Robstown Labor Camp
Robstown, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A major cotton producing district of Texas during the early twentieth century, Nueces County saw many migrant workers come through towns like Robstown for work in cotton and vegetable farms. Robstown Labor Camp was completed in 1940 as one of nine migrant labor camps built across Texas to provide housing and other resources for migrant workers as a program of President Franklin Roosevelt’s farm security administration. During World War II the camp was overseen by the Department of Agriculture and the War Food Administration to facilitate wartime labor needs. It transitioned to county operation in 1948. Until 1968, the camp would continue to be used as a labor camp. At various points, camp facilities provided community activities, medical resources, and educational services such as job training and a school for children. In the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty efforts brought the volunteers in service to America organization into Robstown to provide relief and support, and the workers resided at the camp. By the end of the decade, the camp was closed down after years of declining conditions. When hurricane Celia hit in 1970, the camp was used to house displaced Robstown residents. During this timeframe the camp became a site of local civil rights activism. In the 1970s, the American G.I. forum leased part of the camp property where they went on to build low income housing. Based on the efforts of some of the area’s first Hispanic elected officials, by 1978, part of the camp land was turned into a public park, which was expanded in 2002. Over the years the camp has had many uses and residents, with thousands of residents impacted by the resources and programs at the site.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Completed in 1940 as one of nine New Deal migrant-labor camps in Texas, the Robstown camp housed the workers who picked Nueces County's cotton and vegetables, offering medical care, schooling, and job training. Through wartime labor programs and into county operation it served migrant families until 1968, and in its later years it became a center of Hispanic civil-rights organizing, with the American G.I. Forum building low-income housing on part of the site.
Why it matters
It links Depression-era federal relief to the rise of Mexican American political power in South Texas.
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Themes & tags
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