"With the aid of god and the F.S.A.": The Louisiana farmers' union and the African American freedom struggle in the new deal era

Journal of Social History

Volumn 34, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 104-139

  De Jong, Greta ^a  

^a Dept of History and Art History ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034258457     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2000.0100     Document Type: Review

References (257)

1. "Some Letters from the Field," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 20 August 1938, 3.
2. The political and economic changes that swept the South in the 1930s are discussed in Pete Daniel, Breaking the Land: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures since 1880 (Urbana, 1985), 65-151 and Jack Temple Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost: The American South, 1920-1960 (Baton Rouge, 1987), 51-79. Rural poor people's responses to the Depression and to federal agricultural policies are the subject of Donald Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and the New Deal (Chapel Hill, 1971) and Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1990). Neil Foley also offers some very useful insights into this period in The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley, 1997), 163-182, as does Jeannie M. Whayne in A New Plantation South: Land, Labor, and Federal Favor in Twentieth-Century Arkansas (Charlottesville, 1996), 157-218.
3. The political and economic changes that swept the South in the 1930s are discussed in Pete Daniel, Breaking the Land: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures since 1880 (Urbana, 1985), 65-151 and Jack Temple Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost: The American South, 1920-1960 (Baton Rouge, 1987), 51-79. Rural poor people's responses to the Depression and to federal agricultural policies are the subject of Donald Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and the New Deal (Chapel Hill, 1971) and Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1990). Neil Foley also offers some very useful insights into this period in The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley, 1997), 163-182, as does Jeannie M. Whayne in A New Plantation South: Land, Labor, and Federal Favor in Twentieth-Century Arkansas (Charlottesville, 1996), 157-218.
4. The political and economic changes that swept the South in the 1930s are discussed in Pete Daniel, Breaking the Land: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures since 1880 (Urbana, 1985), 65-151 and Jack Temple Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost: The American South, 1920-1960 (Baton Rouge, 1987), 51-79. Rural poor people's responses to the Depression and to federal agricultural policies are the subject of Donald Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and the New Deal (Chapel Hill, 1971) and Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1990). Neil Foley also offers some very useful insights into this period in The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley, 1997), 163-182, as does Jeannie M. Whayne in A New Plantation South: Land, Labor, and Federal Favor in Twentieth-Century Arkansas (Charlottesville, 1996), 157-218.
5. The political and economic changes that swept the South in the 1930s are discussed in Pete Daniel, Breaking the Land: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures since 1880 (Urbana, 1985), 65-151 and Jack Temple Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost: The American South, 1920-1960 (Baton Rouge, 1987), 51-79. Rural poor people's responses to the Depression and to federal agricultural policies are the subject of Donald Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and the New Deal (Chapel Hill, 1971) and Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1990). Neil Foley also offers some very useful insights into this period in The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley, 1997), 163-182, as does Jeannie M. Whayne in A New Plantation South: Land, Labor, and Federal Favor in Twentieth-Century Arkansas (Charlottesville, 1996), 157-218.
6. The political and economic changes that swept the South in the 1930s are discussed in Pete Daniel, Breaking the Land: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures since 1880 (Urbana, 1985), 65-151 and Jack Temple Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost: The American South, 1920-1960 (Baton Rouge, 1987), 51-79. Rural poor people's responses to the Depression and to federal agricultural policies are the subject of Donald Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and the New Deal (Chapel Hill, 1971) and Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1990). Neil Foley also offers some very useful insights into this period in The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley, 1997), 163-182, as does Jeannie M. Whayne in A New Plantation South: Land, Labor, and Federal Favor in Twentieth-Century Arkansas (Charlottesville, 1996), 157-218.
7. The political and economic changes that swept the South in the 1930s are discussed in Pete Daniel, Breaking the Land: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures since 1880 (Urbana, 1985), 65-151 and Jack Temple Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost: The American South, 1920-1960 (Baton Rouge, 1987), 51-79. Rural poor people's responses to the Depression and to federal agricultural policies are the subject of Donald Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and the New Deal (Chapel Hill, 1971) and Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1990). Neil Foley also offers some very useful insights into this period in The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley, 1997), 163-182, as does Jeannie M. Whayne in A New Plantation South: Land, Labor, and Federal Favor in Twentieth-Century Arkansas (Charlottesville, 1996), 157-218.
8. Adam Fairclough devotes a few pages to the LFU in his recent study of the black freedom struggle in Louisiana, concluding that its impact was limited. Fairclough states that rural Louisiana proved to be "a graveyard for black political organization" in the 1930s and 1940s, and that "attempts by some historians to link the work of the farmers' unions to the civil rights movement of the 1960s are unconvincing." Perhaps because the LFU organized around economic issues rather than segregation or disfranchisement, the connections have been obscured. Yet as historian Nan Elizabeth Woodruff has shown, rural black people's notions of citizenship encompassed economic as well as political and social rights. A closer look suggests that African Americans in rural Louisiana supported the civil rights movement for the same reasons they had joined the LFU - as a continuation of their struggles for citizenship, broadly defined. Adam Fairclough, Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972 (Athens, 1995), 51-54; Nan Elizabeth Woodruff, "African American Struggles for Citizenship in the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas in the Age of Jim Crow," Radical History Review 55 (winter 1993): 33-51.
9. Adam Fairclough devotes a few pages to the LFU in his recent study of the black freedom struggle in Louisiana, concluding that its impact was limited. Fairclough states that rural Louisiana proved to be "a graveyard for black political organization" in the 1930s and 1940s, and that "attempts by some historians to link the work of the farmers' unions to the civil rights movement of the 1960s are unconvincing." Perhaps because the LFU organized around economic issues rather than segregation or disfranchisement, the connections have been obscured. Yet as historian Nan Elizabeth Woodruff has shown, rural black people's notions of citizenship encompassed economic as well as political and social rights. A closer look suggests that African Americans in rural Louisiana supported the civil rights movement for the same reasons they had joined the LFU - as a continuation of their struggles for citizenship, broadly defined. Adam Fairclough, Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972 (Athens, 1995), 51-54; Nan Elizabeth Woodruff, "African American Struggles for Citizenship in the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas in the Age of Jim Crow," Radical History Review 55 (winter 1993): 33-51.
10. J. Carlyle Sitterson, Sugar Country;The Cane Sugar Industry in the South, 1753-1950 (Lexington, 1953), 104-107; W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction: An Essay on the Part which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 (Cleveland, 1935), 453; Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, African Americans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge, 1992), 150.
11. J. Carlyle Sitterson, Sugar Country;The Cane Sugar Industry in the South, 1753-1950 (Lexington, 1953), 104-107; W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction: An Essay on the Part which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 (Cleveland, 1935), 453; Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, African Americans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge, 1992), 150.
12. J. Carlyle Sitterson, Sugar Country;The Cane Sugar Industry in the South, 1753-1950 (Lexington, 1953), 104-107; W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction: An Essay on the Part which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 (Cleveland, 1935), 453; Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, African Americans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge, 1992), 150.
13. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge, 1951), 178-185; Jay R. Mandle, The Roots of Black Poverty: The Southern Plantation Economy After the Civil War (Durham, 1978); Robert L. Brandfon, Cotton Kingdom of the New South: A History of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta from Reconstruction to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1967), 1-21; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics, 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1969), 35-39; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 311-313; "Excerpt from Regional Director's Weekly Report, Region VI," 25 January 1937, 1, loose in box, box 4, Records Relating to the President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-37, Division of Land Economics, Divisional Records, Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Record Group 83, National Archives (hereafter cited as Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83).
14. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge, 1951), 178-185; Jay R. Mandle, The Roots of Black Poverty: The Southern Plantation Economy After the Civil War (Durham, 1978); Robert L. Brandfon, Cotton Kingdom of the New South: A History of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta from Reconstruction to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1967), 1-21; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics, 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1969), 35-39; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 311-313; "Excerpt from Regional Director's Weekly Report, Region VI," 25 January 1937, 1, loose in box, box 4, Records Relating to the President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-37, Division of Land Economics, Divisional Records, Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Record Group 83, National Archives (hereafter cited as Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83).
15. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge, 1951), 178-185; Jay R. Mandle, The Roots of Black Poverty: The Southern Plantation Economy After the Civil War (Durham, 1978); Robert L. Brandfon, Cotton Kingdom of the New South: A History of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta from Reconstruction to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1967), 1-21; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics, 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1969), 35-39; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 311-313; "Excerpt from Regional Director's Weekly Report, Region VI," 25 January 1937, 1, loose in box, box 4, Records Relating to the President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-37, Division of Land Economics, Divisional Records, Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Record Group 83, National Archives (hereafter cited as Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83).
16. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge, 1951), 178-185; Jay R. Mandle, The Roots of Black Poverty: The Southern Plantation Economy After the Civil War (Durham, 1978); Robert L. Brandfon, Cotton Kingdom of the New South: A History of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta from Reconstruction to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1967), 1-21; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics, 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1969), 35-39; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 311-313; "Excerpt from Regional Director's Weekly Report, Region VI," 25 January 1937, 1, loose in box, box 4, Records Relating to the President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-37, Division of Land Economics, Divisional Records, Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Record Group 83, National Archives (hereafter cited as Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83).
17. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge, 1951), 178-185; Jay R. Mandle, The Roots of Black Poverty: The Southern Plantation Economy After the Civil War (Durham, 1978); Robert L. Brandfon, Cotton Kingdom of the New South: A History of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta from Reconstruction to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1967), 1-21; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics, 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1969), 35-39; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 311-313; "Excerpt from Regional Director's Weekly Report, Region VI," 25 January 1937, 1, loose in box, box 4, Records Relating to the President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-37, Division of Land Economics, Divisional Records, Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Record Group 83, National Archives (hereafter cited as Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83).
18. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge, 1951), 178-185; Jay R. Mandle, The Roots of Black Poverty: The Southern Plantation Economy After the Civil War (Durham, 1978); Robert L. Brandfon, Cotton Kingdom of the New South: A History of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta from Reconstruction to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1967), 1-21; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics, 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1969), 35-39; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 311-313; "Excerpt from Regional Director's Weekly Report, Region VI," 25 January 1937, 1, loose in box, box 4, Records Relating to the President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-37, Division of Land Economics, Divisional Records, Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Record Group 83, National Archives (hereafter cited as Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83).
19. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge, 1951), 178-185; Jay R. Mandle, The Roots of Black Poverty: The Southern Plantation Economy After the Civil War (Durham, 1978); Robert L. Brandfon, Cotton Kingdom of the New South: A History of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta from Reconstruction to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1967), 1-21; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics, 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1969), 35-39; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 311-313; "Excerpt from Regional Director's Weekly Report, Region VI," 25 January 1937, 1, loose in box, box 4, Records Relating to the President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-37, Division of Land Economics, Divisional Records, Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Record Group 83, National Archives (hereafter cited as Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83).
