The 41 happy-go-lucky migrant workers in the flimsy canvas-topped truck were a typical grab-bag assortment from among the 12,000 Deep South Negro laborers who annually sweep northward with the spring to range through North Carolina. It was green-bean-picking time, and this Florida-recruited group had spent some three weeks in the state sweating through the day to feed the canneries, bedding down at night like nomads—men, women and children—in a temporary camp near Mount Olive. Now, en route from the camp to the fields at Dunn, they were rocking along nine miles from...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In