“Health is a Human Right” featuring images from the National Museum of American History

Special thanks to Judy M. Gantt, Director, David J. Sencer CDC Museum, for this #MuseumDayLive guest post.

Opening on Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live, 9.28.13, Health is Human Right: Race and Place in America examines some historic challenges of the past 120 years in achieving health equity for all in the U.S. The exhibition is on view at the David J. Sencer CDC Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. The exhibition features images from the National Museum of American History that document the El Bracero program, a guest worker program started in 1942 to address the shortage of labor needed for agriculture and railway maintenance, as many men in the U.S. left to fight World War II.  During the period from 1942-1964, about 4.6 million Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in more than half of the states in America.   Many of these workers faced discrimination, poor living conditions, and inadequate housing.

Upon crossing the bridge from Mexico, men were led through a makeshift booth, and sprayed with DDT by Department of Agriculture personnel. Photograph by Leonard Nadel, 1956.

Is the Smithsonian in your neighborhood? Find out which other Affiliates are participating in #MuseumDayLive on September 28, 2013, here.