Henry P. Anderson Papers

Henry P. Anderson Papers

Approximately 1500 items from the Henry P. Anderson Papers were digitized and are now available for browsing. Browse the entire collection or curated subjects collected by Anderson over the course of his life.

 

Henry P. Anderson (1927-2016) was a researcher, labor organizer, and advocate for farm workers. His papers, held at the Labor Archives and Research Center, cover agricultural labor conditions, corporate agriculture and farm economy, pesticide use and effect on workers, agriculture-related legislation, farmer associations, and labor, religious and political organizing efforts to improve agricultural working conditions. The papers include extensive correspondence and news clippings, and Anderson’s graduate research into the Bracero Program in California.

 

The Labor Archives exhibit, Fields of Struggle: Agricultural Laborers in California, 1939-1966, uses materials from the Henry P. Anderson Papers to examine the tensions and solidarity between distinct groups of migrant agricultural laborers, with an emphasis on the Bracero Program and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC).

Henry P. Anderson Papers - View all

Browse all the digitized material from the Henry P. Anderson Papers in one place.

Bracero Program, 1942-1964

The Bracero Program was a bi-national agreement which allowed workers from Mexico to travel to the United States temporarily to work in the agricultural industry. Henry P. Anderson conducted research and interviews with bracero workers in California for his research on health attitudes.

Agricultural Workers Organizing Committe (AWOC), 1959-1966

Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) was a farm worker organizing effort funded by the AFL-CIO. Based in Stockton, California, AWOC provided infrastructure and support to address labor issues and unionize workers.

Pesticides

Includes materials on pesticide use and its effect on farmworkers from Anderson's work on the Community Study on Pesticides and the Task Group on Occupational Exposure to Pesiticides. Includes correspondence, publications, and reports on chemical use, exposure, re-entry times, and workplace illnesses.

 

Free Speech Movement, 1964-1965

The Free Speech Movement was comprised of students and community members at the University of California, Berkeley, who fought for the right to organize politically around issues of civil rights, academic freedom, and anti-war activism.

Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (STFU), 1934-1960

Founded in Tyronza, Arkansas in 1934 by Black and white tenant farmers and Socialist Party members, the STFU campaigned for organized labor and against evictions in the Depression-era American South. Under the tagline "The Voice of the Disinherited," this collection contains the newspapers The Share Croppers Voice, The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (S.T.F.U.) News, and The Tenant Farmer.

Delano Grape Strike, 1965-1970

Members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) went on strike for higher wages in September 1965.  NFWA, a predominately Chicano union, joined AWOC in the strike and effectively used boycotts, roving pickets, and media campaigns, to win their strike demands. In 1966, AWOC and NFWA merged to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC).

United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), 1966-1972

In 1966, the two unions involved in the Delano Grape Strike, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) merged to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC). UFWOC eventually became the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).

 

Henry P. Anderson Papers Finding Aid
This document describes the contents of the Anderson Collection held at the Labor Archives and Research Center.

Henry P. Anderson Oral History
Audio recordings and transcripts of oral history interviews with Henry P. Anderson conducted by his son, David Anderson. These interviews contain biographical information as well as details of Anderson's lifetime of work supporting the farmworker movement.

Bracero History Archive
Browse 3,000 oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero Program.

Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program 1942-1964 Exhibition
Documents, images, and oral histories from an exhibition by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History hosted by CSU Channel Islands.

Harvest of Loneliness: The Bracero Program
Teacher's guide to the Bracero Program, as a companion to the Harvest of Loneliness film by Dr. Gilbert G. Gonzalez.

Latinx Resource Guide: The Bracero Program
Library of Congress research guide including timeline and online resources.

Ernest Lowe Photography Collection, UC Merced
Over 2,000 photographs documenting the lives and struggles of the farmworking communities in California's Central Valley.

United Farm Workers History and Geography
Project from the Mapping American Social Movements Project at the University of Washington. Includes maps of United Farm Workers (UFW) strikes and boycotts as well as a timeline of UFW Actions, 1965-1974.

Farm Worker Documentation Project
Primary source accounts held at UC San Diego telling the stories of those involved in the United Farm Workers (UFW).

United Farm Workers and the Delano Grape Strike
Set of material from the Digital Public Library of America documenting the Delano Grape Strike.

Mi Historia
A living archive of Latina, Chicana, Hispana, Indigena, and Afro-Latina stories.

Digital Stories: Farmworkers Document the Health Impacts of Climate Change & Growing Need to Advance Health Equity, Climate Justice
Collection of stories from farmworkers in Ventura County, Calif. documenting the impact and health inequities that they experience as a result of climate change and the growing need to advance health equity and climate justice. A project of the Public Health Institute.

Lideres Campesinas
A contemporary project to strengthen the leadership of farmworker women and youth so that they can be agents of economic, social and political change and ensure their human rights. 


Acknowledgements
The Labor Archives and Research Center would like to acknowledge the Estate of Henry P. Anderson for generously funding this digitization project.

Copyright Statement
Some materials are in the public domain; transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Note to User
Bracero workers were subject to inhumane conditions, including invasive health procedures and overcrowded processing centers, during Immigration and Naturalization Services screening processes for the Bracero Program. Many of the workers depicted in the immigration documentation from the Henry P. Anderson papers are unnamed and it is unclear if the photographs were taken consensually. We ask that users respect the lives of these individuals, their descendants, and their communities.