Tension between the Southern Tenant Farmers Union and farm management
East addresses the nature of opposition to the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in rural Arkansas. East describes how the planters and farm managers "had a way in the country" and how they used their public clout to have one union advocate arrested for his declaration that the union had enough power of numbers to target the managers. His comments are revealing of the nature of tensions between the union and farm management during the mid-1930s.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Clay East, September 22, 1973. Interview E-0003. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- SUE THRASHER:
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What happened in Marked Tree, then?
- CLAY EAST:
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I wasn't there.
- SUE THRASHER:
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Well, do you remember what happened?
- CLAY EAST:
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Yes, I know. They had a talk…now, Ward, naturally, was
considered an outsider and he was of course, a strong socialist, and I
guess he, I don't know what his ideas were and so forth, but
I know that he got up at that meeting and…he was a
rabble-rouser. He liked to stir up trouble, it seemed to me and I just
didn't go along for that stuff. I, at the time, I felt like
that thing could be worked out peacefully, but that was before they
started shooting up the meetings and so forth. However, I realized from
the very beginning that we was going to have a lot of trouble with these
rough guys…element. These managers for these farms and they
had a way in that country, just like old man Sloan, he's a
big politican, so he can go over there and tell Harve Landers,
"I want a deputy card for so-and-so", and that was all
they was to it…"Why sure, Mr. Sloan, here you
are." And they'd go in and
make it out and hand it to him. That's all they had to do,
just go in there and ask for it.
- SUE THRASHER:
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Now, why was Rogers arrested?
- CLAY EAST:
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He got up and made this statement that he could get a group of these
union members here and go out and hang a bunch of these planters right
now. Got up and made that statement at a meeting up there and a bunch of
these folks…and the prosecuting attorney Stafford, was there
and he was one of the worst in the country, and had a secretary there,
taking all this down and Ward get up and make a statement like that.
That was stupid.
- SUE THRASHER:
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He made this statement at a meeting of the union?
- CLAY EAST:
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It wasn't at the union, it was out on the street as I remember
it. They had a square out in the center of town, and that's
where I understand where it was.
- SUE THRASHER:
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Was it some kind of rally or meeting?
- CLAY EAST:
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Well, more or less. They didn't have any trouble getting
there. Any time at night, they'd just say there was a speaker
there and well, they'd tell one or two union members and
they'd get word around to the rest of them before
you'dknow it.