Drought refugees. Mother and children in a refugee tent in Nipomo,California,USA,in March 1936. They are among 500,000 Americans who were made homeless by the economic and ecological effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a series of droughts and dust storms that forced agricultural families to migrate in search of jobs and food. The woman,who is 32 years old,is Florence Thompson,widow and mother of seven children. Her four daughters (left to right) are: Viola,Ruby,Katherine and Norma. This photograph,by Dorothea Lange,is one of several she took of the family. One of them,Migrant Mother (H420/210) has become an iconic image of the hardships of the Great Depression |