Populism: Georgia Farmers’ Alliance and the Colored Farmers’ Alliance
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R.M. Humphrey, the General Superintendent of the national Colored Farmers' National Alliance (CFA), writes to the Americus Times-Recorder regarding a meeting that was held by E.S. Richardson in 1892, stating that the members of the Georgia State Alliance were suspended for failure to pay dues and that this meeting was not connected with the Colored Farmers' Alliance of Georgia.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
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Americus Times-Recorder reports that the national Colored Farmers' Alliance demands one dollar per hundred for cotton picking, or they will strike. The Georgia Colored Farmers' Alliance was against this strike and thus this division created tension between themselves and the national alliance.
Courtesy of the Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
To address disparities in farming, such as the broken systems of sharecropping and tenant farming, organizations like the Farmers’ Alliance formed to protect farmers and ensure that their farms were sustainable and prosperous. However, these organizations were not open to African Americans. In response, The Colored Farmers’ Alliance (CFA) was established in central Texas in 1886. Following the organization’s formation in Texas, the Georgia Colored Farmers’ Alliance was organized in 1889 starting with the first sub-alliance in Screven County. The alliance-owned stores where Black Farmers could sell their crops, purchase supplies at a lower rate, and take out loans at better open market rates. And with many members—90,000 across 240 chapters—the CFA was integral in electing African Americans to local county positions and its members to the state legislature.[1]
[1] Allen, Roger. “African-American Farmers Associations Form in Georgia.” Statesboro Herald. Statesboro Herald, September 25, 2020. https://www.statesboroherald.com/life/african-american-farmers-associations-form-georgia/.