The Journey Continues: Wilbert Kirk Jr.

Recently, while researching the life of Ms. Rose Brooks, local icon and spirited community leader.

I learned three of her brothers, as young men, went as migrant workers on the cotton harvest. I was excited because for years I have interviewed and recorded the rich experiences of migrant cotton pickers who traveled from the San Marcos area to south and west Texas to pull cotton bolls.

I knew it was an important story because it was their hands and backs that made it possible for farmers to grow King Cotton and to prosper. It was hard work, a lament I hear repeatedly from folks I interviewed.