Yes. I thought that the growing edge had to be in the South. There were
plenty of people like Walter Reuther and Phil Murray and Sidney Hillman
that were doing the job in the East and the Midwest, but very few
Page 10 people were involved in the South. The next big
thing in my life was just before the end of the war. In 1939, if you
remember, there was a group of sharecroppers thrown off the land in the
middle of winter in southeast Missouri. They were thrown off on the
highway, and instead of just meekly putting up with their fate, they put
up tents, for black and white. Mrs. Roosevelt heard about their plight
and as a result through the Farm Security Administration led by Dr. Will
Alexander, ten farm labor communities were built in southeast, or
popularly called "swampeast" Missouri. In the spring of 1945 these
migrant homes came up for sale because FSA Administrator Frank Hancock,
an ex-congressman from North Carolina, Oxford, under congressional
pressure and landlord pressure decided to take such action. Fortunately
Pete Hudgins was the deputy Administrator, a good Alabama southerner, a
marvelous person really who ran the show in the FSA. Soon I learned that
these houses which represented the family residence of almost 500, or
rather 600, were up for sale to the highest bidder. And so some of us
got together and organized the resident families. Mitchell and Bell
Johnson, the STFU organizer in southeast Missouri worked with me. It
took from March 'til December to win the fight. Bishop William Scarlett
of the Episcopal Church was involved. So were H.L. Mitchell, Jim Patton,
the President of the Farmers Union. Gardner Jackson was one of the
lobbyists for them. During the campaign I got acquainted with Franz
Daniel and Myles Horton, Marshall Field, Mrs. Emmons Blaine McCormick of
Chicago. We raised $82,000 from outside contributions and formed a
corporation. For the next year and a half I lived at one of the housing
communities at East Prairie, Missouri and travelled to the eight other
communities. The FSA finally sold the nine housing communities to the
newly formed Delmo Housing Corporation for $280,000.
Page 11 Each family paid $100 as a downpayment and agreed to pay a monthly
rent of $10 over an eight year period. Actually the payments were all
completed in only six years.