(light guitar music) (photo snapshot) (light guitar music) - [Ken] I never knew what working in the fields were like.

The best example that I have of what I know is from these pictures from 1938 through Russel Lee that I was able to just haphazardly stumble upon, but then it was like, oh, my goodness, it was a gold mine.

(guitar music) - [Dr. Mary] Ken is one of those individuals who gives back to the community all the time.

He came to me and said, "I have come across Library of Congress photographs that were taken during the Sugarbeat Harvest back in the 30's and 40's."

He said, "I think we can get them from the Library of Congress, I've already been in contact with them."

And, I said, "Okay, let's check and see."

- [Ken] The Chancellor bought into it.

(Guitar music) - [Dr. Mary] He worked with another one of our students, and they came up with an amazing idea to have a gallery to have people come and see the story of the Sugarbeat Harvest and the importance of the migration of people who came to help out our local farmers.

(guitar music) Ken obviously had an interest in this, because that also is a reflection of his own heritage.

So, fast forward, Ken had figured out how to get access to the prints, had them all blown up, and he came one day and he said, "Can I bring a few over?

I wanna show them to you."

He put them down and I was like, "Oh, my gosh."

These really tell through the stories of faces.

The one of them has a backdrop of a family sitting around a table.

They really communicated the migrant story.

(guitar music) - [Ken] These pictures are amazing.

The clarity is astounding.

And so we brought them to life.

(guitar music) - [Dr. Mary] The part that always hits me when I look to the photos is just the hard work.

We have come to this situation now where things are done mechanical.

The bending over, the cutting of the sugar beats, the tremendous impact that had on bodies, and that was true throughout all of agriculture during the 30's and 40's.

It wasn't just a job.

People brought their lives with them, their children.

The migration story is one of the Latino population.

When we look at the demographics of K through sixth grade right now in the Crookston public schools, approximately forty percent of our students have a Latino origin.

So, not only did people people come to help and begin in the harvest, but they've stayed and they've created wonderful families and contributed so much to the community.

Helping people understand what it was like and sharing the family story is a very important outcome that came from this.

- [Ken] These pictures are like the Chancellor said the toils on these bodies is amazing.

The physicality I have not seen repeated.

Somehow they survived, and somehow they did this.

(guitar music) - [Narrator] Moving Lives Minnesota, Stories of Origin and Immigration, is made possible by the State's Art's and Cultural Heritage Fund.

And, by the members of Prairie Public.