated with the San Joaquin Valley strike, the largest and most important strike in the history of American agriculture. All told, more than 47,500 farmworkers participated in the 1933 strikes. Twenty-four of these strikes, involving approximately 37,500 workers, were under the leadership of the Communist-led Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU). In a dramatic reversal …


Imperial Valley, California, Farmworkers’ Strike Of 1934, Kate Bronfenbrenner Mar 2012

Imperial Valley, California, Farmworkers’ Strike Of 1934, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] In early November 1933, organizers from the Communist-led Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) returned to the Imperial Valley, where just four years before their first strike among California's agricultural workers had ended in a swift and inglorious defeat. Now they returned to the valley, fresh from their strike victories in the fall fruit harvest campaign, confident that the time was now ripe to bring unionization to the Imperial Valley lettuce fields. Conditions in the valley in November 1933 certainly appeared more conducive to the CAWIU's success. Wages for lettuce workers were as low as ten cents an …


Imperial Valley, California, Farmworkers’ Strike Of 1930, Kate Bronfenbrenner Mar 2012

Imperial Valley, California, Farmworkers’ Strike Of 1930, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] On January 1, 1930, several hundred Mexican and Filipino lettuce workers in Brawley, California, walked off their jobs in a spontaneous protest against declining wages and intolerable working conditions. In less than a week they were joined by 5,000 other field workers, and the impromptu walkout of Imperial Valley lettuce workers turned into a serious strike, ushering in a decade of farmworker militancy that sent tremors throughout California's powerful agricultural establishment.


Vacaville, California, Tree Pruners’ Strike Of 1932, Kate Bronfenbrenner Mar 2012

Vacaville, California, Tree Pruners’ Strike Of 1932, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] Two days after the November 1932 elections, newly elected California congressman Frank H. Buck provoked a massive tree pruners' strike when he announced a wage cut for pruners on his ranch from $1.40 for an eight-hour day to $1.25 for a nine-hour day. Buck, one the largest growers in the Vacaville fruit growing region, had raised wages to $1.40 during his congressional campaign, promising farmworkers even higher wages if he won the election. Running under the campaign slogan "Give Government Back to the People," Buck garnered nearly unanimous support from farmworkers in the Vacaville area. Within days of his …


California Pea Pickers’ Strike Of 1932, Kate Bronfenbrenner Mar 2012

California Pea Pickers’ Strike Of 1932, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] Just before the start of the May 1932 harvest season, growers in the Half Moon Bay area of San Mateo, California, provoked a spontaneous strike among pea pickers when they reduced piece rates from seventy-five to fifty cents a pack. Although the workers were unorganized, the large pay cut represented the breaking point for families just coming out of the slow winter season. The previous year's rate of seventy-five cents a pack had not been enough to tide them over through the winter, especially given the four dollars a month rent they were required to pay the growers for …


California History: Expanding The Narrative Of The First Californians, Cynthia Taylor Sep 2011

California History: Expanding The Narrative Of The First Californians, Cynthia Taylor

Cynthia Taylor

No abstract available


The Evolution Of Women's Rights In Inheritance, Kristine Knaplund Dec 2007

The Evolution Of Women's Rights In Inheritance, Kristine Knaplund

Kristine Knaplund

No abstract provided.


Ansel Adams’S Eucalyptus Tree, Fort Ross: Nature, Photography, And The Search For California, Adam Arenson Dec 2004

Ansel Adams’S Eucalyptus Tree, Fort Ross: Nature, Photography, And The Search For California, Adam Arenson

Adam Arenson

This article considers the image of California evoked in the unusual Ansel Adams photograph Eucalyptus Tree, Fort Ross, California (1969), a Polaroid Land image of the garrison fence and an aged eucalyptus tree. Considering the participation of Russian occupation, Australian cross-pollination, Carleton Watkins’s early photographs of redwoods, automotive and tourist images in the creation of this distinctive California place, the article argues that to understand Ansel Adams’s work, we must not remember his Yosemite images and forget him at Fort Ross. Eucalyptus Tree, Fort Ross, California is still beautiful even as it jars the human presence back into the frame. …


The Restoration Movement In California, Jerry Rushford Apr 1984

The Restoration Movement In California, Jerry Rushford

Jerry Rushford

This is an article written by Jerry Rushford for the Disciples of Christ periodical, Impact, chronicling the history of the Restoration Movement in California, from its beginnings in 1845 to 1900.