Hush, Child! Can’t You Hear the Music?

Hush, Child! Can’t You Hear the Music? is a remarkable collection of black folktales and photographs from rural Georgia. During the 1930s and 1940s Rose Thompson worked as a home supervisor with the Farm Security Administration in middle Georgia. While she worked with farmers and their wives–teaching them to put up preserves, make cotton mattresses, and build chick brooders–she listened to the stories they told. Reading Hush, Child! Can’t You Hear the Music? is like spending an afternoon reminiscing on the front porch. The book is illustrated with photographs taken by Thompson and WPA photographer Jack Delano.