John L. Handcox

When I was looking for music I came across John L. Handcox for my presentation. I'm surprised I haven't found music from him because he contributed a lot to the STFU. He was a tenant farmer himself and most of his songs and poems were used at meetings.  Here's one called "King Cotton." The planter was always the enemy to tenant farmers and this portrays it.

The planters celebrated King Cotton in Memphis, May fifteen.
It was the largest gathering you most ever seen.
People came from far and near to celebrate King Cotton
Whom the planters love so dear.
Thousands of flags were hung in the street,
But they left thousands of sharecroppers on their farms with nothing to eat.
Why do they celebrate Cotton? Here, I'll make it clear:
Because they cheat, beat and take it away from labor every year.
Cotton is King, and will always be,
Until labor in the South is set free.
The money spent for decorations and flags,
Would sure have helped poor sharecroppers who are hungry and in rags.
Oh! King Cotton, today you have millions of slaves
And have caused many poor workers to be in lonesome graves.
When Cotton is King of any nation,
It means wealth to the planer- to the laborer starvation.

Ideas

I just started my presentation project. I think I am going to do a handout/brochure to give to everyone and try my hardest to be as entertaining as possible!  I found some art made from the New Deal that I think will work well and I want to use some songs or hymns that were popular in the STFU. I also think it would be cool to show pictures of the secret coding used by the union. I hope it doesn't come out too boring.....

thinking.

I've been thinking about how I want to incorporate topics discussed in class into my paper. I want to use the vigilante women in The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction and compare them to the STFU women. Women were very important in the union which was unusual for Southern women in the 1930's. They helped make union decisions and were considered "equal" to men and were involved in all of the rituals the men were. Some women helped get men out of jail, stop fights and went on night rides to recruit other members. This was very rare because Southern women often had a weak or submissive stereotype.

I'm also having trouble with a thesis. I never know how to include everything in my paper in a thesis without listing or having it be too much of a mouthful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Done!

I just printed out my rough draft and I feel pretty good about it. I think I'm going to take a break from the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union for a couple of days!

Here is a picture of a group of STFU members listening to a speech in Arkansas. This is an important picture because it has whites, blacks and women in the picture. Each made an impact on the movement.

Civil Rights

As I have altered my topic a bit, I am finding some very interesting information. I am focusing on the Southern Tenant Farmers Union which was located mainly in the NE part of Arkansas (Johnny Cash is from this region!) The STFU was an interracial group of black and white tenant farmers and some historians say this union is the backbone to the Civil Rights movement. Women were also allowed in the union which was rare in the 1930's. Here's an interesting quote from a book I'm reading. A black man said this at the first meeting of the STFU. They were trying to decide if they wanted to have a segregated union or not.

"We colored people can't organize without you. Aren't we all brothers and ain't God the Father of us all? We live under the same sun, eat the same food, wear the same kind of clothing, work on the same land, raise the same crop for the same landlord who oppresses and cheats us both. For a long time now the white folks and the colored folks have been fighting each other and both of us had been getting whipped all the time. We don't have nothing against one another but we got plenty against the landlord. The same chain that holds my people holds your people too. If we're chained together on the outside we ought to stay chained together in the union. It won't do no good for us to divide because there's where the trouble has been all the time. The landlord is always betwixt us, beatin' us and starvin' us and makin' us fight each other. There ain't but one way for us to get him where he can't help himself and that's for us to et together and stay together."

This was a class issue more than a race issue. I thought it was cool.

good stuff!

I've been working on my paper and it's going well! I had to change my topic just a bit and i'm focusing more on the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union more than just the Missouri Bootheel. The STFU (funny, right?) had a very a very rich culture and many unique rituals to their union. I feel much more confident about the culture of the STFU than I did with the small town in Missouri.

Having trouble.....

So I have founds lots of information about sharecroppers and the Roadside Demonstration of 1939. The problem I am having is what the sharecroppers community was like! Professor Sullivan recommended some books at the MSU library that I rented out about Mississippi culture but I have found these books to be very general. I want to focus on the Bootheel of Mississippi and I'm still not sure what the community was like during the Great Depression. Help!