20. Tenancy arrangements throughout the South varied, offering farm workers different degrees of autonomy. Some tenants simply rented land from plantation owners and retained control over management decisions as well as the sale and division of their crops. Others more closely resembled wage workers who were paid with a share of the crops that they raised under the supervision of landowners or overseers. On large "business plantations" like those that emerged in the Mississippi and Red River delta regions of Louisiana, the more independent types of tenancy were rare, especially for African Americans. The only difference between sharecroppers and tenants on these plantations was that tenants provided their own farm animals and tools, whereas sharecroppers had only their labor to contribute to the making of the crop. When the crops were divided, tenants received a larger share (usually two-thirds) than sharecroppers, who received one half. In 1930, 63,213 (86 percent) of the state's 73,770 black farmers were tenants. Of those, only 6,692 (11 percent) were cash tenants (the most independent type). Fifty-one percent (32,214) were sharecroppers, and 38 percent (24,307) were listed as "other tenants." Two-thirds of the state's 107,551 tenant farmers were black. Harold D. Woodman, New South - New Law: The Legal Foundations of Credit and Labor Relations in the Postbellum Agricultural South (Baton Rouge, 1995), 105-106; Ralph J. Ramsey and Harold Hoffsommer, Farm Tenancy in Louisiana (Washington, 1941);
21. Tenancy arrangements throughout the South varied, offering farm workers different degrees of autonomy. Some tenants simply rented land from plantation owners and retained control over management decisions as well as the sale and division of their crops. Others more closely resembled wage workers who were paid with a share of the crops that they raised under the supervision of landowners or overseers. On large "business plantations" like those that emerged in the Mississippi and Red River delta regions of Louisiana, the more independent types of tenancy were rare, especially for African Americans. The only difference between sharecroppers and tenants on these plantations was that tenants provided their own farm animals and tools, whereas sharecroppers had only their labor to contribute to the making of the crop. When the crops were divided, tenants received a larger share (usually two-thirds) than sharecroppers, who received one half. In 1930, 63,213 (86 percent) of the state's 73,770 black farmers were tenants. Of those, only 6,692 (11 percent) were cash tenants (the most independent type). Fifty-one percent (32,214) were sharecroppers, and 38 percent (24,307) were listed as "other tenants." Two-thirds of the state's 107,551 tenant farmers were black. Harold D. Woodman, New South - New Law: The Legal Foundations of Credit and Labor Relations in the Postbellum Agricultural South (Baton Rouge, 1995), 105-106; Ralph J. Ramsey and Harold Hoffsommer, Farm Tenancy in Louisiana (Washington, 1941);
22. Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Agriculture, Volume 2, Part 2 (Washington, 1932), 1219.
23. Harrison Brown, interview by author, tape recording, 25 November 1996, T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, Louisiana State University (hereafter cited as Brown interview); "The Problem," n.d., 3-4, file "LU-1 184-047, Farm Tenancy," box 1, Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83;
24. Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest, 51-52;
25. Joe Gray Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (Baton Rouge, 1974), 401-403;
26. Paul E. Mertz, New Deal Policy and Southern Rural Poverty (Baton Rouge, 1978), 8-9.
27. Like cotton growers, sugar planters had experimented with tenants in the decades following the Civil War, but found these arrangements unsatisfactory. Sugar production required a highly disciplined, tightly supervised labor force, and the considerable financial investments that planters had in sugarhouses and other specialized equipment made them unwilling to rely on tenants for their maintenance. In addition, there was no way to accurately measure the amount of sugar that each tenant's cane produced, making a fair division of the proceeds difficult and discouraging more widespread use of tenancy in the sugar parishes. In the 1930s almost 80 percent of the Louisiana sugar crop was produced using wage labor, with African Americans making up 75 percent of the resident work force. Sitterson, Sugar Country, 240-241, 389-390.
28. Sitterson, Sugar Country, 114-133; Joseph P. Reidy, "Mules and Machines and Men: Field Labor on Louisiana Sugar Plantations, 1887-1915," Agricultural History 72 (spring 1998): 185-194.
29. Sitterson, Sugar Country, 114-133; Joseph P. Reidy, "Mules and Machines and Men: Field Labor on Louisiana Sugar Plantations, 1887-1915," Agricultural History 72 (spring 1998): 185-194.
30. To ensure that year-round employees fulfilled their contract obligations, some planters paid them half of their earnings every two weeks and withheld the other half until after the harvest. Others paid both permanent and temporary employees weekly or daily wages. Sugar wage rates fluctuated from year to year and during different times of the season, according to prices, market conditions, and the labor supply. Sitterson, Sugar Country, 318-322; Reidy, "Mules and Machines and Men," 184-185; Louis Ferleger, "The Problem of 'Labor' in the Post-Reconstruction Louisiana Sugar Industry," Agricultural History 72 (spring 1998): 149.
31. To ensure that year-round employees fulfilled their contract obligations, some planters paid them half of their earnings every two weeks and withheld the other half until after the harvest. Others paid both permanent and temporary employees weekly or daily wages. Sugar wage rates fluctuated from year to year and during different times of the season, according to prices, market conditions, and the labor supply. Sitterson, Sugar Country, 318-322; Reidy, "Mules and Machines and Men," 184-185; Louis Ferleger, "The Problem of 'Labor' in the Post-Reconstruction Louisiana Sugar Industry," Agricultural History 72 (spring 1998): 149.
32. To ensure that year-round employees fulfilled their contract obligations, some planters paid them half of their earnings every two weeks and withheld the other half until after the harvest. Others paid both permanent and temporary employees weekly or daily wages. Sugar wage rates fluctuated from year to year and during different times of the season, according to prices, market conditions, and the labor supply. Sitterson, Sugar Country, 318-322; Reidy, "Mules and Machines and Men," 184-185; Louis Ferleger, "The Problem of 'Labor' in the Post-Reconstruction Louisiana Sugar Industry," Agricultural History 72 (spring 1998): 149.
33. J. Bradford Laws, "The Negroes of Cinclare Central Factory and Calumet Plantation, Louisiana," Department of Labor Bulletin No. 38 (Washington, 1902), 107-112; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 391; Myer Lynsky, Sugar Economics, Statistics, and Documents (New York, 1938), 290; Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 3-4, file 3, reel 13, Clyde L. Johnson Papers in The Green Rising, 1910-1977: A Supplement to the Southern Tenant Farmers Union Papers (Glen Rock, 1977), microfilm (hereafter cited as Johnson Papers).
34. J. Bradford Laws, "The Negroes of Cinclare Central Factory and Calumet Plantation, Louisiana," Department of Labor Bulletin No. 38 (Washington, 1902), 107-112; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 391; Myer Lynsky, Sugar Economics, Statistics, and Documents (New York, 1938), 290; Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 3-4, file 3, reel 13, Clyde L. Johnson Papers in The Green Rising, 1910-1977: A Supplement to the Southern Tenant Farmers Union Papers (Glen Rock, 1977), microfilm (hereafter cited as Johnson Papers).
35. J. Bradford Laws, "The Negroes of Cinclare Central Factory and Calumet Plantation, Louisiana," Department of Labor Bulletin No. 38 (Washington, 1902), 107-112; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 391; Myer Lynsky, Sugar Economics, Statistics, and Documents (New York, 1938), 290; Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 3-4, file 3, reel 13, Clyde L. Johnson Papers in The Green Rising, 1910-1977: A Supplement to the Southern Tenant Farmers Union Papers (Glen Rock, 1977), microfilm (hereafter cited as Johnson Papers).
36. J. Bradford Laws, "The Negroes of Cinclare Central Factory and Calumet Plantation, Louisiana," Department of Labor Bulletin No. 38 (Washington, 1902), 107-112; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 391; Myer Lynsky, Sugar Economics, Statistics, and Documents (New York, 1938), 290; Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 3-4, file 3, reel 13, Clyde L. Johnson Papers in The Green Rising, 1910-1977: A Supplement to the Southern Tenant Farmers Union Papers (Glen Rock, 1977), microfilm (hereafter cited as Johnson Papers).
37. Martin Williams, interview by author, tape recording, 24 November 1996, T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, Louisiana State University (hereafter cited as Martin Williams interview);
38. Martin Williams, interview by author, tape recording, 24 November 1996, T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, Louisiana State University (hereafter cited as Martin Williams interview);
39. Johnnie Jones, Sr., interview by Mary Hebert, transcript, 1 September 1993, 6, 19, T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, Louisiana State University (hereafter cited as Jones interview); Rovan W. Stanley, Sr., interview by Janie Wilkins, transcript, 19 March 1978, 1, Oral History Collection, Center for Regional Studies, Southeastern Louisiana University; "Farmers' Union Asks Federal Aid for Rural Schools," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 June 1938, 1.
40. Report of T. F. Wilson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1 August 1939, 16, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files - Correspondence, Central Files and Related Records, 1904-1967, General Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives (hereafter cited as Classified Subject Files, RG 60); Ernesto Garlarza, The Louisiana Sugar Cane Plantation Workers vs. The Sugar Corporations, U.S. Department of Agriculture, et al.: An Account of Human Relations on Corporation-Owned Sugar Cane Plantation in Louisiana under the Operation of the U.S. Sugar Program, 1937-1953 (Washington, 1954), 27, filed at n.d. [Aug 1954], reel 39,
41. Southern Tenant Farmers' Union Papers (Sanford, 1971), microfilm (hereafter cited as STFU Papers).
42. Report of T. F. Wilson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1 August 1939, 25, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60; Louisiana Education Association Department of Retired Teachers, We Walked Tall (n.p., 1979), 39; Jones interview, 34; Brown interview.
43. Report of T. F. Wilson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1 August 1939, 25, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60; Louisiana Education Association Department of Retired Teachers, We Walked Tall (n.p., 1979), 39; Jones interview, 34; Brown interview.
44. Researchers found that in the spring of 1935, between one-third to one half of all sharecroppers and tenants in the South had been on their present farms for less than one year. "Report of the President's Committee on Farm Tenancy: Findings and Recommendations," February 1937, 19, file "Tenancy (Jan 1-Feb 1)," box 2661, General Correspondence of the Office of the Secretary, 1929-1970, Records of the Immediate Offices of the Commissioner and Secretary of Agriculture, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, Record Group 16, National Archives (hereafter cited as General Correspondence, RG 16).
45. Statement of John Pickering, 8 April 1926, frame 0633, reel 12, Peonage Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, 1901-1945 (Frederick, 1989), microfilm (hereafter cited as Peonage Files).
46. Leola Palmer, "The Evolution of Education for African Americans in Pointe Coupee Parish (New Roads, Louisiana): 1889-1969," (Ph.D. diss., Ann Arbor, 1992), 230.
47. Palmer, "Evolution of Education," 35, 232, 412; Laurie A. Wilkie, Ethnicity, Community and Power: An Archaeological Study of the African-American Experience at Oakley Plantation, Louisiana (Columbia, 1994), 83; Jones interview, 10.
