James D. Ross Jr. offers a new perspective on the origins, activism, and demise of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) in this book. Seeking to move beyond romanticized accounts of the union as an inspiring example of interracial organizing that was mostly instigated by the tenant farmers themselves, Ross provides evidence that local and national members of the Socialist Party of America played a more influential role in forming the union than earlier scholarship suggested. Moreover, he argues, internal racial and ideological conflicts contributed to the union’s ultimate demise, along with external factors such as violent repression and the displacement of farmers from the land in the wake of agricultural mechanization. Drawing on previously unexamined documents from the papers of individual activists and the STFU archives, including the letters that rank-and-file members wrote to union leaders, Ross makes a case for recognizing the variety of actors and political philosophies...
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