Southern tenant farmers' union

The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, organized at Poinsett County, Ark., in 1934, was especially active in Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas. The Union spread into the southeastern states and to California, affiliating off and on with larger national labor federations, and maintaining headquarters at Memphis, Tenn., or, from 1948 to 1960, at Washington, D.C. It has become successively the National Agricultural Workers Union and the Agricultural and Allied Workers Union.

The Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union was organized in 1934 in Tyronza, Arkansas, to serve the interests of tenant farmers in the South. The headquarters moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1935. The union affiliated with the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America from 1937-1939. In 1946 it affiliated directly with the AFL and changed its name to National Farm Labor Union.

H. L. Mitchell was a co-founder of the S.T.F.U. and was active in it and its successors.

The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (STFU), a bi-racial union of sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and small landowners, came into existence in the cotton plantation country of Arkansas in July, 1934, under the leadership of a group of socialists, including H.L. Mitchell and Howard Kester. Although locals were soon established in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama, the union's base of operation remained in Arkansas until 1945.

Farm mechanization and the impact of World War II shifted the union's focus from tenant farmers to migrant farm workers, whose numbers were rapidly increasing. The union also began supplying temporary cannery workers during the 1940's.

From 1937 to 1939, the STFU was affiliated with the CIO through the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA). After the STFU's withdrawal from the CIO in response to ideological differences with the UCAPAWA, it remained independent until it secured direct affiliation with the A.F.of L. in 1946. At that time, the organization's name changed to the National Farm Labor Union (NFLU) and organizing efforts shifted to farm workers in California. During the 1950's, the NFLU's successor, the National Agricultural Workers' Union (NAWU), focused on organizing sugar, rice, and strawberry workers in Louisiana.

In 1960, the NAWU surrendered its AFL-CIO charter and merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen. H.L. Mitchell, former secretary of the SFTU, headed Local 300 of the Allied and Agricultural Workers' Union, organizing rice mill workers and fishermen in Louisiana.

The Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) was founded in 1934 in Tyronza, Arkansas by H.L. Mitchell and Clay East.

Despite extreme persecution by planters and deputy sheriffs, the movement quickly developed interracial locals in communities throughout the delta region, numbering 31,000 members at its peak in 1938. The STFU influenced legislation creating programs to underwrite loans to sharecroppers to buy their own farms, as well as programs to build emergency housing for agricultural laborers.

The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (STFU), an organization of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and farm laborers, was an outgrowth of the plight of agricultural workers during the Great Depression. Its immediate impetus was the Federal Agricultural Adjustment Act (Triple A) program that required landowners to plow up every third row of cotton. As a result, mass evictions of sharecroppers took place.

From its beginning, the STFU was an integrated organization. Seven African Americans and eleven Caucasian men held the first meeting in 1934 near Tyronza Township, Poinsett County, Ark. H. L. Mitchell, one of the founders, served the STFU in many capacities, including as executive secretary and president. From Arkansas, STFU activities spread to other southern and southwestern states. Headquarters were established in Memphis, Tenn., although the STFU's greatest strength was in Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas.

The long-range aims of the STFU included the general betterment of conditions for agricultural workers and affiliation with the mainstream labor movement, but at first its activities were chiefly directed at gaining for its members their share of the Triple A money paid for reducing the cotton crop. The law actually required landowners to maintain the same number of tenant farmers, but many landlords ignored their tenants' rights. The STFU secured legal aid for exploited sharecroppers and focused national attention on their suffering. It often faced active and, in many cases, violent opposition during the early years.

STFU history may be divided into the following periods:

The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (STFU), a biracial union of sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and small landowners, came into existence in the cotton plantation country of Arkansas in July, 1934, under the leadership of a group of socialists, including H.L. Mitchell and Howard Kester. Although locals were soon established in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama, the union's base of operation remained in Arkansas until 1945.

Farm mechanization and the impact of World War II shifted the union's focus from tenant farmers to migrant farm workers, whose numbers were rapidly increasing. The union also began supplying temporary cannery workers during the 1940's.

From 1937 to 1939, the STFU was affiliated with the CIO through the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA). After the STFU's withdrawal from the CIO in response to ideological differences with the UCAPAWA, it remained independent until it secured direct affiliation with the A.F. of L. in 1946. At that time, the organization's name changed to the National Farm Labor Union (NFLU) and organizing efforts shifted to farm workers in California. During the 1950's, the NFLU's successor, the National Agricultural Workers' Union (NAWU), focused on organizing sugar, rice, and strawberry workers in Louisiana.

In 1960, the NAWU surrendered its AFL-CIO charter and merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen. H.L. Mitchell, former secretary of the SFTU, headed Local 300 of the Allied and Agricultural Workers' Union, organizing rice mill workers and fishermen in Louisiana.