48. Palmer, "Evolution of Education," 35, 232, 412; Laurie A. Wilkie, Ethnicity, Community and Power: An Archaeological Study of the African-American Experience at Oakley Plantation, Louisiana (Columbia, 1994), 83; Jones interview, 10.
49. Palmer, "Evolution of Education," 35, 232, 412; Laurie A. Wilkie, Ethnicity, Community and Power: An Archaeological Study of the African-American Experience at Oakley Plantation, Louisiana (Columbia, 1994), 83; Jones interview, 10.
50. Organizational Study, St. Helena Parish, Section II - Negro Schools, State Department of Education of Louisiana, Bulletin No. 549, March 1945, 2.
51. Palmer, "Evolution of Education," 29.
52. Wilkie, Ethnicity, Community and Power, 83; Sepia Socialite, The Negro in Louisiana: Seventy-Eight Years of Progress, 5th Anniversary Edition (New Orleans, 1942), 89;
53. Wilkie, Ethnicity, Community and Power, 83; Sepia Socialite, The Negro in Louisiana: Seventy-Eight Years of Progress, 5th Anniversary Edition (New Orleans, 1942), 89;
54. "50 Year History of the Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver," Claverite, November/December 1959, 12, file 38, box 6, Alexander Pierre Tureaud Papers, Amistad Research Center; "Women's 4th Dist. Home Mission Baptist Association," 26 July 1938, 148, file 11-6, reel PP2.9, Robert Tallant Collection, microfilm, Amistad Research Center.
55. At monthly meetings of the Bethel Baptist Church in Natchitoches Parish, for instance, representatives of the church's various districts followed standard parliamentary procedures as they discussed and voted on issues such as the disbursement of funds to needy members, censure and fining of those who were guilty of misbehavior, and long-term policies and programs. Record Book, 1922-1924, Bethel Baptist Church Records, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University. See also William A. Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley, 1975), 123-132; Earl Lewis, In Their Own Interests: Race, Class, and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk, Virginia (Berkeley, 1991), 70-73; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, 1993), 5-11; and David T. Beito, "Black Fraternal Hospitals in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1967," Journal of Southern History 65 (February 1999): 112-113.
56. At monthly meetings of the Bethel Baptist Church in Natchitoches Parish, for instance, representatives of the church's various districts followed standard parliamentary procedures as they discussed and voted on issues such as the disbursement of funds to needy members, censure and fining of those who were guilty of misbehavior, and long-term policies and programs. Record Book, 1922-1924, Bethel Baptist Church Records, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University. See also William A. Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley, 1975), 123-132; Earl Lewis, In Their Own Interests: Race, Class, and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk, Virginia (Berkeley, 1991), 70-73; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, 1993), 5-11; and David T. Beito, "Black Fraternal Hospitals in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1967," Journal of Southern History 65 (February 1999): 112-113.
57. At monthly meetings of the Bethel Baptist Church in Natchitoches Parish, for instance, representatives of the church's various districts followed standard parliamentary procedures as they discussed and voted on issues such as the disbursement of funds to needy members, censure and fining of those who were guilty of misbehavior, and long-term policies and programs. Record Book, 1922-1924, Bethel Baptist Church Records, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University. See also William A. Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley, 1975), 123-132; Earl Lewis, In Their Own Interests: Race, Class, and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk, Virginia (Berkeley, 1991), 70-73; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, 1993), 5-11; and David T. Beito, "Black Fraternal Hospitals in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1967," Journal of Southern History 65 (February 1999): 112-113.
58. At monthly meetings of the Bethel Baptist Church in Natchitoches Parish, for instance, representatives of the church's various districts followed standard parliamentary procedures as they discussed and voted on issues such as the disbursement of funds to needy members, censure and fining of those who were guilty of misbehavior, and long-term policies and programs. Record Book, 1922-1924, Bethel Baptist Church Records, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University. See also William A. Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley, 1975), 123-132; Earl Lewis, In Their Own Interests: Race, Class, and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk, Virginia (Berkeley, 1991), 70-73; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, 1993), 5-11; and David T. Beito, "Black Fraternal Hospitals in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1967," Journal of Southern History 65 (February 1999): 112-113.
59. At monthly meetings of the Bethel Baptist Church in Natchitoches Parish, for instance, representatives of the church's various districts followed standard parliamentary procedures as they discussed and voted on issues such as the disbursement of funds to needy members, censure and fining of those who were guilty of misbehavior, and long-term policies and programs. Record Book, 1922-1924, Bethel Baptist Church Records, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University. See also William A. Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley, 1975), 123-132; Earl Lewis, In Their Own Interests: Race, Class, and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk, Virginia (Berkeley, 1991), 70-73; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, 1993), 5-11; and David T. Beito, "Black Fraternal Hospitals in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1967," Journal of Southern History 65 (February 1999): 112-113.
60. Walter White to John Garibaldi Sargent, 26 January 1926, frames 0755-0756, reel 11, Peonage Files.
61. James A. Ray to President, 27 February 1912, file "158260, Section 1, #3," box 1276, Straight Numerical Files, 1904-37, Central Files and Related Records, 1904-67, General Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives (hereafter cited as Straight Numerical Files, RG 60); John R. Shillady to R. G. Pleasant, 25 June 1918, frame 0319, reel 12, series A, part 7, Papers of the NAACP (Frederick, 1982), microfilm (hereafter cited as NAACP Papers).
62. James A. Ray to President, 27 February 1912, file "158260, Section 1, #3," box 1276, Straight Numerical Files, 1904-37, Central Files and Related Records, 1904-67, General Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives (hereafter cited as Straight Numerical Files, RG 60); John R. Shillady to R. G. Pleasant, 25 June 1918, frame 0319, reel 12, series A, part 7, Papers of the NAACP (Frederick, 1982), microfilm (hereafter cited as NAACP Papers).
63. "Kill Innocent Colored Men in Louisiana," clipping from Philadelphia Tribune, 16 June 1928, frame 1152, reel 11, series A, part 7, NAACP Papers; "Somebody Ought To Pay These Mob Bills," clipping from Chicago Defender, 26 May 1928, frame 0436, reel 12, series A, part 7, NAACP Papers.
64. "Kill Innocent Colored Men in Louisiana," clipping from Philadelphia Tribune, 16 June 1928, frame 1152, reel 11, series A, part 7, NAACP Papers; "Somebody Ought To Pay These Mob Bills," clipping from Chicago Defender, 26 May 1928, frame 0436, reel 12, series A, part 7, NAACP Papers.
65. James S. Oison, ed., Historical Dictionary of the New Deal: From Inauguration to Preparation for War (Westport, 1985), 177-178, 549.
66. William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (New York, 1963), 118-142.
67. Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue, Volume 1: The Depression Decade (New York, 1978), 59-75; Nancy Weiss, Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR (Princeton, 1983), 220-221; Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era (Chapel Hill, 1996), 41-67; Hollinger F. Barnard, ed., Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster DUTT (Tuscaloosa, 1985), 127.
68. Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue, Volume 1: The Depression Decade (New York, 1978), 59-75; Nancy Weiss, Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR (Princeton, 1983), 220-221; Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era (Chapel Hill, 1996), 41-67; Hollinger F. Barnard, ed., Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster DUTT (Tuscaloosa, 1985), 127.
69. Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue, Volume 1: The Depression Decade (New York, 1978), 59-75; Nancy Weiss, Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR (Princeton, 1983), 220-221; Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era (Chapel Hill, 1996), 41-67; Hollinger F. Barnard, ed., Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster DUTT (Tuscaloosa, 1985), 127.
70. Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue, Volume 1: The Depression Decade (New York, 1978), 59-75; Nancy Weiss, Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR (Princeton, 1983), 220-221; Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era (Chapel Hill, 1996), 41-67; Hollinger F. Barnard, ed., Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster DUTT (Tuscaloosa, 1985), 127.
71. Willie Dixon to Attorney General of the U.S., 24 April 1939, frame 0987, reel 9, Peonage Files.
72. For instance, a survey of the land holdings of AAA committee members in Louisiana found that the majority were large growers and corporation owners unsympathetic to the problems of small farmers, tenants, or sharecroppers. Control over crop acreage allotments enabled planters to ensure that they received the largest share, while the amount of land that other farmers could cultivate was drastically reduced. Gordon McIntire, Statement on Sugar Cane Wages, Federal Hearing, 16 June 1939, 7, 11-12, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers. See also Clyde Johnson, interview by Bob Dinwiddie, transcript, 4 April 1976, 46, file 1, reel 13, Johnson Papers (hereafter cited as Johnson interview); Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; and Pete Daniel, "The Legal Basis of Agrarian Capitalism: The South since 1933" in Race and Class in the American South since 1890, ed. Melvyn Stokes and Rick Halpern (Oxford, 1994), 79-102.
73. For instance, a survey of the land holdings of AAA committee members in Louisiana found that the majority were large growers and corporation owners unsympathetic to the problems of small farmers, tenants, or sharecroppers. Control over crop acreage allotments enabled planters to ensure that they received the largest share, while the amount of land that other farmers could cultivate was drastically reduced. Gordon McIntire, Statement on Sugar Cane Wages, Federal Hearing, 16 June 1939, 7, 11-12, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers. See also Clyde Johnson, interview by Bob Dinwiddie, transcript, 4 April 1976, 46, file 1, reel 13, Johnson Papers (hereafter cited as Johnson interview); Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; and Pete Daniel, "The Legal Basis of Agrarian Capitalism: The South since 1933" in Race and Class in the American South since 1890, ed. Melvyn Stokes and Rick Halpern (Oxford, 1994), 79-102.
74. For instance, a survey of the land holdings of AAA committee members in Louisiana found that the majority were large growers and corporation owners unsympathetic to the problems of small farmers, tenants, or sharecroppers. Control over crop acreage allotments enabled planters to ensure that they received the largest share, while the amount of land that other farmers could cultivate was drastically reduced. Gordon McIntire, Statement on Sugar Cane Wages, Federal Hearing, 16 June 1939, 7, 11-12, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers. See also Clyde Johnson, interview by Bob Dinwiddie, transcript, 4 April 1976, 46, file 1, reel 13, Johnson Papers (hereafter cited as Johnson interview); Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; and Pete Daniel, "The Legal Basis of Agrarian Capitalism: The South since 1933" in Race and Class in the American South since 1890, ed. Melvyn Stokes and Rick Halpern (Oxford, 1994), 79-102.
75. David Eugene Conrad, The Forgotten Farmers: The Story of Sharecroppers in the New Deal (Urbana, 1965), 64-82; Grubbs, Cry From the Cotton, 23-25; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 23.
76. David Eugene Conrad, The Forgotten Farmers: The Story of Sharecroppers in the New Deal (Urbana, 1965), 64-82; Grubbs, Cry From the Cotton, 23-25; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 23.
77. David Eugene Conrad, The Forgotten Farmers: The Story of Sharecroppers in the New Deal (Urbana, 1965), 64-82; Grubbs, Cry From the Cotton, 23-25; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 23.
