Speech #870008288

Mr. Harvey Poole. a Negro leader of Belle Glade. Fla.. deeply resentful of this slur. has completed a list of children of migrant workers who have received college degrees. Furthermore. according to Sam Mase. a staff writer of the Tampa Tribune. by December 5 Mr. Pooles list of migrant children who had received college diplomas had grown to more than 100 persons. and this is only a small segment of the migratory farm labor force. Further interesting light is thrown upon this subject according to the Farm Bureau Federation who advises us that the records at Lake Shore High School in Belle Glade. Fla.. showed that more than 30 percent of the graduates of that high school during the past 5 years have been migrant childrenand that more than 20 percent of them have gone on to college. I further call to your attention the fact that the FriendlyMurrow production fails as usual to reflect the major progress that has been made in this respect in recent years. I call to your attention the Report to the President on Domestic Migratory Farm Labor of the Presidents Committee on Migratory Labor. which says on pages 17 to 18: There is a definite trend. particularly since 1954. of increased and sustained interest on the part of State departments of education. local school districts and communities. and private organizations to provide for the educational needs of migrants. The producers of this show must have looked far and wide to discover the most dilapidated type of housing that they could find for the script. and it shows a number of views of tumbleddown housing facilities occupied by migrants. The television production does not balance this showing of the worst housing with comparable presentation of relatively good housing provided to farm workers in many areas. nor does it adequately reflect the fact that the provision of good housing for a period of a few weeks is a tremendous financial burden that farmers have sought to meet as best they can and are meeting to an extent not made clear at all by the picture. This in spite of the fact that improvements in migratory labor housing which have been and are being made are recognized easily by anyone who is at all close to the situation.