Reel 19

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 In August and September, organizers F. R. Betton and J.E. Clayton began sending carbon copies of all their correspondence to headquarters. Taken together, the materials they sent provide a detailed picture of STFU efforts to aid and organize the black community. There is much correspondence on the organizing drive in northern Alabama; see especially Mitchell's memoranda on Alabama organizing (4,19) and reports from organizer W.M. Tanner. Mitchell also spoke with FSA and AAA officials in...

Scope and Contents Mitchell wrote Dr. George S. Mitchell at the FSA that the National Farmers Union and the STFU had worked out an organizing agreement (2), but James G. Patton, President of the Farmers Union, heatedly denied the STFU claim (9). Clayton and Betton pursued their long-standing dream of purchasing the Lowdon plantation near Gould, Ark. for the purpose of resettling black tenant farmers after J.D. Overholt offered them $5,000 for the project, but the plans fell through (10, 11, 16, 17, 23)....

Scope and Contents Notable topics in the correspondence include the organizing drive in Alabama and hearings by a Senate Subcommittee headed by Claude Pepper of Florida on the Langer minimum wage bill for farm workers. The NEC met on Oct. 9 and 10; the agenda, minutes, and proposed budget appear, as well as a complete list of STFU locals, with information on the number of paid-up members in each local (9). On the Edmondson, Arkansas case described above, there is a memorandum to the WDL (13) and letters from...

Scope and Contents The new Alabama District Council sent forth a series of resolutions, all aimed at changing the STFU Constitution (8,20,29, Dec. 3). In a long and detailed letter to James G. Patton, President of the National Farmer's Union (NFU), Mitchell explained the problems of organizing farm labor in the South and proposed that the STFU become the "Southern Division" of the NFU (Oct. 30); correspondence between Mitchell and Patton continued throughout November with no result (7,14,17,25). Other...

Scope and Contents Convention preparations dominate the correspondence for December. There is an analysis of the union's membership drive (31), as well as more detailed information on STFU locals in Mississippi contained in Butler's letters to organizer E.O. Cistrunk (9,16). On Oklahoma, see Sweeden's ability to organize the state (27) and Sweeden's embittered reply (29). Sam Franklin wrote at length on racial friction at the Providence Co-op Farm (19), and Mitchell gave Jonathan Daniels his assessment of how...