January to March, 1962, 1962

For a running account of Mitchell's activities during this winter, during which he lost an NLRB election at the Louisiana State Rice Milling Co. and turned to other organizing prospects, see his weekly reports from Gene V. Collins, Willie Berry, and other members of the Local 300 staff. On legal matters, see Mitchell's correspondence with Local 300 lawyer James Youngdahl. An especially interesting legal case arose with the Sweetlake Land and Oil Co., Inc., a corporation farm which claimed that its employees were all agricultural workers and thus excluded from NLRB coverage. On this dispute, see Mitchell to a lawyer Daniel H. Pollitt (March 14), the briefs filed by both the union and the corporation with the NLRB (March 23), and a detailed report on the Sweetlake Co. (n.d. [March])