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Legacy on the Land: New Deal Resettlement in the Mississippi Delta
by
Jane Adams
D. Gorton

Paper given at the Joint Meetings of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, Boston University, June 7-11, 2006


For years, people had been promised that if the land was ever sold, they would be given the first chance to buy. Now we were finding out that no blacks would be given an opportunity to buy any Farm Security land in East Carroll.  [The FSA had already brought papers for people to sign.] Actually, they were signing away all their good farmland and at the same time agreeing to transfer to the Thomastown project, a resettlement project some twenty-five miles south of Transylvania in Madison Parish.
Negro sharecropper with wire which he has rolled up after taking down fences on his rented farm, Transylvania Project, Louisiana. Russell Lee. Jan. 1939. LC-USF33-011937-M4
The black project at Thomastown, it turned out, would displace a number of white families. The NAACP complaint had brought some action from Washington, but nonetheless, in January everyone on Transylvania was evicted. The eviction was covered by the Pittsburgh Courier as well as by FSA photographer Russell Lee.

His photographs suggest the chaotic situation that faced the FSA administrators, the resident blacks, and the in-coming whites.
Wife and children of Negro sharecropper who will be resettled at Transylvania Project, Louisiana. Russell Lee. Jan. 1939. LC-USF33-011927-M5

Children in front of household goods at side of house. These people came from a western parish and brought all their household goods for which they have no storage space in temporary housing provided at Transylvania Project, Louisiana. Russell Lee. Jan. 1939. LC-USF33- 011937-M3


Family who will be resettled, Transylvania Project, Louisiana. Russell Lee. Jan. 1939. LC-USF33-011927-M5

FSA client who will resettle at Transylvania Project. Louisiana. Russell Lee. Jan. 1939. LC-USF34-031893-D

House occupied temporarily by FSA client who moved from western part of state to Transylvania Project. Louisiana. Russell Lee. Jan. 1939 LC-USF34-031888-D

Goods stored on front porch of former sharecropper's cabin, now temporary home of FSA client. Transylvania, Louisiana. Russell Lee. Jan. 1939. LC-USF34-031910-D ?

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