With the bravery of youth two young Socialists, Harry Leland Mitchell and Clay East from eastern Arkansas, set out in 1934 to do something for Southern sharecroppers. What they did, with the help of No. 1 Socialist Norman Thomas, was to organize the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Having bearded many a planter and even bettered matters a little for its poverty-stricken membership, S. T. F. U. in 1937 tried to affiliate with C. I. O. as an autonomous union. Because the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing & Allied Workers of America was already in the farm field, S. T. F. U. was...
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