Delta and Providence cooperative farms papers, 1925-1963.

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Delta and Providence cooperative farms papers, 1925-1963.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/26380457

Papers include correspondence of Sherwood Eddy, secretary-treasurer; Sam H. Franklin, director 1936-1943; and A. Eugene Cox, director after 1943. Major topics include agricultural issues and farm operations; fundraising and donations; interracial issues; member morale; poor conditions of southern sharecroppers; cooperative methods; staffing; medical issues; relations and tensions with surrounding communities; criticisms of the farms; and the establishment and impact of the various educational, social, and religious programs on the farms. Other topics include eviction and dire conditions of Arkansas sharecroppers following a strike, many of whom became members at Delta; the Rust cotton picker and plans to fund cooperatives with revenue from its sales; and criticisms of the farms' management techniques and member morale from trustees William R. Amberson and Blaine Treadway, among others, which ultimately led to an investigation conducted by the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union in May 1940. Also included are scattered financial material and other records; plans; issues of the farm publication, "The Co-op Call"; membership agreements; and letters from prospective members seeking placement on the farms. Prominent correspondents include Arthur Raper of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation; H. L. Mitchell and Howard Kester of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union; Delta trustees Reinhold Niebuhr, John Rust, and William R. Amberson; David R. Minter; and various representatives of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Socialist Party, the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, the Cooperative League, the American Friends Service Committee, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and the Young Women's Christian Association, among others. There is also some correspondence with Margaret Sanger regarding the Delta farm's interest in contraception. Other papers include incorporation materials, financial materials, organizational papers, meeting minutes, subject files, histories, ledgers, writings, medical reports, and clippings. Clippings include newspaper articles about a meeting held in Tchula, Miss., during which David Minter and A. Eugene Cox were asked by the community to leave Holmes County because they had been accused of teaching social equality between races on the farm.

About 9200 items (11.5 linear feet)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7162042

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Related Entities

There are 23 Entities related to this resource.

Fellowship of Reconciliation (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68m8317 (corporateBody)

The Fellowship of Reconciliation was established in December of 1914, during a meeting at Cambridge, England. Its members believed that Christians were forbidden to wage war, and that instead they should work positively to establish a new world order of peace and justice. The F.O.R. had its office in London. It produced and distributed literature, including its monthly magazine Reconciliation; worked with youth; fostered groups of members throughout the country; and supported the work of the Int...

Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66b7wgt (person)

Margaret Louise Higgins was born in Corning, New York, on September 15, 1879, the sixth of eleven children and the third of four daughters born to Anne Purcell Higgins and Michael Hennessey Higgins, a stone mason. Her two elder sisters worked to supplement the family income, and financed her education at Claverack College, a private coeducational preparatory school in the Catskills. After leaving Claverack, Higgins took a job teaching first grade to immigrant children, but decided after a short ...

Delta Cooperative Farm (Hillhouse, Miss.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sn69cf (corporateBody)

Minter, David.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6351h59 (person)

Kester, Howard, 1904-1977

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63x9fj1 (person)

Howard Anderson Kester was a theologian, educator, and administrator active in Christian movements relating to race relations, pacifism, and economic reform in the South from the 1920s until his retirement in 1970. From the description of Howard Kester papers, 1923-1972. WorldCat record id: 38224023 Howard Anderson Buck Kester was a theologian, educator, and administrator active in Christian movements relating to race relations, pacifism, and economic reform in ...

Commission on Interracial Cooperation

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tj2d0h (corporateBody)

The Commission on Interracial Cooperation was founded in 1918 by a group of prominent blacks and whites who wished to address the social, political, and economic problems facing African Americans. Incorporated in 1929 in Georgia, the Commission consisted of state and local committees throughout the South. Will W. Alexander, a white Methodist minister served as director for twenty-five years. The organization was dissolved in 1944 and succeeded by the Southern Regional Council. From t...

American friends service committee

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mp8vd2 (corporateBody)

Quaker organization formed to promote peace and reconciliation through its social service and relief programs. From the description of American Friends Service Committee records, 1933-1988 (bulk 1933-1938). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70983753 The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) was organized in June 1917 as an outgrowth of and coordination point for the anti-war and relief activities of various bodies of the Religious Society of Friends in the United States. A ...

