The Sharecroppers* Voice
“The Voice of the Disinherited”
OFFICIAL ORGAN SOUTHERN TENANT FARMER’S UNION _
_
Vol. 1, No. 10 January 1, 1936 PRICE 5c COPY
CONVENTION TO HEAR NOTED SPEAKERS
A Message To The
Young Methodists
The officers and members of the Southern
Tenant Farmers’ Union wish to extend to
you their greetings as you assemble in Mem¬
phis for your convention. We sincerely hope
that 'Jhis great gathering will be epoch mak¬
ing and that it will stir Methodism and
Christianity generally as never before.
The Methodist Church has a grand tradi¬
tion of heroic struggle against tyranny and
oppression. Many of their leaders have been
brave champions of social justice and right¬
eousness. There are similar champions a-
mong your leaders today.
Today men around the world are engaged
in a great struggle against poverty, inse¬
curity, ignorance, unemployment, war and
a host of other injustices, trying to build
a world of peace and plenty where Jhe
stupidities and brutalities of this world will
be done away with. Youth must face the
question of how he will use his life in this
struggle.
The (Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union is
seeking to end Jhe terrible exploitation in
the cotton fields of the South. A few days
after your convention in Memphis the South¬
ern Tenant Farmers’ Union will hold ifJs
second annual convention in Little Rock. To
this convention will come the actual pro¬
ducers of cotton, the sharecroppers, tenant
farmers and day laborers of the South.
These men are the most1 exploited agricult¬
ural workers in the United States. They
have not even rights such as peasants had
acquired in the middle ages under Feudal¬
ism. They are as cruelly exploited as the
coolies of China and their standards of liv¬
ing are no higher. There are more than
8,000,000 of these disinherited men, Negro
and white.
In the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union
the Negro and white farmers have found
strength, fellowship and courage. They have
found something in their, struggles together
in the Union for justice and a decent and
full life tha^ they have never found in any
other organization. Not even the church has
assisted them in their efforts to secure a
decent living. Often enough the Church has
stood by and looked on while these disin¬
herited men were ground down by their
overlords.
We ask you in the name of justice and
decency, in the name of the Carpenter of
Galilee whom you profess to serve to raise
your voice against the oppression and tyran¬
ny that stalks the cotton fields of the south
and deliver thousands of innocent men, wo-
continued on page two
“YOU WILL WIN”
Says Southern Woman
December 15, 1935
Dear Sharecroppers and Friends:
This letter comes Jo you from a writer
in New York who heard some of your or¬
ganizers when they were speaking here last
winter, and who is now giving herself the
“Christmas gift" of sending a small check
to you.
Though a resident of New York I am a
Southern woman. I was bom in Mississippi
and spent my youth there and all my tra¬
ditions are SouJhem. My father was a
Congressman for years from Mississippi (he
is now dead), and though he would scarce¬
ly endorse all I am going to say in this let¬
ter, he did have the interest of the poor,
struggling cotton farmer much at heart.
Always I can remember his speaking bitter¬
ly of peonage
аз
I understand it a condi¬
tion not much worse than some of you have
to endure.
I want to say to you that I am heart and
soul with you in your struggle to ob&in
working and living conditions worthy of
American freeman. So just is your cause
that no mind not utterly benighted and cor¬
rupted could refuse it respect and well-
wishing. But there are three things in par¬
ticular which command my admiration.
First, you are conducting a non-violent
movement, and this in the face of great
provocation, for I understand that your
leaders are hounded and persecuted by the
landowners and Jhe forces of government
whom they impress into their service. They
are violent, I am told, but you are controlled
and restrained. They deny you your funda¬
mental rights of speech, press and assem¬
blage, yet so strong is your cause that you
are winning ground all the while.
Second, I am most happy Jhat in the
South of all places white workers are mak¬
ing common cause with their Negro fellows.
That is splendid and as it should be and I,
as a Southern white woman, applaud it more
than I can possibly express. I have seen for
myself that you are not merely admitting
negroes in jo your union, but sharing lead¬
ership with them — just as you have, blacks
and whites, always shared suffering and
will, I hope, in the future share the fruits
of this great and righteous struggle.
And lastly, I see from the copy of the
“Voice" which has just come
Л
my atten¬
tion that you men are realizing that this
a woman’s fight as well as a man’s.
The mothers, wives, daughters and sweet-
continued on page two
CARPENTER AND MALCOLM
TO ADDRESS ASSEMBLY
Norman Thomas Sends Message
Other Speakers Invited
The program of the 2nd Annual Conven¬
tion of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union
is now completed. The first session will
open at the Labor Temple in Little Rock,
Friday morning, January 3rd, at 9:00 o’clock.
The Rev. Marshal Steel, Pastor of the
Little Rock Methodist Church has been in¬
vited to deliver the opening address. H. M.
Thackery, Secretary of the Arkansas Fed¬
eration of Labor, has been invited to ad¬
dress the assembly on behalf of the Arkan¬
sas Labor Movement. Norman Thomas, not¬
ed friend of the Southern Tenant Farmers’
Union was unable to be in Li Ale Rock but
will send a prepared message to the Dele¬
gates. J. R. Butler, President of the Union
will preside at the opening session.
The Friday afternoon session will be giv¬
en over to discussion groups on problems
facing the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union.
Friday night it is planned Jo hold an open
session of the Convention to which the pub¬
lic will be invited. Hon. Rexford G. Tug-
well, Director of the Resettlement Admin¬
istration and chief brain truster of Jhe
Roosevelt regime has been invited to ad¬
dress the meeting.
It is also planned to show motion pictures
depicting life in the T. V. A. project, Aie
sharecroppers in Arkansas and the new
farming methods of the Soviet Union. This
session will be held at a larger hall than
that of the iLabor Temple.
The Saturday morning session will be
given over to business of the Union, and
addresses will be given by National Organ¬
izers, Sweeden of Oklahoma, MaJhews of
Texas, and McKinney of Missouri as well
as others who wish to speak on organiza¬
tional work in their respective fields,
continued on page two
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GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS UNABLE
TO ADDRESS STFU CONVENTION
In a letter just received by the Secretary
of the Union, Governor Futrell expresses re¬
gret Jhat he can not be present to address
the Assembly. The letter is as follows:
“Unless arrangements miscarry which
have already been made, I can not be pres¬
ent at the Second Annual Convention of
the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union on
January 3rd. Please accept my thanks for
your invitation.
Yours sincerely,
Signed J. Marion Futrell.