The Southern Tenant Farmer’s Union was nearly unique in the Jim Crow south in its insistence on an interracial structure and its empowerment of women as organizers. As the Encyclopedia of Arkansas notes, “Many opponents of STFU considered it to be a communist plot.”

Launched with a cotton-picking strike in 1935, STFU leaders included Odis L. Sweeden and W. N. McGoon. The group was closely allied with the Farmers’ Union (FU), and counted Eleanor Roosevelt among its supporters.

STFU: It’s true.

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