Southern tenant farmers' union

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69s6sr6 (corporateBody)

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. From the descripti...

Raper, Arthur Franklin, 1899-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k08b99 (person)

Arthur Franklin Raper was a distinguished sociologist whose early work focused on rural social issues and racial discrimination in the South. From the 1940s through the early 1960s, he worked for several government agencies on problems of rural development in Bangladesh as well as other countries in Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. After his work as senior advisor to the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, he returned to the United States and worked as a visiting professor ...

Socialist Party (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x09wzx (corporateBody)

The Socialist Party (U.S.) was founded in 1901, bringing together moderate socialists from the Social Democratic Party, and dissident members of the Socialist Labor Party. In 1936 the ongoing differences between the “Old Guard” and “Militant” factions, resulted in a split, with the Militant group retaining the SP name and much of the membership, while the Old Guard faction retained most of the organizational and financial assets. From the guide to the Socialist Party (U.S.) Minutes, ...

Niebuhr, Reinhold, 1892-1971

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zp48bq (person)

Correspondence to Lewis Mumford from Reinhold Niebuhr and his wife, Ursula Niebuhr. From the description of Letters, 1935-1982, n.d., to Lewis Mumford. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155873776 Theologian, philosopher, and author. From the description of Papers of Reinhold Niebuhr, 1907-1994 (bulk 1930-1990). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71063622 Theologian. From the description of Reminiscences of Reinhold Niebuhr...

Providence Plantation (Miss.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jx4fpz (corporateBody)

Delta Cooperative Farm, started in 1936 in the community of Hillhouse (later called Rochdale) in Bolivar County, Miss., and Providence Cooperative Farm, started in 1939 near Cruger in Holmes County, Miss., were attempts by a philanthropically supported corporation, Cooperative Farms, Inc., to help southern agricultural laborers out of their economic plight. The cooperatives were organized around four principles: efficiency in production and economy in finance through the cooperative...

Franklin, Sam H.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62n6gfw (person)

Eddy, Sherwood, 1871-1963

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mw2zrk (person)

YMCA secretary for Asia, evangelist and author. From the description of Letter of Sherwood Eddy, 1932. (Wheaton College). WorldCat record id: 31743372 George Sherwood Eddy was born in Leavenworth, Kansas on January 19, 1871. He prepared at Phillips-Andover Academy in Massachusetts from 1887-1888 and earned a Ph.B. degree from Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University in 1891. He attended Union Theological Seminary and graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary, 1891-18...

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wh6j39 (corporateBody)

Threadway, Blaine.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s20zvf (person)

Mitchell, H. L. 1906-1989

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62236q5 (person)

Cooperative League of the U.S.A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ng8ftq (corporateBody)

The Cooperative League of America was established in New York City in 1916 by James Peter Warbasse who served as president until 1941. The organization, now called the Cooperative League of the U.S.A. and based in Washington, D.C., is a federation of local, state, regional, and national cooperative business organizations. The League sponsors training conferences, conducts research, and distributes information about cooperatives. From the description of Cooperative League of the U.S.A...

Rust, John.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gg0dj4 (person)

Amberson, William R.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nk3f4w (person)

William R. Amberson was a professor at the University of Tennessee Medical School at Memphis, 1930-1937, advisor to the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, and trustee of the Delta and Providence cooperative farms in Mississippi. From the description of William Ruthrauff Amberson papers, 1919-1968; 1971 [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 25678031 ...

Fellowship of Southern Churchmen

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6md42tn (corporateBody)

The Fellowship of Southern Churchmen was an interdenominational, interracial group of southern church people (lay and clergy) interested in race relations, anti-Semitism, rural dependency, labor conditions, and other social issues. From the description of Fellowship of Southern Churchmen records, 1937-1986. WorldCat record id: 26380368 The Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, originally known as the Younger Churchmen of the South, called its first meeting at Montea...

Young Women's Christian Association of the U.S.A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wx1qqp (corporateBody)

Records of the YWCA's programs and activities among blacks began in 1907. From the description of Records, 1920. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232007201 The YWCA of the Mid-Peninsula opened in 1948 as a recreation center for business women. It expanded to provide recreational and social services for women that met the organization's mission of "empowering women and eliminating racism." The organization was based in Palo Alto until its closing in 2003. ...

Cox, A. Eugene.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62z438f (person)