Grown in Florida: A Reexamination of the History of the Farmworkers' Movement

From Florida's vast agricultural sector, farmworkers have generated powerful and influential movements. Often overlooked by historians, who have largely focused attention on California, Cesar Chavez, and the rise and fall of the United Farmworkers Union, Florida’s farmworkers forwarded important and innovative challenges to the oppressive labor, social, and legal systems that kept them in poverty. In this lecture, Dr. Charlie Fanning will show how farmworkers’ organizing in Florida, from the Great Depression to today, reshaped both working conditions in the state’s agricultural complex and national movements for economic and social justice. Particular attention will be paid to the place of Polk County and citrus in this history.

Dr. Charlie Fanning is an Assistant Professor of History and the Assistant Director of the Lawton M. Chiles Center for Florida History at Florida Southern College, specializing in labor, immigration, and environmental history. A graduate of Florida Southern, Dr. Fanning earned his MA from Georgetown University and doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his career has included positions in organized labor, the UN system, and the University of Florida. His forthcoming book “Empire of the Everglades” examines the development of industrial agriculture and farmworkers’ movements in South Florida over the course of the 20th century.

No registration required. For more information, please call 863.834.4269.