Type: Exhibition section

Name: Migratory Labor

Detail: "We visited camps where entire families live in 12x12 foot rooms, and yet these quarters were among the best we have seen anywhere. Educators told us that most migrant children are years behind in their schooling because of their travels from one state to another. Away from the big worker camps, off the back roads, we saw filth and decay. . . . All in all, the visit reinforced the impression received in other states—that there is a national interest to be served by eliminating the waste of human resources which occurs so often in the migrant stream. The neglected migrant child of 1960 will be the inadequate citizen 20 years hence unless federal, state and local governments work effectively with private citizens to deal with the problems now." Harrison A. Williams, Jr., Report Home, 30 May 1960.

Williams reported on his visit to the migratory labor camps in the Homestead area of Florida in his newsletter to constituents. His report is representative in his concern for both the immediate human conditions he found and their long-term implications for the nation, as well as his confidence in the ability of government at all levels to partner with private interests to resolve the issues. Williams made the trip as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor. The subcommittee was created at Williams’s recommendation, and was one of his earliest initiatives in the Senate. He remained concerned with migratory agricultural labor throughout his Senate years. Indeed, Williams's efforts on behalf of migrant farm workers—spanning healthcare, education, working conditions, minimum wages, housing, and more—are a microcosm of his legislative career.

Type: Exhibition caption

Detail: In 1969, at the start of the 91st Congress, Williams accepted the chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Labor, a step toward becoming chair of the full committee in 1971 when the position opened with the primary election loss of then-chairman Ralph Yarborough. Walter F. Mondale became chairman of the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor. In 1973, the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor was combined with another to form the Subcommittee on Employment, Poverty, and Migratory Labor for the rest of the 1970s. Despite the organizational changes, through the 1970s Williams continued to direct attention to improving the conditions of migratory laborers, work that continued to face resistance in and out of Congress, as Chavez observes.

Type: Finding aid

Detail: Finding aid provides description of materials in the Harrison A. Williams collection