When Rosa and Exie posed for Lewis Hine, they and their siblings would have already lived through more than their share of struggles. Their father, John Robert Phillips, was born in Georgia in 1861. He married Dycia (Dycie) Ratliff in Alabama on August 29, 1886. She was born in Alabama in 1868. In 1900, they and their eight children were living in New Decatur, Alabama, where John was a blacksmith. Their first two children had been born in Tennessee, the next in Alabama, the next four in Texas, and the last, three-month-old Rosa Mae, back in Alabama. In 1910, they were living in Dallas, where John was a farm laborer. They had three additional children, all born in Texas. One of them was seven-year-old Exie. Their three oldest children were no longer in the home.

By 1920, Rosa had married Frank Lamb, a Mississippi native. They were living in Mooney, Phillips County, Arkansas, where Frank was a farmer. They had no children yet. According to Rosa's daughter, Beatrice Earl, she was told by her father (Rosa's second husband) that Rosa and Frank had three children, all of whom died young. In about 1925, Rosa moved to Danville, Virginia to be near a sister, either because she and Frank got a divorce, or because Frank died. This has yet to be established. Rosa married John Boone in Virginia, in 1926, and they eventually moved to North Carolina. Rosa and John had seven children, but only two survived childhood, Beatrice and her sister Elsie.

Rosa Mae Phillips, born on February 23, 1900, died of leukemia in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on October 19, 1941. She was 41 years old. Her mother died in Dallas a year later, and her father died in Texas in 1951. Her husband John died in Colorado in 1977.

Exie Barton Phillips was born on October 25, 1903. In 1930, he was single and living his brother, William, in Dallas, and was a laborer for an oil company. He died in Fort Worth, Texas, on November 11, 1955. He was survived by his wife and one daughter. I was unable to locate any living descendants.

Mamie Phillips, one of two other Phillips children who appear to be identified in the group picture by Hine, died in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on July 24, 1961. Her married name was Mamie Alexander. Jefferson Phillips, the other child, appears in the 1920 census, living in Danville, Virginia, with wife Doshia, and daughter Estelle. I could find no further information about him.