"The Forgotten People" - Dale Wright - New York World Telegram & Sun
Reportage
Description
Reporter Dale Wright spent six months working on and off as a migrant worker along the Atlantic Seaboard for this series, which examines the conditions, exploitation, and legislation (and its effectiveness) of migrant laborer life.
("The Forgotten People..A Report on Migrant Labor" by Dale Wright. Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Dale Wright, c/o K.E. Wright-King ©1961, New York World-Telegram and Sun.)
Reporters
Media History
The reporting was intended for these media types: Newspaper
Additional Resources
Effects and Outcomes
Wright's reporting inspired his book, "They Harvest Despair," published four years later. As he recalled in the book's preface, he "lived, worked, ate, and more than once suffered with crews of transient harvesters on long journeys that ended in the rich, black vegetable fields of Eastern Long Island." His reportage, he said, caused "a national furor" with its "long, hard, painstaking look at the migrant farm worker along the Atlantic seaboard."
Two New York congressmen, the Democrats John V. Lindsay and William Fitts Ryan, had the series entered into the Congressional Record and three different social service agaencies distributed "tens of thousands" of copies in pamphlet form. The American Newspaper Guild cited the series as one of the two most distinguished pieces of reporting of 1961 in the United States or Canada, awarding Wright two Heywood Broun Memorial awards for that year. Other prizes for the series included the Society for the Silurians and the Paul Tobenkin awards for distingished public service. The newspaper nominated the series for the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. In addition, Wright reported that after the series ran, both New York and New Jersey took remedial steps to reorganize their migrant farm-labor programs, including, in New York's case, pilot programs and teams of experts sent to acquaint workers with their rights and responsibilities.
Articles, Books, Video/Film
I-"I Saw Human Shame as a Migrant Worker" - Dale Wright - New York Telegram and Sun
October 10, 1961
For six months, on and off, Dale Wright worked as a migrant worker. This is the first article in the "Forgotten ...II-"Migrant Pay $4.32 a Day In Florida Tomato Field" - Dale Wright - New York Telegram and Sun
October 11, 1961
In the context of four migrant worker deaths in a labor farm fire, Dale Wright continues his reporting based on six ...III-"Migrants Live Horror Story in Job Travel" - Dale Wright - New York Telegram and Sun
October 12, 1961
The third in a series of articles based on the six months that Dale Wright posed as a migrant worker on the Atlantic ...IV-"Migrant Labor Exploited by Delay Trick" - Dale Wright - New York Telegram and Sun
October 13, 1961
The fourth installment to the Dale Wright's series on the conditions of migrant workers continues with a look at how ...V-"Speed-Up Forces Migrants to Quit Job Before Payday" - Dale Wright - New York World Telegram and Sun
October 16, 1961
The fifth installment of 'The Forgotten People' series. Speed-ups and child labor were parts of daily life for the ...VI-"Migrant Workers Need U.S. Protection" - Dale Wright - New York World Telegram and Sun | Farm States Won't Help; Laborers are Gypped Everywhere They Go
October 17, 1961
The sixth installment to 'The Forgotten People' series. Dale Wright moves from Florida to South Carolina and goes ...VII-"Farm Camp Slum, Exposed 8 Years Ago, Is Still Hell" - Dale Wright - New York World Telegram and Sun
October 18, 1961
The seventh installment of 'The Forgotten People' series. Dale Wright moves undercover as a migrant worker to New ...VIII-"Migrant Accepts Gyp as Part of Life" | Lack of Schooling Makes Him Easy Mark of Cheat
October 19, 1961
The eighth installment in 'The Forgotten People' series. Dale Wright looks at the tricks some farm operators use to ...IX-"Migrants Exist in Duck Sheds" - Dale Wright - New York World Telegram and Sun
October 20, 1961
The ninth and second to last article in Wright's series on migrant workers focuses on New York State.X-"State Could Remedy Conditions for Migrant Labor" - Dale Wright - New York World Telegram and Sun
October 23, 1961
The tenth and final article in 'The Forgotten People' series, based on Dale Wright's undercover reporting as a ...