Black Unions, New Deal, etc Flashcards
Sharecroppers
Most became sharecroppers to their slave owners
No disposable income, farming other people’s lands as tenants
Did not have the money to buy land themselves
Pay rent by selling a share of the harvest
Need supplies for farming and food to live on - credit in country stores often owned by slave owners. Known as debt peonage
Landlord calculated how much crop was worth to pay off debt, usually made it short so they would have to stay another year to pay off debt -> cycle of debt
Not much better off as free
When depression hit they did not have as much to lose
African-Americans in the 1930s
Many still in the South
Disproportionately hard hit by depression because of pro-slavery thought’s lasting legacy.
This also means a lack of modernisation in the South - rural and cotton based, couldn’t break from King Cotton.
Completely reliant on cotton - if prices fell so did they
New deal
Closest US has come to socialism
Number of sharecroppers shrank as farming became modernised
Downturn -> farms trying to expand, bring in machinery
300,000 lost their jobs, 200,000 were African Americans
Southern blacks outnumbered them 3.1 welfare relief roles but given 50% less relief aid because they were black
“Heretics” & Radicals
Southern white radicals - different solve all African American issues but tried to help
Fellowship of Southern Churchmen
Alabama Sharecropper’s Union
Extremely brave - promoted inter-racial co-operation and black rights
Brought up with racism, surrounded by it all their lives
Called heretics as they tried to break the southern religion of racism
Highlander Folk School - summer school for activists. Trained them how to be grass roots activists, could then work in their local communities to promote activism
Southern Tenant Farmers Union
H. L. Mitchell - founder, Arkansas
Spring 1934 - owner evicted 23 sharecropping families to avoid loaning the money to plant the crop in Tyronza, Arkansas -> desperate position for the families
As a response Mitchell tried to gather people in a union
Last time this had been tried was 1919 in Elaine - “Elaine massacre”. Progressive Farmers and Householders Union of America - white mob killed 25-100 people(shows how cheaply they saw African Americans, didnt care enough to know how many they had on land) many arrested and put in prison for 20 years
Dangerous to form a union and at first he only had two replies
Trying to unionise.
Had no political clout, no voice - could organise themselves to create one
“Land to the landless” given $1 per day minimum wage
Thought they should organise locally to avoid ideas of outsiders interfering and would come under umbrella term of STFU
Annual conventions started organised by blacks and whites
August 1934 - 2,000 joined every two weeks - appetite for a union, to increase the rights of sharecroppers
What good did it bring?
December 1934 - organised to such an extent they were invited to speak in front of federal government - sec of agriculture (henry wallace)
Henry Wallace promised an investigation into the AAA
Within four years they had gained 30,000 members - significant momentum - helped sway Wallace
Risks of joining
Risks of joining a union:
Ward Rodgers returned from this meeting - crowd had gathered to hear what he had said, local white sheriff srrested him for promoting anarchy
Lucien Koch commonwealth college, kentucky - white police intercepted him and some students - they were pistol whipped for wanting to be involved - This being done by law enforcement
Remind us : how entrenched racism and feeling to maintain racial status quo was / how difficult it was to fight against white supremacy - what would happen if they tried to do something more than just drive somewhere to be involved / bravery of southern heretics
How did New Deal help?
New deal - not reforms that would create equality and cleanse society of racism
Couldnt impinge on a society that were reluctant to enforce New Deal policies
Eg Wallace only said that he would investigate - derailed by white southern politicians
Joseph T Robinson - exerted pressure on investigation to get it dropped - seniority rule: most senior position in congress are those who have had longest term as congressman/senator - get first choice of what committees you want to sit on
One side of New Deal - huge symbolic value, federal government trying to help southern blacks, had not happened since reconstruction
Some say STFU is the origins of CRM
