Real Mothers: The Dust Bowl, Part 1 “The Great Plow up”

“She never had a lot, but she always made sure we had something. She didn't eat sometimes, but she made sure us children ate. That's one thing she did do.” ~daughter of Migrant Mother

Discuss PBS’s The Dust Bowl, airing November 18th and 19th. Check local listings. Pre-order on DVD/Blu-ray here. 

Unidentified mother and her seven children, courtesy of Library of Congress.

It was our nation’s longest, deadliest environmental disaster and representative of the nationwide economic crisis. But the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s often merits no more than a few lines in the history books. Acclaimed film director Ken Burns (The Civil War) delves deeper into this troubled time, tracking down survivors to preserve their often heartbreaking, always courageous stories on film. The American dream had never been so shattered, but the unlikely heroes were the women and children. The mothers, grandmothers, sons and daughters who kept their families together while the men tried to make sense of the land or scrounge for low-paying jobs elsewhere. We watch for their stories in particular tonight.