Reel 1

Scope and Contents From the Collection: Consist of correspondence, reports, ledgers, legal documents, leaflets, printed material, photographs, and newspapers published by the union. These document the activities of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union from its origins through its transformations into the National Farm Labor Union in 1946 and the National Agriculture Workers Union in 1952, and through its merger with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1960. The records also contain selected materials from the Socialist Party...

Scope and Contents Only two folders of papers survive from this year. There is a copy of the union's first Constitution, as well as the Constitution of the Oklahoma Renters Union upon which the STFU document was based. The papers include a report by Mitchell on the union's activities during 1934, an STFU "Program of Action", and The Plight of the Sharecropper, a booklet by Norman Thomas (note: this is the original edition. A copy of the revised edition appears in the selection from the Howard A. Kester Papers...

Scope and Contents The main topics in the papers for this period include the Norcross Plantation eviction case, the arrest of STFU speaker Ward H. Rodgers in Marked Tree, Arkansas during a union meeting, and the STFU delegation sent to Washington in April to picket the Department of Agriculture. There are a number of statements, press releases, and letters related to the Rodgers case. There is also a great deal of correspondence from Norman Thomas; see especially his exchange with Secretary of Agriculture...

Scope and Contents Correspondence during may Concerns the Controversy within the AAA over Section 7a of the Cotton Contract; see especially a letter from Norman Thomas describing his recent conversation with President Roosevelt on this subject (May 8). There is an exchange of letters with union lawyer CT Carpenter and the ACLU on the advisability of further legal action against Arkansas planters to counter eviction of tenants. The STFU experienced troubles within the ranks of its own leadership and was forced...

Scope and Contents There is correspondence relating to Howard Kester's successful attempt to secure an endorsement of the STFU at the AF of L annual convention, including a copy of the resolution adopted (Oct 17). Items of special interest include a series of reports from J.R. Butler on his organizing trip to Texas (Oct. 26 to 31), a memorandum by Mitchell entitled "A New Homestead Law" (Nov 20), a circular sent out by Kester soliciting support for The Sharecropper's Voice (Dec. 10) and replies, and a report...

Scope and Contents Reports from organizers Robert Reed and N.W. Webb; materials on the cotton pickers' strike of September, including Kester's report entitled "Acts of Tyranny and Terror"; a compendium of individual acts of violence against union members; the STFU brief before the Arkansas Supreme Court in the Norcross Plantation eviction case; plans for rehabilitating evicted tenants; circular letter issued by the Conference of Younger Churchmen of the South to protest the arrest of Ward H. Rodgers;...

Scope and Contents The Second Annual STFU Convention was held at Little Rock on January 3 to 5; the papers include the program, press releases, the "report of the Second Annual Convention," the Report of the Executive Secretary for 1935; and "Ceremony of the Land" by Howard Kester. There is a good deal of material concerning the union's attempt to gain representation at a conference called by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace on the future of the AAA (Jan. 8 to 15). Another major topic is the situation...

Scope and Contents Union activity during February was devoted to obtaining help for evicted tenants from various New Deal agencies. See especially Gardner Jackson's report on his discussions with the WPA (12) and Kester's letters on his negotiations with the Resettlement Administration concerning a projected cooperative farm for displaced tenants (18, 21, 29). Toward the end of the month, a frequent topic in the correspondence is the case of Jim Ball, a black STFU organizer convicted of "intent to kill" a...