August, 1937, 1937

Routine correspondence with UCAPAWA headquarters begins the first week of August. Mitchell explained the new affiliation to the STFU membership and the new operating procedures to his organizers in mimeographed letters (5,21). The union began preparations for a special convention to ratify the UCAPAWA affiliation and for a series of local strikes to demand higher wages for cotton picking, both slated for September. To avert further violence against the union, J.R. Butler began sending telegrams to Arkansas Governor Carl Bailey, informing him of threats made against union meetings (6,20). Other items of special interest include: an exchange between Butler and Kester, working out their personal differences (18,20); Mitchell to organizer Lee Phillips on STFU policy toward union activity in Mississippi (24); J.E. Clayton, a black STFU organizer from Texas, to Mitchell on getting black workers in the South into the CIO (29); and Mitchell to Aubrey Williams, reporting on his recent conversation with Governor Bailey on Bailey's political plans (31)