Gee's Bend During the Great Depression

In 1937, in response to the economic hardships brought on by the Great Depression, the federal government established a cooperative land program in which Gee's Bend residents were given the opportunity to purchase and control the land they farmed for the first time.

Girl at Gee's Bend, Alabama, photographed by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration, April 1937
Courtesy of the Library of Congress; photograph by Arthur Rothstein
Girl at Gee's Bend, Alabama, photographed by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration, April 1937