April, 1939, 1939

Donald Henderson held a UCAPAWA convention in Memphis on April 2; the papers include a UCAPAWA handbill and an STFU press release on Mitchell's walk-out from the convention (2). Other items related directly to the feud with Henderson include an injunction obtained by the STFU to prevent UCAPAWA from organizing under the STFU's name (5), as well as two long letters from Mitchell to Gardner Jackson and Norman Thomas (3, 10). The Oklahoma STFU was especially weakened by the split; efforts to rebuild it can be traced in field reports from W.R. Purcells and Guy Thomas (1,2,30), as well as in Mitchell's report from Okla. of April 21. The Delta Cooperative Farm hosted a Southern Socialist Conference on April 7 to 9; related items include a mimeographed report on the conference (7) and a long letter from Norman Thomas to the Conference on building the Socialist Party in the South (5). Two union members were beaten by Sheriff's Deputies at Crawfordsville, Ark., on April 15; there is heavy correspondence relating to this outbreak of violence during the remainder of the month, but see especially the affidavits of the victims (24). Correspondence concerning NSW appears throughout the month and includes the Final Financial Statement for 1939 (28). There are a number of replies from the FSA to STFU complaints (20,21,27), and there is scattered correspondence about the union's search for a new Educational Director