Picket line at Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois

September 14, 2021 Mike Goad

Dust, Drought, Depression, and War No. 15
The Bitter Years No.1¹

Picket line at Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois, July 1941 (Text in image: Slavery was abolished, yet we work for $8 a week)

John Vachon
Picket line at Mid-City Realty Company,
South Chicago, Illinois, July 1941^2,3

Taken by itself in a photographic art exhibition with no other information or other related images than what is on the caption card one could assume that this photo is making a statement on race in 1941.

However, in neighboring photographs in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, the picket line is actually a mixture of black and white strikers. In one photo, a white man carries a sign that says, “Mid City Realty Unfair—Underpays his Workers—Overcharges his Tenants—Support the Strike.” In another photo, a black man carries an identical sign. A number of other photos are available from the Library of Congress.⁴

There is essentially no information online related to these images and the picketing of Mid-City Realty. Some of the few websites that have any of the images make unfounded assumptions.^{5, 6, 7}

The 1962 exhibition, “The Bitter Years 1935-1941,” was Edward Steichen’s last as Director of the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The images in the exhibition were personally selected by Steichen from 270,000 photos taken for the Farm Security Administration by a team of photographers employed between 1935 and 1941 to document (primarily) rural America during the Great Depression.
Poos Françoise. The Bitter Years: Edward Steichen and the Farm Security Administration Photographs. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2012. page 60.
Vachon, John. “Picket Line at Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois.” July 1941. Library of Congress. Accessed September 9, 2021. www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017746824/.
Other related photos:
“Picket Line at Mid-City Realty Company in Chicago, Illinois, July 1941.” IDCA, August 27, 2020. https://iowaculture.gov.
“This photograph shows African Americans standing in a picket line outside a midtown business in Chicago, Illinois, in 1941 protesting the discriminatory wage gap between African Americans and white people in the workforce.”
“Support the Strike: 1941.” Shorpy.com. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://www.shorpy.com/node/25349.
“Girl in picket line. Union picketing for increase of $8 weekly wage. Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois.” The only information that I was able to glean from the photos regarding the wages was that it was too low, $8 a week. Increasing the wage by $8 would be doubling the pay which would be an extremely unlikely demand.
“Understanding the Great Migration; Resource Sheet No. 4.” Center for History Education Online Lessons. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://www.umbc.edu/….
“In ‘the Promised Land’ of Chicago, many black migrants still had to join picket lines to fight for fair wages. Some foremen in various companies discriminated by placing restrictions upon the promotion and advancement of black workers, frequently preventing them from earning higher wages.”

Library of Congress information for the image:

Title: Picket line at Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois
Creator(s): Vachon, John, 1914-1975, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1941 July.
Medium: 1 negative : safety ; 35 mm.
Reproduction Number: LC-USF33-016151-M5 (b&w film neg.) LC-USZ62-130701 (b&w film copy neg. from file print) LC-DIG-fsa-8a33115 (digital file from original neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs
Call Number: LC-USF33- 016151-M5 [P&P] LOT 1073 (Possible associated group of images)
Other Number: F 663
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes:
…..Title and other information from caption card.
…..Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.
…..More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi

_____
Mike’s notes:

Image restoration note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image

Image restoration is the process of using digital restoration tools to create new digital versions of the images while also improving their quality and repairing damage.