What was the Sharecroppers Strike of 1939 all about?
On the night of January 9, 1939, an exodus of black and white sharecroppers moved across southeast Missouri to camp along highways 60 and 61 south of Sikeston, Missouri. By midnight the “croppers,” as they came to be known, had camps south of Sikeston where 60 and 61 cross, and soon there were others near Wyatt, Cairo (Ill), Charleston, Hayti, Morley, Lilbourn, Caruthersville and New Madrid. Their numbers have been estimated at somewhere in the vicinity of two-thousand. They were making a demonstration and taking a stand, and they were risking much by doing so. Their actions, which preceded the modern civil rights movement by nearly three decades, is one of the most significant stories of social unrest in the history of the state. As part of the New Deal program of the 1930’s American farmers were granted subsidies to cut farm production. The subsidy checks went to the landowners who were supposed to share a portion of the payment with their sharecroppers, people who performed the farm