78. Tensas Parish Department of Public Welfare, "For the Welfare of Tensas Parish," 15 March 1937, 7, Tensas Parish Scrapbook, 1937-1975, Manuscript Volume 9, Gladys Means Loyd and Family Papers, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University; Maude Barrett to Loula Dunn, 11 September 1935, frames 0015-0016, reel 1, Selected Documents from the Louisiana Section of the Work Projects Administration General Correspondence File ("State Series") 1935-1943, National Archives Microfilm Publication M1367, Historic New Orleans Collection (hereafter cited as WPA Papers).
79. Tensas Parish Department of Public Welfare, "For the Welfare of Tensas Parish," 15 March 1937, 7, Tensas Parish Scrapbook, 1937-1975, Manuscript Volume 9, Gladys Means Loyd and Family Papers, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University; Maude Barrett to Loula Dunn, 11 September 1935, frames 0015-0016, reel 1, Selected Documents from the Louisiana Section of the Work Projects Administration General Correspondence File ("State Series") 1935-1943, National Archives Microfilm Publication M1367, Historic New Orleans Collection (hereafter cited as WPA Papers).
80. Conrad, Forgotten Farmers, 105-119; Grubbs, Cry From the Cotton, 21-23; Johnson interview, 47.
81. Conrad, Forgotten Farmers, 105-119; Grubbs, Cry From the Cotton, 21-23; Johnson interview, 47.
82. Conrad, Forgotten Farmers, 105-119; Grubbs, Cry From the Cotton, 21-23; Johnson interview, 47.
83. Brown interview.
84. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton; Michael W. Flamm, "The National Farmers Union and the Evolution of Agrarian Liberalism, 1937-1946," Agricultural History 68 (summer 1994): 54-80; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-52; Donald Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers: The New Deal Communities in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Urbana, 1975), 82-104; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 20-44.
85. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton; Michael W. Flamm, "The National Farmers Union and the Evolution of Agrarian Liberalism, 1937-1946," Agricultural History 68 (summer 1994): 54-80; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-52; Donald Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers: The New Deal Communities in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Urbana, 1975), 82-104; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 20-44.
86. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton; Michael W. Flamm, "The National Farmers Union and the Evolution of Agrarian Liberalism, 1937-1946," Agricultural History 68 (summer 1994): 54-80; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-52; Donald Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers: The New Deal Communities in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Urbana, 1975), 82-104; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 20-44.
87. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton; Michael W. Flamm, "The National Farmers Union and the Evolution of Agrarian Liberalism, 1937-1946," Agricultural History 68 (summer 1994): 54-80; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-52; Donald Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers: The New Deal Communities in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Urbana, 1975), 82-104; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 20-44.
88. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton; Michael W. Flamm, "The National Farmers Union and the Evolution of Agrarian Liberalism, 1937-1946," Agricultural History 68 (summer 1994): 54-80; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-52; Donald Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers: The New Deal Communities in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Urbana, 1975), 82-104; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 20-44.
89. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Grubbs, Cry from the Cotton; Michael W. Flamm, "The National Farmers Union and the Evolution of Agrarian Liberalism, 1937-1946," Agricultural History 68 (summer 1994): 54-80; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-52; Donald Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers: The New Deal Communities in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Urbana, 1975), 82-104; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 20-44.
90. Johnson interview, 48; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 168-169.
91. Johnson interview, 48; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 168-169.
92. Tom [Clyde Johnson] to H. L. Mitchell, 31 January [1936], reel 1, STFU Papers.
93. Dale Rosen, "The Alabama Share Croppers Union," March 1969, 89, file 2A, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
94. Johnson interview, 29.
95. C. L. Johnson, "The Sharecroppers Union," Louisiana Weekly, 16 May 1936, 6; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 138-139; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 63, 172.
96. C. L. Johnson, "The Sharecroppers Union," Louisiana Weekly, 16 May 1936, 6; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 138-139; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 63, 172.
97. C. L. Johnson, "The Sharecroppers Union," Louisiana Weekly, 16 May 1936, 6; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 138-139; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 63, 172.
98. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 4, 89, 138-139; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 63, 169; Robin D. G. Kelley, "A Lifelong Radical: Clyde L. Johnson, 1908-1994," Radical History Review 62 (spring 1995): 254-258; Reuben Cole, "Southern Farm Students Praise College for Workers," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde and Anne [Johnson], 13 April 1956, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Clyde Johnson, "A Brief History, Share Croppers' Union, Alabama/Louisiana, 1931-1941," April 1979,18, box 9, Clyde Johnson Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 27 September 1941, 8, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, Federal Bureau of Investigation Files, Amistad Research Center (hereafter cited as FBI Files).
99. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 4, 89, 138-139; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 63, 169; Robin D. G. Kelley, "A Lifelong Radical: Clyde L. Johnson, 1908-1994," Radical History Review 62 (spring 1995): 254-258; Reuben Cole, "Southern Farm Students Praise College for Workers," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde and Anne [Johnson], 13 April 1956, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Clyde Johnson, "A Brief History, Share Croppers' Union, Alabama/Louisiana, 1931-1941," April 1979,18, box 9, Clyde Johnson Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 27 September 1941, 8, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, Federal Bureau of Investigation Files, Amistad Research Center (hereafter cited as FBI Files).
100. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 4, 89, 138-139; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 63, 169; Robin D. G. Kelley, "A Lifelong Radical: Clyde L. Johnson, 1908-1994," Radical History Review 62 (spring 1995): 254-258; Reuben Cole, "Southern Farm Students Praise College for Workers," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde and Anne [Johnson], 13 April 1956, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Clyde Johnson, "A Brief History, Share Croppers' Union, Alabama/Louisiana, 1931-1941," April 1979,18, box 9, Clyde Johnson Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 27 September 1941, 8, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, Federal Bureau of Investigation Files, Amistad Research Center (hereafter cited as FBI Files).
101. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 4, 89, 138-139; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 63, 169; Robin D. G. Kelley, "A Lifelong Radical: Clyde L. Johnson, 1908-1994," Radical History Review 62 (spring 1995): 254-258; Reuben Cole, "Southern Farm Students Praise College for Workers," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde and Anne [Johnson], 13 April 1956, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Clyde Johnson, "A Brief History, Share Croppers' Union, Alabama/Louisiana, 1931-1941," April 1979,18, box 9, Clyde Johnson Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 27 September 1941, 8, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, Federal Bureau of Investigation Files, Amistad Research Center (hereafter cited as FBI Files).
102. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 4, 89, 138-139; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 63, 169; Robin D. G. Kelley, "A Lifelong Radical: Clyde L. Johnson, 1908-1994," Radical History Review 62 (spring 1995): 254-258; Reuben Cole, "Southern Farm Students Praise College for Workers," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde and Anne [Johnson], 13 April 1956, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Clyde Johnson, "A Brief History, Share Croppers' Union, Alabama/Louisiana, 1931-1941," April 1979,18, box 9, Clyde Johnson Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 27 September 1941, 8, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, Federal Bureau of Investigation Files, Amistad Research Center (hereafter cited as FBI Files).
103. "Southern Farm Leader," Southern Farm Leader, May 1936, 1.
104. Clyde Johnson quoted in Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 89.
105. "Share Croppers Union Expresses its Thanks to Secretary Johnson," Southern Farm Leader, August 1936, 5.
106. "Your Paper - Our Bow," Louisiana Union Farmer, November 1939, 4.
107. "For Unity in the South," Southern Farm Leader, May 1936, 4.
108. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 99-106. Noncommunist contemporaries as well as many historians of New Deal era social movements viewed the part that communists played in these struggles with ambivalence. Communist Party members received funding and direction from the Soviet Union for their activities, raising concerns about their underlying motives and goals. Rigid adherence to the Party line and the efforts of some members to gain control over the noncommunist organizations they belonged to antagonized more moderate activists and contributed to the weakening of the American left in the 1940s. On the other hand, the Party provided many of the most dedicated and effective organizers in the labor movement, and its members were among the few white people who openly supported racial equality in the decades before World War II. H. L. Mitchell's and others' suspicions notwithstanding, the organizers of the SCU and LFU bore little resemblance to the uncompromising ideologues depicted in some accounts of communist activity. The decision to seek alliances with other liberal and left-wing organizations was reached independently of Soviet influence and antedated the Communist International's formal proclamation of the Popular Front by more than a year. Although they might have started out with the aim of transforming southern sharecroppers and tenants into the vanguard of an American workers' revolution, organizers ultimately became more concerned with helping rural people to achieve a measure of comfort and security
109. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 99-106. Noncommunist contemporaries as well as many historians of New Deal era social movements viewed the part that communists played in these struggles with ambivalence. Communist Party members received funding and direction from the Soviet Union for their activities, raising concerns about their underlying motives and goals. Rigid adherence to the Party line and the efforts of some members to gain control over the noncommunist organizations they belonged to antagonized more moderate activists and contributed to the weakening of the American left in the 1940s. On the other hand, the Party provided many of the most dedicated and effective organizers in the labor movement, and its members were among the few white people who openly supported racial equality in the decades before World War II. H. L. Mitchell's and others' suspicions notwithstanding, the organizers of the SCU and LFU bore little resemblance to the uncompromising ideologues depicted in some accounts of communist activity. The decision to seek alliances with other liberal and left-wing organizations was reached independently of Soviet influence and antedated the Communist International's formal proclamation of the Popular Front by more than a year. Although they might have started out with the aim of transforming southern sharecroppers and tenants into the vanguard of an American workers' revolution, organizers ultimately became more concerned with helping rural people to achieve a measure of comfort and security in their daily lives. By early 1935, Johnson stated, "all of the pretense of running party units à la New York was given up," and union organizers' contacts with the Party leadership were minimal. See Rosen, "The Alabama Share Croppers Union," 3-4, 95-96, (the quotation is on page 96). For some historical analyses of the role of communists in the freedom struggle see Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Wilson Record, Race and Radicalism: The NAACP and the Communist Party in Conflict (Ithaca, 1964); Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (Urbana, 1983); Michael Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers (Urbana, 1993); and Roger Horowitz, "Negro and White, Unite and Fight!" : A Social History of Industrial Unionism in Meatpacking, 1930-90 (Urbana, 1997).
110. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 99-106. Noncommunist contemporaries as well as many historians of New Deal era social movements viewed the part that communists played in these struggles with ambivalence. Communist Party members received funding and direction from the Soviet Union for their activities, raising concerns about their underlying motives and goals. Rigid adherence to the Party line and the efforts of some members to gain control over the noncommunist organizations they belonged to antagonized more moderate activists and contributed to the weakening of the American left in the 1940s. On the other hand, the Party provided many of the most dedicated and effective organizers in the labor movement, and its members were among the few white people who openly supported racial equality in the decades before World War II. H. L. Mitchell's and others' suspicions notwithstanding, the organizers of the SCU and LFU bore little resemblance to the uncompromising ideologues depicted in some accounts of communist activity. The decision to seek alliances with other liberal and left-wing organizations was reached independently of Soviet influence and antedated the Communist International's formal proclamation of the Popular Front by more than a year. Although they might have started out with the aim of transforming southern sharecroppers and tenants into the vanguard of an American workers' revolution, organizers ultimately became more concerned with helping rural people to achieve a measure of comfort and security in their daily lives. By early 1935, Johnson stated, "all of the pretense of running party units à la New York was given up," and union organizers' contacts with the Party leadership were minimal. See Rosen, "The Alabama Share Croppers Union," 3-4, 95-96, (the quotation is on page 96). For some historical analyses of the role of communists in the freedom struggle see Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Wilson Record, Race and Radicalism: The NAACP and the Communist Party in Conflict (Ithaca, 1964); Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (Urbana, 1983); Michael Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers (Urbana, 1993); and Roger Horowitz, "Negro and White, Unite and Fight!" : A Social History of Industrial Unionism in Meatpacking, 1930-90 (Urbana, 1997).
111. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 99-106. Noncommunist contemporaries as well as many historians of New Deal era social movements viewed the part that communists played in these struggles with ambivalence. Communist Party members received funding and direction from the Soviet Union for their activities, raising concerns about their underlying motives and goals. Rigid adherence to the Party line and the efforts of some members to gain control over the noncommunist organizations they belonged to antagonized more moderate activists and contributed to the weakening of the American left in the 1940s. On the other hand, the Party provided many of the most dedicated and effective organizers in the labor movement, and its members were among the few white people who openly supported racial equality in the decades before World War II. H. L. Mitchell's and others' suspicions notwithstanding, the organizers of the SCU and LFU bore little resemblance to the uncompromising ideologues depicted in some accounts of communist activity. The decision to seek alliances with other liberal and left-wing organizations was reached independently of Soviet influence and antedated the Communist International's formal proclamation of the Popular Front by more than a year. Although they might have started out with the aim of transforming southern sharecroppers and tenants into the vanguard of an American workers' revolution, organizers ultimately became more concerned with helping rural people to achieve a measure of comfort and security in their daily lives. By early 1935, Johnson stated, "all of the pretense of running party units à la New York was given up," and union organizers' contacts with the Party leadership were minimal. See Rosen, "The Alabama Share Croppers Union," 3-4, 95-96, (the quotation is on page 96). For some historical analyses of the role of communists in the freedom struggle see Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Wilson Record, Race and Radicalism: The NAACP and the Communist Party in Conflict (Ithaca, 1964); Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (Urbana, 1983); Michael Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers (Urbana, 1993); and Roger Horowitz, "Negro and White, Unite and Fight!" : A Social History of Industrial Unionism in Meatpacking, 1930-90 (Urbana, 1997).
112. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 99-106. Noncommunist contemporaries as well as many historians of New Deal era social movements viewed the part that communists played in these struggles with ambivalence. Communist Party members received funding and direction from the Soviet Union for their activities, raising concerns about their underlying motives and goals. Rigid adherence to the Party line and the efforts of some members to gain control over the noncommunist organizations they belonged to antagonized more moderate activists and contributed to the weakening of the American left in the 1940s. On the other hand, the Party provided many of the most dedicated and effective organizers in the labor movement, and its members were among the few white people who openly supported racial equality in the decades before World War II. H. L. Mitchell's and others' suspicions notwithstanding, the organizers of the SCU and LFU bore little resemblance to the uncompromising ideologues depicted in some accounts of communist activity. The decision to seek alliances with other liberal and left-wing organizations was reached independently of Soviet influence and antedated the Communist International's formal proclamation of the Popular Front by more than a year. Although they might have started out with the aim of transforming southern sharecroppers and tenants into the vanguard of an American workers' revolution, organizers ultimately became more concerned with helping rural people to achieve a measure of comfort and security in their daily lives. By early 1935, Johnson stated, "all of the pretense of running party units à la New York was given up," and union organizers' contacts with the Party leadership were minimal. See Rosen, "The Alabama Share Croppers Union," 3-4, 95-96, (the quotation is on page 96). For some historical analyses of the role of communists in the freedom struggle see Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Wilson Record, Race and Radicalism: The NAACP and the Communist Party in Conflict (Ithaca, 1964); Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (Urbana, 1983); Michael Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers (Urbana, 1993); and Roger Horowitz, "Negro and White, Unite and Fight!" : A Social History of Industrial Unionism in Meatpacking, 1930-90 (Urbana, 1997).
113. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 99-106. Noncommunist contemporaries as well as many historians of New Deal era social movements viewed the part that communists played in these struggles with ambivalence. Communist Party members received funding and direction from the Soviet Union for their activities, raising concerns about their underlying motives and goals. Rigid adherence to the Party line and the efforts of some members to gain control over the noncommunist organizations they belonged to antagonized more moderate activists and contributed to the weakening of the American left in the 1940s. On the other hand, the Party provided many of the most dedicated and effective organizers in the labor movement, and its members were among the few white people who openly supported racial equality in the decades before World War II. H. L. Mitchell's and others' suspicions notwithstanding, the organizers of the SCU and LFU bore little resemblance to the uncompromising ideologues depicted in some accounts of communist activity. The decision to seek alliances with other liberal and left-wing organizations was reached independently of Soviet influence and antedated the Communist International's formal proclamation of the Popular Front by more than a year. Although they might have started out with the aim of transforming southern sharecroppers and tenants into the vanguard of an American workers' revolution, organizers ultimately became more concerned with helping rural people to achieve a measure of comfort and security in their daily lives. By early 1935, Johnson stated, "all of the pretense of running party units à la New York was given up," and union organizers' contacts with the Party leadership were minimal. See Rosen, "The Alabama Share Croppers Union," 3-4, 95-96, (the quotation is on page 96). For some historical analyses of the role of communists in the freedom struggle see Kelley, Hammer and Hoe; Wilson Record, Race and Radicalism: The NAACP and the Communist Party in Conflict (Ithaca, 1964); Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (Urbana, 1983); Michael Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers (Urbana, 1993); and Roger Horowitz, "Negro and White, Unite and Fight!" : A Social History of Industrial Unionism in Meatpacking, 1930-90 (Urbana, 1997).
114. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 169-172; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 86-87, 99-107, 112-113.
115. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 169-172; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 86-87, 99-107, 112-113.
116. A union newsletter explained, "The charter gives the local the legal right to hold closed meetings and it is unlawful for anyone who is not a member to break in a meeting." "Organization Information," Union News, 30 April 1937, 2, file 2, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
117. Clyde Johnson to J. M. Graves, 15 May 1937, 1, file 2, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "S.C.U. Locals Transferring to Farmers' Union," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2.
118. Clyde Johnson to J. M. Graves, 15 May 1937, 1, file 2, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "S.C.U. Locals Transferring to Farmers' Union," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2.
119. Johnson interview, 48; [Clyde Johnson] to G. S. Gravlee, 23 September 1936, file 2, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
120. SCU leaders strongly supported working with organized labor, encouraging members to form local farmer-labor cooperatives and to support candidates of the fledgling Farmer-Labor Party when they ran for political office. In return, leaders of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) promised support for the struggles of rural people in the South. At its annual convention in April 1937, the Louisiana State Federation of Labor endorsed the LFU's efforts. The editor of the state AFL's newspaper, William L. Donnells, provided office space for LFU organizers and helped produce the Southern Farm Leader for more than a year before the farm union's failure to pay its bills caused him to withdraw this support. "Farmers' Union National Convention," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 December 1937, 1-2; Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, National Program, December 1937, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "Washington Hears Farm Workers' Plea for Recognition," Southern Farm Leader, May 1936, 1; "A New Party is Needed to Battle for Justice," Southern Farm Leader, August 1936, 5; "Louisiana Labor Pledges Support for Farm Union," Southern Farm Leader, April/May 1937, 1; "New Office for Louisiana Farmers' Union," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 15 January 1938, 1; Gordon McIntire to Mack, Bob, and Clyde [Johnson], 23 June [1938], file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
121. "For Unity in the South," Southern Farm Leader, May 1936, 4.
122. Although UCAPAWA represented agricultural workers at federal hearings and before government agencies concerned with labor, most of its organizing activity centered on the processing industries. [Clyde Johnson], "Activities in United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America, 1938," 3 July 1976, file 4, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 172; UCAPAWA Yearbook, December 1938, 8, 14, file 5, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 113-115.
123. Although UCAPAWA represented agricultural workers at federal hearings and before government agencies concerned with labor, most of its organizing activity centered on the processing industries. [Clyde Johnson], "Activities in United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America, 1938," 3 July 1976, file 4, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 172; UCAPAWA Yearbook, December 1938, 8, 14, file 5, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 113-115.
124. Although UCAPAWA represented agricultural workers at federal hearings and before government agencies concerned with labor, most of its organizing activity centered on the processing industries. [Clyde Johnson], "Activities in United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America, 1938," 3 July 1976, file 4, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 172; UCAPAWA Yearbook, December 1938, 8, 14, file 5, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 113-115.
125. Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 3, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
126. "S.C.U. Locals Transferring to Farmers' Union," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2; "Organization Information," Union News, 30 April 1937, 2, file 2, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
127. "S.C.U. Locals Transferring to Farmers' Union," Southern Farm Leader, February 1937, 2; "Organization Information," Union News, 30 April 1937, 2, file 2, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
128. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 91; Whayne, A New Plantation South, 194. Women and girls typically spent less time working in the fields than men and boys, so they could attend school for a greater part of the year. Stephanie J. Shaw provides additional insight into rural black people's determination to educate their daughters, particularly, in What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era (Chicago, 1996), 13-16.
129. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 91; Whayne, A New Plantation South, 194. Women and girls typically spent less time working in the fields than men and boys, so they could attend school for a greater part of the year. Stephanie J. Shaw provides additional insight into rural black people's determination to educate their daughters, particularly, in What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era (Chicago, 1996), 13-16.
130. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 91; Whayne, A New Plantation South, 194. Women and girls typically spent less time working in the fields than men and boys, so they could attend school for a greater part of the year. Stephanie J. Shaw provides additional insight into rural black people's determination to educate their daughters, particularly, in What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era (Chicago, 1996), 13-16.
131. "Women Delegates Discuss Schools, Adopt Program," Southern Farm Leader, August 1936, 1;
132. "Women Are Entitled to Free Medical Aid," Southern Farm Leader, August 1936, 4.
133. The literature on this topic is extensive. White and black southerners were certainly capable of overcoming mutual suspicion and mistrust to form strong interracial alliances, but these organizations always remained vulnerable. If the racism of individual members did not weaken or destroy them, racist and sometimes violent attacks by members of the larger community often did. See for example Barbara S. Griffith, The Crisis of American Labor: Operation Dixie and the Defeat of the CIO (Philadelphia, 1988); Eric Arnesen, Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863-1923 (New York, 1991 ); Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights; Daniel L. Letwin, "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and 'Social Equality' in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878-1908," Journal of Southern History 61 (August 1995): 519-554; and Stephen H. Norwood, "Bogalusa Burning: The War Against Biracial Unionism in the Deep South, 1919," Journal of Southern History 63 (August 1997): 591-628.
