I think my grandmother was born into a sharecropper family. She was born in 1933 in Hermitage Arkansas. One of about 8 children, all worked on the farm until the boys went off to war or they got old enough to do their own thing. My grandmother said she didn’t have electricity until her senior year in high school. She would talk about a peddler who would come by once in a while, and all the kids ran and got an egg to give him in return they got a piece of bubble gum. My grandmother told me about how upset she was one day when she dropped her egg one time.
I remember visiting my grandparents during the 1960's. They were sharecroppers and didn't live in any better conditions than your showing for 1936. Alot of people associate sharecropping with black Americans. That is a total falsehood. Whites and blacks were used by wealthy landowners and lived in poverty. I even remember bartering between all races. My grandma use to tell us about bartering with the Japanese detention camps in the 30's. My dad was born in 1936. He lived this poverty. Then joined the army and moved to Oklahoma where he became a county commissioner. Then went on to be the first recipient of the FBI's Louis Peterson award for fighting government crime against citizens. Not bad for a lowly sharecroppers.
I must admit I haven't checked these comments in quite some time! Thanks for watching guys, first saw this as part of a thesis i wrote on sharecropping unions, uploaded it around the time i handed it in. Fascinating vid.
I am reading "Mean Things Happening in the Land", a memoir of Harry Leland Mitchell, one of the founders of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union mentioned in the newsreel. He provided a transcript of this film and I was thrilled I was able to see it. For those interested in learning more about the first integrated union in the south, I strongly recommend the book. Mitchell was indeed a socialist as neither if the major parties had the moral and political courage to stand up for the rights of poor whit sharecroppers. Thank You
My Great Uncle was Boss Dulaney. One of the planters who participated and led those horrifying and shameful acts of violence against Williams and Blagden and more. I was so excited to learn about my family history.! So sure was I, that I would find someone in my tree of historical significance! I was stunned and sickened to find that my Grandpas brother was someone so vile.
My Grandfather was Henry Frances Smiddy Sir. He help the Lawyer Mr. O. Jones in Elaina, Arkansas freeing the 12 men that was going to be Hung from the killing of a White Man on September 29,1919 !!! I want know if you can help ??? where is he Buried ???
A former coworker insisted that there were no white sharecroppers. I suppose she thought whites have never really been poor. I brought a photo of my mother's family in clean, patched clothes. The children had white hair from malnutrition and were nearly skin and bone, as were their parents. Then I told her what had to be done to each shack when they moved in search of better fare. I love this film!
Nope..not Memphis.. started in Tyronza, Arkansas.. Family was square in the middle of it.. But, the landowners paid dear the next spring...in 37 was the last Great Mississippi River floods.. Mom said" Looked like a sea from Memphis to Crowley's Ridge.. 😮😢
Montagnard indigenous persecution,genocide by Vietnamese government today , we lost our ancestors land , have no freedom, thousands of Montagnard indigenous live in poverty Vietnamese government is blind.
Back then that might would have been alright for whites to do, but for black people it wasn't that easy to do. Our skin color kept us down.Back in those days, no matter where black people decided to settle down, we were still treated as 2nd and 3rd class citizens. But God be the Glory, we still survived . Amen Amen and Amen.
