1940's Lifestyles and Social Trends | "I'd Rather Not Be on Relief"

Song

Date: 1938

Source: Anonymous. "I'd Rather Not Be on Relief." As performed by Lester Hunter. Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection. American Memory digital primary source collection, Library of Congress. Available online at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/todd:@field(DOCID+st045); website home page: http://memory.loc.gov (accessed April 20, 2003).

Introduction

Songs such as "I'd Rather Not Be on Relief" evolved as a means of self-expression in communities of people who all faced the same economic obstacles. This song emerged from the Shafter Farm Security Organization migrant labor camp, but it was typical of songs that were sung across the nation by migrant workers and others who found themselves hurt by the...