134. The literature on this topic is extensive. White and black southerners were certainly capable of overcoming mutual suspicion and mistrust to form strong interracial alliances, but these organizations always remained vulnerable. If the racism of individual members did not weaken or destroy them, racist and sometimes violent attacks by members of the larger community often did. See for example Barbara S. Griffith, The Crisis of American Labor: Operation Dixie and the Defeat of the CIO (Philadelphia, 1988); Eric Arnesen, Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863-1923 (New York, 1991 ); Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights; Daniel L. Letwin, "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and 'Social Equality' in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878-1908," Journal of Southern History 61 (August 1995): 519-554; and Stephen H. Norwood, "Bogalusa Burning: The War Against Biracial Unionism in the Deep South, 1919," Journal of Southern History 63 (August 1997): 591-628.
135. The literature on this topic is extensive. White and black southerners were certainly capable of overcoming mutual suspicion and mistrust to form strong interracial alliances, but these organizations always remained vulnerable. If the racism of individual members did not weaken or destroy them, racist and sometimes violent attacks by members of the larger community often did. See for example Barbara S. Griffith, The Crisis of American Labor: Operation Dixie and the Defeat of the CIO (Philadelphia, 1988); Eric Arnesen, Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863-1923 (New York, 1991 ); Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights; Daniel L. Letwin, "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and 'Social Equality' in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878-1908," Journal of Southern History 61 (August 1995): 519-554; and Stephen H. Norwood, "Bogalusa Burning: The War Against Biracial Unionism in the Deep South, 1919," Journal of Southern History 63 (August 1997): 591-628.
136. The literature on this topic is extensive. White and black southerners were certainly capable of overcoming mutual suspicion and mistrust to form strong interracial alliances, but these organizations always remained vulnerable. If the racism of individual members did not weaken or destroy them, racist and sometimes violent attacks by members of the larger community often did. See for example Barbara S. Griffith, The Crisis of American Labor: Operation Dixie and the Defeat of the CIO (Philadelphia, 1988); Eric Arnesen, Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863-1923 (New York, 1991 ); Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights; Daniel L. Letwin, "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and 'Social Equality' in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878-1908," Journal of Southern History 61 (August 1995): 519-554; and Stephen H. Norwood, "Bogalusa Burning: The War Against Biracial Unionism in the Deep South, 1919," Journal of Southern History 63 (August 1997): 591-628.
137. The literature on this topic is extensive. White and black southerners were certainly capable of overcoming mutual suspicion and mistrust to form strong interracial alliances, but these organizations always remained vulnerable. If the racism of individual members did not weaken or destroy them, racist and sometimes violent attacks by members of the larger community often did. See for example Barbara S. Griffith, The Crisis of American Labor: Operation Dixie and the Defeat of the CIO (Philadelphia, 1988); Eric Arnesen, Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863-1923 (New York, 1991 ); Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights; Daniel L. Letwin, "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and 'Social Equality' in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878-1908," Journal of Southern History 61 (August 1995): 519-554; and Stephen H. Norwood, "Bogalusa Burning: The War Against Biracial Unionism in the Deep South, 1919," Journal of Southern History 63 (August 1997): 591-628.
138. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 90.
139. Clyde Johnson quoted in Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 92.
140. In the same article, McIntire asserted that "The Farmers' Union is proud of its large colored membership. But just as America has more white farmers than colored so has the Union." It is (perhaps intentionally) unclear whether "Farmers' Union" meant the LFU or the NFU, but it seems likely that he was referring to the predominantly white national membership and not the state union. Gordon McIntire, "Between the Plow Handles," Southern Farm Leader, December 1936, 4.
141. "Simmesport Hoodlums Drive Organizer Moore Out of Town," Southern Farm Leader, August 1936, 2.
142. Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 90, 139-140.
143. "Resolutions of Sharecroppers' Convention - A Call to Action," Southern Farm Leader, August 1936, 3-4.
144. "First Louisiana Union Label Farm Produce for Maritime Strikers," Southern Farm Leader, November 1936,1 ; "St. Landry Farmers Need Corn Relief," Southern Farm Leader, November 1936, 2.
145. "First Louisiana Union Label Farm Produce for Maritime Strikers," Southern Farm Leader, November 1936,1 ; "St. Landry Farmers Need Corn Relief," Southern Farm Leader, November 1936, 2.
146. Gordon McIntire and Clyde Johnson, "Statement on the St. Landry Farm Case," n.d., 1-2, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
147. Gordon McIntire and Clyde Johnson, "Statement on the St. Landry Farm Case," n.d., 1, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "Editorial Notes," Southern Farm Leader, December 1936, 4.
148. Gordon McIntire and Clyde Johnson, "Statement on the St. Landry Farm Case," n.d., 1, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "Editorial Notes," Southern Farm Leader, December 1936, 4.
149. Gordon McIntire and Clyde Johnson, "Statement on the St. Landry Farm Case," n.d., 3, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Mercer G. Evans to Clyde Johnson, 24 December 1936, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
150. Gordon McIntire and Clyde Johnson, "Statement on the St. Landry Farm Case," n.d., 3, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Mercer G. Evans to Clyde Johnson, 24 December 1936, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
151. Clyde Johnson to Louis Fontenot, 4 January 1937, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "St. Landry Farm Tenants Getting Teams and Tools," Southern Farm Leader, January 1937, 1.
152. Clyde Johnson to Louis Fontenot, 4 January 1937, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "St. Landry Farm Tenants Getting Teams and Tools," Southern Farm Leader, January 1937, 1.
153. "Seek AAA Relief Payments," Southern Farm Leader, September 1936, 4.
154. Louisiana Farmers' Union news release, 29 November 1939, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union Jan 23-Dec 20," box 406, series A, part 1, Papers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Library of Congress (hereafter cited as NAACP-LC Papers).
155. "Cotton Tenants Win Rent Victory," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, March 1939, 1-2. To "live at home" meant that farm families grew as much of their own food as possible instead of purchasing it from landlords or merchants.
156. Sugar Act of 1937, in Lynsky, Sugar Economics, 215-216.
157. Although it is possible that some of the planters did have genuine financial difficulties, most were probably not as poverty-stricken as they claimed. Between 1930 and 1936, gross income from the Louisiana sugar crop more than doubled (increasing from $15,000,000 to $33,000,000), while wages remained relatively static. Godchaux Sugars, a company that owned a dozen plantations in seven parishes, reported a net income of $858,000 in 1936. At the 1937 hearings, when the owner of Burgaires Sugar stated, "It is not a question of how we are going to divide the profits but how we will share the losses," a small grower from his parish pointed out that the company had made $500,000 in profits the previous winter. In any case, plantation owners derived great benefits from the government's subsidy program, and it was not unreasonable to require them to share part of their increased earnings with their workers. Lynsky, Sugar Economics, 23, 93; Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 1, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
158. Although it is possible that some of the planters did have genuine financial difficulties, most were probably not as poverty-stricken as they claimed. Between 1930 and 1936, gross income from the Louisiana sugar crop more than doubled (increasing from $15,000,000 to $33,000,000), while wages remained relatively static. Godchaux Sugars, a company that owned a dozen plantations in seven parishes, reported a net income of $858,000 in 1936. At the 1937 hearings, when the owner of Burgaires Sugar stated, "It is not a question of how we are going to divide the profits but how we will share the losses," a small grower from his parish pointed out that the company had made $500,000 in profits the previous winter. In any case, plantation owners derived great benefits from the government's subsidy program, and it was not unreasonable to require them to share part of their increased earnings with their workers. Lynsky, Sugar Economics, 23, 93; Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 1, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
159. Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 3-4, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
160. Gordon McIntire to Miss La Budde, 12 October 1937, 5, 7, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
161. Godfrey G. Beck and Gordon McIntire to Sugar Cane Cutters and Friends of Field Labor in the Sugar Industry, n.d. [October 1937], file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
162. This did not mean that all planters had to provide such benefits, only that those who had always done so could not withdraw these privileges in an effort to reduce wages. In a set-back for the LFU, the Sugar Section later determined that growers could deduct pay for board if this was agreed to in advance with their laborers. Gordon McIntire called the new ruling "simply a loophole" that allowed planters to pay less than the minimum wage. H. A. Wallace, "Determination of Fair and Reasonable Wage Rates for Harvesting the 1937 Sugar Crop of Louisiana Sugarcane, Pursuant to the Sugar Act of 1937," 12 November 1937, in Lynsky, Sugar Economics, 233; "The Check-up on Cane Cutting Wages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 March 1938, 5; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde Johnson, 14 September 1939, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
163. This did not mean that all planters had to provide such benefits, only that those who had always done so could not withdraw these privileges in an effort to reduce wages. In a set-back for the LFU, the Sugar Section later determined that growers could deduct pay for board if this was agreed to in advance with their laborers. Gordon McIntire called the new ruling "simply a loophole" that allowed planters to pay less than the minimum wage. H. A. Wallace, "Determination of Fair and Reasonable Wage Rates for Harvesting the 1937 Sugar Crop of Louisiana Sugarcane, Pursuant to the Sugar Act of 1937," 12 November 1937, in Lynsky, Sugar Economics, 233; "The Check-up on Cane Cutting Wages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 March 1938, 5; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde Johnson, 14 September 1939, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
164. This did not mean that all planters had to provide such benefits, only that those who had always done so could not withdraw these privileges in an effort to reduce wages. In a set-back for the LFU, the Sugar Section later determined that growers could deduct pay for board if this was agreed to in advance with their laborers. Gordon McIntire called the new ruling "simply a loophole" that allowed planters to pay less than the minimum wage. H. A. Wallace, "Determination of Fair and Reasonable Wage Rates for Harvesting the 1937 Sugar Crop of Louisiana Sugarcane, Pursuant to the Sugar Act of 1937," 12 November 1937, in Lynsky, Sugar Economics, 233; "The Check-up on Cane Cutting Wages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 March 1938, 5; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde Johnson, 14 September 1939, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
165. "Farmers' Union Asks Wage Increases for Sugar Workers," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 March 1938, 1-3.
166. "Increased Wages for Sugar Cane Workers Specified in Rules," Opelousas Clarion-News, 28 July 1938, 3; Joshua Bernhardt, The Sugar Industry and the Federal Government: A Thirty Year Record (1917-47) (Washington, 1948), 208.
167. "Increased Wages for Sugar Cane Workers Specified in Rules," Opelousas Clarion-News, 28 July 1938, 3; Joshua Bernhardt, The Sugar Industry and the Federal Government: A Thirty Year Record (1917-47) (Washington, 1948), 208.
168. LFU organizers and members attended additional hearings in August 1938 (to establish rates for the 1938 harvest season) and June 1939 (to establish rates for the 1939 cultivation and planting seasons, and the 1940 harvest season), but the union was unable to gain further wage increases. With the start of World War II, however, wages rose to almost $3.00 per day and continued to increase after the war, reaching up to $3.70 per day or $1.74 per ton during the 1949 sugar harvest. "Cane Grower Denies Labor Intimidated," clipping from New Orleans Item, n.d. [6 August 1938], file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde [Johnson], 20 June 1939, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Bernhardt, Sugar Industry, 224-225, 242, 251-252, 266, 272, 275-276; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 393-394.
