Ain’t Got No Home: America’s Great Migrations and the Making of an Interracial Left

252 Pages·2014·5.394 MB·English

by  Erin Royston Battat

Ain’t Got No Home
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ain’t got no home
America’s Great Migrations
and the Making of an Interracial Left
erin r oyston ba ttat
The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill
This book was published Library of Congress
with the assistance of the Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fred W. Morrison Fund for Battat, Erin Royston.
Southern Studies of the Ain’t got no home : America’s great migrations
University of North and the making of an interracial left / Erin Royston
Carolina Press. Battat.
pages cm
© 2014 The University of Includes bibliographical references and index.
North Carolina Press isbn 978-1-4696-1402-1 (paperback)
All rights reserved. isbn 978-1-4696-1403-8 (ebook)
Set in Quadraat and 1. Migration, Internal—United States—History—
Amatic by codeMantra. 20th century. 2. Migration, Internal—Political
Manufactured in the aspects—United States—History—20th century.
United States of America. 3. Migration, Internal, in literature. 4. American
literature—20th century—History and criticism.
The paper in this book meets the 5. Literature and society—United States—
guidelines for permanence and History—20th century. 6. Populism—United
durability of the Committee on States—History—20th century. 7. Right and left
Production Guidelines for Book (Political science)—United States—History—
Longevity of the Council on 20th century. I. Title.
Library Resources. hb1965.b38 2014
304.80973—dc23
The University of North Carolina 2013035598
Press has been a member of the
Green Press Initiative since 2003. 18 17 16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1
For James
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contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. Race, Sex, and the Hobo 15
2. An Okie Is Me 41
3. Steel Mill Blues 71
4. Beyond the Migrant Mother 95
5. Wartime Shipyard 127
Conclusion 163
Notes 175
Bibliography 201
Index 225
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illustrations
1. Photograph of a starving child of
dust bowl migrants, by Dorothy Babb 59
2. The Migration of the Negro, panel 1, by Jacob Lawrence 77
3. The Migration of the Negro, panel 37, by Jacob Lawrence 78
4. Automobile Industry, mural study by William Gropper 82
5. Mother of seven children, photograph by Dorothea Lange 96
6. Mother and Child, lithograph by Elizabeth Catlett 96
7. Mother and child, photograph by Russell Lee 98
8. Young Indian mother and baby, photograph by Russell Lee 98
9. Japanese mother and daughter, photograph by Dorothea Lange 100
10. Mexican mother in California, photograph by Dorothea Lange 100
11. My role has been important in the struggle to
organize the unorganized, linocut by Elizabeth Catlett 105
12. “From the kitchenette . . . to the white folk’s kitchen” 108
13. Mother and two children, photograph by Russell Lee 117
14. Madonna della Scala (detail), bas-relief
marble sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti 118
15. Pietà (front view), marble sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti 118
16. This Is the Enemy, poster by C. V. Lewis 152