In Montgomery County, Alabama, the cotton bolls hung heavy on the plants. If they were not picked in a hurry, September rains would ruin the crop. In New Jersey an appeal for volunteers to unload freight had brought 2,000 volunteers in 48 hours (TIME, Sept. 6). Now the Alabama planters staged their own campaign, for a modest 400 men, women & children cotton pickers.
Five times a day radio stations called for volunteers. Newspapers, Negro ministers and schoolteachers, white sheriffs and policemen blanketed the county with appeals. The wage offered was $1 for each 100 lb. picked, as high a...
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