169. LFU organizers and members attended additional hearings in August 1938 (to establish rates for the 1938 harvest season) and June 1939 (to establish rates for the 1939 cultivation and planting seasons, and the 1940 harvest season), but the union was unable to gain further wage increases. With the start of World War II, however, wages rose to almost $3.00 per day and continued to increase after the war, reaching up to $3.70 per day or $1.74 per ton during the 1949 sugar harvest. "Cane Grower Denies Labor Intimidated," clipping from New Orleans Item, n.d. [6 August 1938], file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde [Johnson], 20 June 1939, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Bernhardt, Sugar Industry, 224-225, 242, 251-252, 266, 272, 275-276; Sitterson, Sugar Country, 393-394.
170. "The Check-up on Cane Cutting Wages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 March 1938, 5.
171. "Action on Cane Wages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, August 1939, 3; "The Sugar Battle Still Rages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, September 1939, 3; B. E. Sackett to Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 7 September 1939, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60.
172. "Action on Cane Wages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, August 1939, 3; "The Sugar Battle Still Rages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, September 1939, 3; B. E. Sackett to Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 7 September 1939, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60.
173. "Action on Cane Wages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, August 1939, 3; "The Sugar Battle Still Rages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, September 1939, 3; B. E. Sackett to Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 7 September 1939, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60.
174. "Sharecroppers and Tenants Hold Convention," LFU news release, 4 November 1939, 2, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
175. [Clyde Johnson] to G. S. Gravlee, 23 September 1936, file 2, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 27 September 1941, 6, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, FBI Files.
176. Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Agriculture: 1945, Volume 1, Part 24 (Washington, 1946), State Tables 1 and 5. The census lists a total of 206,719 farm operators and laborers (excluding unpaid family labor) in Louisiana in 1940.
177. "Sharecroppers and Tenants Hold Convention," LFU news release, 4 November 1939, 1, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "Negro Conference in Baton Rouge," Louisiana Union Farmer, November 1939, 1.
178. Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde [Johnson], 11 November 1939, 1, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
179. Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 27 September 1941, 18, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, FBI Files.
180. "Editorial Notes," Opportunity, August 1931, 234.
181. A New Member, "Slavery," Southern Farm Leader, October 1936, 3.
182. Quoted in "Sharecroppers and Tenants Hold Convention," LFU news release, 4 November 1939, 1, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
183. Johnson interview, 45.
184. Gordon McIntire and Clyde Johnson, "Statement on Farm-Tenancy," n.d. [c. January 1937], 3, file "Extra Copies Briefs from Hearings on Farm Tenancy, Dallas, Texas, Jan. 4, 1937," box 1, Farm Tenancy Committee Records, RG 83; "The Sharecrop Contract," Southern Farm Leader, April/May 1937, 3.
185. Mertz, New Deal Policy, 202.
186. "F.S.A. News," Pointe Coupee Banner, 8 June 1939, 1.
187. "FSA Insists on Written Farm Lease," St. Francisville Democrat, 1 October 1938, 2.
188. "FSA Farm News," Pointe Coupee Banner, 2 October 1941, 1.
189. C. L. Johnson, "The Sharecroppers' Union," Louisiana Weekly, 16 May 1936, 6.
190. "Local No. 2 Resolution," Southern Farm Leader, December 1936, 3.
191. "Mother's Club Gets Toilets for School," Southern Farm Leader, January 1937, 1.
192. "Want School Bus First," Southern Farm Leader, April/May 1937, 3.
193. "Farmers' Union Asks Federal Aid for Rural Schools," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 June 1938, 1; "Some Letters from the Field," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 20 August 1938, 3.
194. "Farmers' Union Asks Federal Aid for Rural Schools," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 1 June 1938, 1; "Some Letters from the Field," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 20 August 1938, 3.
195. "Unions Ask Land for Landless at Texas Meeting," Southern Farm Leader, January 1937, 1.
196. "Your County Agent," Southern Farm Leader, June 1936, 4.
197. "Resettlement," Southern Farm Leader, May 1936, 4.
198. Pete Daniel has shown that government farm policies continued to privilege large, corporate landowners over small farmers while accommodation to southern traditions and prejudices allowed racism to become institutionalized within the Department of Agriculture. As late as 1992, only 417 African Americans served on county committees of the Farmers' Home Administration (successor to the FSA) out of a total of 6,611 members. Discrimination was so prevalent that black farmers filed a class-action lawsuit against the government, winning a settlement in January 1999 that promised hundreds of millions of dollars in backpayments to African Americans who had wrongfully been denied credit, grants, and other benefits. Daniel, "The Legal Basis of Agrarian Capitalism," 100; Alan Jenkins, "See No Evil," The Nation, 28 June 1999, 16.
199. This was a much greater percentage than was typical for the South as a whole, where discrimination against black farmers kept the number of successful FSA applicants low. In 1939, for instance, only 722 loans were granted to African Americans in fourteen southern states, representing 23 percent of the loans that were available in those states. (Black people made up 35 percent of the tenant farmers in the same states.) African Americans constituted 70 percent of tenants in Pointe Coupee Parish in 1935. "Good Record for Pointe Coupee's FSA Farmers," Pointe Coupee Banner, 20 January 1938, 1, 4; Report of the Administrator of the Farm Security Administration 1939 (Washington, 1939), 15,
200. This was a much greater percentage than was typical for the South as a whole, where discrimination against black farmers kept the number of successful FSA applicants low. In 1939, for instance, only 722 loans were granted to African Americans in fourteen southern states, representing 23 percent of the loans that were available in those states. (Black people made up 35 percent of the tenant farmers in the same states.) African Americans constituted 70 percent of tenants in Pointe Coupee Parish in 1935. "Good Record for Pointe Coupee's FSA Farmers," Pointe Coupee Banner, 20 January 1938, 1, 4; Report of the Administrator of the Farm Security Administration 1939 (Washington, 1939), 15,
201. file "183-04 Annual Report 1937," box 27, General Correspondence, 1935-42, Records of the Resettlement Division, Records of the Central Office, Records of the Farmers Home Administration, Record Group 96, National Archives (hereafter cited as General Correspondence, Resettlement Division, RG 96); Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Agriculture: 1935, Volume 1 (Washington, 1936), 703.
202. Douglas Robinson to Steve Barbre, 18 March 1941 and E. C. McInnis to A. M. Rogers, 31 January 1942, both in file "Pointe Coupee Parish, La. AD-510," box 193, General Correspondence Maintained in the Cincinnati Office, 1935-42, Records of the Office of the Administrator, Records of the Central Office, Records of the Farmers Home Administration, Record Group 96, National Archives (hereafter cited as General Correspondence, Cincinnati Office, RG 96).
203. See for example L. J. Billingsley to Secretary of Agriculture, n.d. [c. February 1934], file "Bero to Bill," box 3, Correspondence with the General Public to which Individual Replies were Made, 1933-35, Records of the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, Records of the Central Office, Records of the Farmers' Home Administration, Record Group 96, National Archives (hereafter cited as Subsistence Homestead Division Correspondence, RG 96); Willie Bates to Franklin Roosevelt, December 1934, folder "Bas to Beat," box 2, Subsistence Homestead Division Correspondence, RG 96.
204. Statement of Harry Jack Rose, 7 December 1936, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
205. "First Negro Farmer Pays Off FSA Farm Ownership Loan," Louisiana Weekly, 27 February 1943, 12.
206. Arthur Hatfield, "Farmers Able to Buy Farms Under Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act," Louisiana Weekly, 9 August 1941, 7.
207. [Statistics on African American Gains under FSA Programs], n.d. [c. between 1937-1942], file "Investigation of Clients Preference (Veterans, Indians, etc. )," box 43, General Correspondence, 1937-42, Records of the Farm Ownership Division, Records of the Central Office, Records of the Farmers' Home Administration, Record Group 96, National Archives.
208. "Is Communism in Our Midst," Opelousas Clarion-News, 3 December 1936, 4; Statement by Gordon McIntire, 9 December 1936, 2, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "The Farmers' Union and the Negro," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 15 February 1938, 1.
209. "Is Communism in Our Midst," Opelousas Clarion-News, 3 December 1936, 4; Statement by Gordon McIntire, 9 December 1936, 2, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "The Farmers' Union and the Negro," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 15 February 1938, 1.
210. "Some Letters from the Field," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 20 August 1938, 3. Some planters honestly believed that union organizers were taking advantage of their black laborers for mercenary reasons. Numerous references to the poverty of the New Orleans staff members in the papers of the LFU show that this was not the case. Organizers received no regular salaries and were dependent on donations from northern supporters in addition to some limited funds allocated by the NFU. When they traveled out to the rural parishes to visit union locals, they relied on members to feed and house them. "Racketeers Said to Be Robbing Poor as Alleged RA Workers," Opelousas-Clarion News, 2 January 1936, section 2, 4; George A. Dreyfous and M. Swearingen, "Report to the Executive Committee of the [Louisiana League for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights] on Investigations in West Feliciana Parish," n.d. [1937], 6, file 19, box 2, Harold N. Lee Papers, Howard Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University (hereafter cited as Lee Papers); Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde [Johnson], 17 February 1937, 16 April 1937, 22 May 1937, 22 June 1938, and 23 June 1938, all in file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
211. "Some Letters from the Field," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 20 August 1938, 3. Some planters honestly believed that union organizers were taking advantage of their black laborers for mercenary reasons. Numerous references to the poverty of the New Orleans staff members in the papers of the LFU show that this was not the case. Organizers received no regular salaries and were dependent on donations from northern supporters in addition to some limited funds allocated by the NFU. When they traveled out to the rural parishes to visit union locals, they relied on members to feed and house them. "Racketeers Said to Be Robbing Poor as Alleged RA Workers," Opelousas-Clarion News, 2 January 1936, section 2, 4; George A. Dreyfous and M. Swearingen, "Report to the Executive Committee of the [Louisiana League for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights] on Investigations in West Feliciana Parish," n.d. [1937], 6, file 19, box 2, Harold N. Lee Papers, Howard Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University (hereafter cited as Lee Papers); Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde [Johnson], 17 February 1937, 16 April 1937, 22 May 1937, 22 June 1938, and 23 June 1938, all in file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
212. "Some Letters from the Field," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 20 August 1938, 3. Some planters honestly believed that union organizers were taking advantage of their black laborers for mercenary reasons. Numerous references to the poverty of the New Orleans staff members in the papers of the LFU show that this was not the case. Organizers received no regular salaries and were dependent on donations from northern supporters in addition to some limited funds allocated by the NFU. When they traveled out to the rural parishes to visit union locals, they relied on members to feed and house them. "Racketeers Said to Be Robbing Poor as Alleged RA Workers," Opelousas-Clarion News, 2 January 1936, section 2, 4; George A. Dreyfous and M. Swearingen, "Report to the Executive Committee of the [Louisiana League for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights] on Investigations in West Feliciana Parish," n.d. [1937], 6, file 19, box 2, Harold N. Lee Papers, Howard Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University (hereafter cited as Lee Papers); Tex [Gordon McIntire] to Clyde [Johnson], 17 February 1937, 16 April 1937, 22 May 1937, 22 June 1938, and 23 June 1938, all in file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
213. Report of T. F. Wilson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1 August 1939, 25, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60.
