Strikers at Seabrook Farms, Bridgeton, New Jersey (With a Stone in One Hand...)

The most serious agricultural strike in New Jersey’s history took place in July 1934. Workers on the Seabrook Farm, having recently won a living wage from the farm’s owner, found their earnings suddenly cut, and took to the streets in a bitter strike. Violence began almost immediately, as police and strikebreakers streamed water from fire hoses and hurled tear gas into the crowd. This press photograph is among those taken at the scene from both air and on the ground and was distributed nationwide the following day. With grease pencil crop marks on the front, and typed captions and scrawled notes about size and placement on the back, this much-handled image shows the layers of interpretation that accompany most press photographs but usually remain invisible.