214. Elma Godchaux to Louisiana League for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights, 17 October 1937, 2, file 7, box 1, Lee Papers.
215. Report of T. F. Wilson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1 August 1939, 28, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60.
216. "Natchitoches Farmers Rally to Defend Clark," Louisiana Weekly, 17 August 1940, 5.
217. "Trouble With Checks," Southern Farm Leader, January 1937, 3. Similar complaints were made by farmers in Alabama and Arkansas was well as other parishes in Louisiana. See "Resettlement," Southern Farm Leader, May 1936, 4.
218. "Trouble With Checks," Southern Farm Leader, January 1937, 3. Similar complaints were made by farmers in Alabama and Arkansas was well as other parishes in Louisiana. See "Resettlement," Southern Farm Leader, May 1936, 4.
219. Gordon McIntire to Gardner Jackson, 17 July 1939, 1, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
220. Report of J. O. Peyronnin, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 6 September 1939, 2, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60.
221. "Statement of Terror against Farmers' Union Leaders in West Feliciana Parish Louisiana," 2 July 1937, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers.
222. Report of J. O. Peyronnin, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 6 September 1939, 3, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60.
223. Report of T. F. Wilson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1 August 1939, 28, file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60.
224. Gordon McIntire [to St. Landry Farm LFU Members], February 1937, 3, file 2, reel 13, Johnson Papers. See also Johnson, "A Brief History," 11-12 and Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 92.
225. George A. Dreyfous and M. Swearingen, "Report of the Executive Committee of the [Louisiana League for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights] on Investigations in West Feliciana Parish," n.d. [1937], 3, file 19, box 2, Lee Papers.
226. "Union Men Don't Scare," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, 15 February 1938, 1-2.
227. Gordon McIntire to Gardner Jackson, 17 July 1939 and Gordon McIntire to Clyde Johnson, 19 July 1939, both in file 3, reel 13, Clyde Johnson Papers; Report of T. F. Wilson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1 August 1939 and Report of J. O. Peyronnin, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 6 September 1939, both in file "144-32-2," box 17587, Classified Subject Files, RG 60. The FBI's involvement was reluctant and its agents showed more empathy with plantation owners than with sugar workers. In his final report, the Bureau's Special Agent in Charge in New Orleans dismissed McIntire's complaints, saying,
228. "The Sugar Battle Still Rages," Louisiana Farmers' Union News, September 1939, 3.
229. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
230. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
231. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
232. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
233. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
234. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
235. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
236. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
237. H. L. Mitchell to Members of Executive Council of the STFU, memorandum, 7 March 1941, 1, reel 18, STFU Papers; "Farm Bureau Advocates Abolition of Tenant Program," Tenant Farmer, 15 July 1941, 1, file "Southern Tenant Farmers' Union 1940-1941," box 527, series A, part 3, NAACP-LC Papers; H. L. Mitchell, "The People at the Bottom of Our Agricultural Ladder," 7 October 1952, 1, reel 36, STFU Papers; Sidney Baldwin, Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration (Chapel Hill, 1968), 335-362; Holley, Uncle Sam's Farmers, 174-278; Mertz, New Deal Policy, 218-220; Daniel, Breaking the Land, 91-109; Kirby, Rural Worlds Lost, 51-79.
238. Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 20 February 1943, 1, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, FBI Files. This figure was an estimate given to an FBI agent by a former member of the LFU. It is unclear whether it refers to the union's total membership or only dues-paying members-if there were three thousand dues-paying members, then the union's total membership could have been several times that number.
239. Gordon McIntire, "Dear Friends," n.d. [1938], file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 20 February 1943, 1, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, FBI Files.
240. Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 27 September 1941, 22, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, FBI Files.
241. Gordon McIntire to Members and Friends of the Farmers' Union in Louisiana, 10 March 1942, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Fred Kane, "Clinton Clark Threatened With Mob Violence, Louisiana Weekly, 31 January 1942, 1, 7.
242. "Farm Union Organizers Are Freed," Louisiana Weekly, 11 April 1942, 2.
243. Gordon McIntire to G. Warburton, 14 November 1939, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "Pointe Coupee Farmers Organize," Pointe Coupee Banner, 13 June 1940, 1; M. L. Wilson to H. C. Sanders, 9 June 1943, file "Dir. La. 1.43-6.43," box 886, General Correspondence of the Extension Service and its Predecessors, Correspondence, Records of the Federal Extension Service, Record Group 33, National Archives; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 79.
244. Gordon McIntire to G. Warburton, 14 November 1939, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; "Pointe Coupee Farmers Organize," Pointe Coupee Banner, 13 June 1940, 1; M. L. Wilson to H. C. Sanders, 9 June 1943, file "Dir. La. 1.43-6.43," box 886, General Correspondence of the Extension Service and its Predecessors, Correspondence, Records of the Federal Extension Service, Record Group 33, National Archives; Rosen, "Alabama Share Croppers Union," 79.
245. "Memorandum Concerning Economic and Employment Conditions in Louisiana, Notes on Individual WPA Districts," June 1941, frames 0753-0755, reel 6, WPA Papers; "Louisiana and National Defense, Second Report," 30 April 1941, 3, file 3, box 13, William Walter Jones Collection of the Papers of Sam Houston Jones, Howard Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University.
246. Bureau of the Census, Census of Agriculture: 1945, Volume 1, Part 24, State Tables 1 and 5. Approximately 60,000 rural people left the land between 1940 and 1945. They represented more than one quarter of Louisiana's farm population.
247. Gordon McIntire to Members and Friends of the Farmers' Union in Louisiana, 10 March 1942, file 3, reel 13, Johnson Papers; Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Louisiana Farmers' Union (Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Louisiana Division)," 6 August 1943, 1, File 100-45768, Louisiana Farmers Union, FBI Files.
248. Ronnie Moore to Vernon Jordan, memorandum, 16-18 December 1966, 4, file 4, box 23, Scholarship, Education, and Defense Fund for Racial Equality Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (hereafter cited as SEDFRE Papers); John Zippert, interview by author, tape recording, 28 June 1998, T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, Louisiana State University (hereafter cited as Zippert interview).
249. Local leader Abraham Phillips of Pointe Coupee Parish later became involved in the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed self-defense group that was formed to protect civil rights workers in Louisiana. A comparison of names that appear in the records of both the LFU and CORE suggests that several other residents of Pointe Coupee Parish who were active in the 1930s were also involved in the civil rights movement (Siegent Caulfield and Leon Lafayette, for example). Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 169;
250. Abraham Phillips et al. to Mr. Baldwin, 21 October 1941, file "Pointe Coupee Parish, La. AD-510," box 193, General Correspondence, Cincinnati Office, RG 96;
251. Mimi Feingold, "Parish Scouting Report - Summer Project, Pointe Coupee Parish," 14 April 1964, 2, file 20, box 1, Congress of Racial Equality, Sixth Congressional District Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (hereafter cited as CORE Sixth Congressional District Papers); "Report for Pointe Coupee Parish," n.d. [11 October 1963], 1, file 3, box 6, Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Regional Office Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
252. Oretha Haley, interview by Kim Lacy Rogers, tape recording, 27 November 1978 and Rudy Lombard, interview by Kim Lacy Rogers, tape recording, 9 May 1979, both at Amistad Research Center; August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement (Urbana, 1975), 338-339.
253. Henry Brown, et al., Field Report, West Feliciana Parish, 14-21 July [1965] and Henry Brown, et al., Field Report, West Feliciana Parish, 28 July-3 August [1965], both in file 15, box 1, CORE Sixth Congressional District Papers; Wilbert Guillory, interview by author, tape recording, 25 June 1998, T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, Louisiana State University; Zippert interview; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, 351.
254. "History of Grand Marie Co-op," n.d., file 3, box 1, John Zippert Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (hereafter cited as Zippert Papers); John Zippert to Marvin Rich, 2 August 1966, file 11, box 23, SEDFRE Papers; "Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service: A Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights," 1965, file 5, box 1, CORE Sixth Congressional District Papers; National Sharecroppers' Fund, "Statement on Discriminatory Practices Affecting Programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture," 29 August 1963, frames 01228-01231, reel 38, The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967 (Sanford, 1980), microfilm (hereafter cited as CORE Papers); Sweet Potato Alert Proposal, Progress Report, 30 May-3 July 1966, 2, file 3, box 1, Zippert Papers; Zippert interview.
255. "History of Grand Marie Co-op," n.d., file 3, box 1, John Zippert Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (hereafter cited as Zippert Papers); John Zippert to Marvin Rich, 2 August 1966, file 11, box 23, SEDFRE Papers; "Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service: A Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights," 1965, file 5, box 1, CORE Sixth Congressional District Papers; National Sharecroppers' Fund, "Statement on Discriminatory Practices Affecting Programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture," 29 August 1963, frames 01228-01231, reel 38, The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967 (Sanford, 1980), microfilm (hereafter cited as CORE Papers); Sweet Potato Alert Proposal, Progress Report, 30 May-3 July 1966, 2, file 3, box 1, Zippert Papers; Zippert interview.
256. "History of Grand Marie Co-op," n.d., file 3, box 1, John Zippert Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (hereafter cited as Zippert Papers); John Zippert to Marvin Rich, 2 August 1966, file 11, box 23, SEDFRE Papers; "Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service: A Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights," 1965, file 5, box 1, CORE Sixth Congressional District Papers; National Sharecroppers' Fund, "Statement on Discriminatory Practices Affecting Programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture," 29 August 1963, frames 01228-01231, reel 38, The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967 (Sanford, 1980), microfilm (hereafter cited as CORE Papers); Sweet Potato Alert Proposal, Progress Report, 30 May-3 July 1966, 2, file 3, box 1, Zippert Papers; Zippert interview.
257. "History of Grand Marie Co-op," n.d., file 3, box 1, John Zippert Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (hereafter cited as Zippert Papers); John Zippert to Marvin Rich, 2 August 1966, file 11, box 23, SEDFRE Papers; "Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service: A Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights," 1965, file 5, box 1, CORE Sixth Congressional District Papers; National Sharecroppers' Fund, "Statement on Discriminatory Practices Affecting Programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture," 29 August 1963, frames 01228-01231, reel 38, The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967 (Sanford, 1980), microfilm (hereafter cited as CORE Papers); Sweet Potato Alert Proposal, Progress Report, 30 May-3 July 1966, 2, file 3, box 1, Zippert Papers; Zippert interview.