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10 Things You Need to Know About Black Populism

10 Things You Need to Know About Black Populism

Many people are learning more and becoming interested in Black Populism, even though it was a movement of nearly 120 years ago, born in the South following the breakdown of Reconstruction. Black populism became the largest independent Black political movement until the rise of the modern civil rights movement.

Here are 10 facts you should know about Black Populism.

  1. The Start Of A Movement

Black Populism began when African-American farmers, sharecroppers, and agrarian workers across the South created a movement of their own, according to “In The Lion’s Mouth: Black Populism in the New South, 1886-1900” by Omar H. Ali.

2. Power In Numbers

Following the Civil War 1861-1865, the majority of the Black population (90 percent) were engaged in agricultural labor, according to American Historama. Yet they were not reaping any rewards for their hard labor. They began to organize. ”Between 1886 and 1898 Black farmers, sharecroppers, and agrarian laborers organized their communities to combat the rising tide of Jim Crow laws. Black Populism asserted itself and grew into a regional force,” according to Wikipedia.

3.  Groups Joined Together

“The history of Black Populism began when African-American farmers formed the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Cooperative Union in 1886. Other farming organizations also emerged such as the Cooperative Workers of America and the Colored Agricultural Wheels. The Colored Farmers Alliance, whilst being segregated from the white Southern and Northern Farming Alliances, was however integrated in the farmer-led pressure groups which came to be known as the Populist movement,” according to Wikipedia.

4. Backlash Was Strong

Black populism fought against the infamous Jim Crow laws, statutes enacted by Southern states in the 1880s that legalized segregation. And, “Black Populism was fiercely resisted by the white plantations owners and other wealthy farmers who, through the political power of the Democratic Party, maintained tight control in the South,” American Historama reported.

5. The Movement Had Goals

Among the goals of Black Populism was: Establishing farming exchanges; raising money for schools; publishing newspapers; lobbying for better legislation; mounting boycotts against agricultural trusts; carrying out strikes for better wages; protesting the convict-lease system and lynching; demanding Black jurors in cases involving black defendants; promoting local political reforms and federal supervision of elections; running independent and fusion campaigns.

6. It was major

“Black populism stood as the largest independent political uprising in the South until the modern Civil Rights movement,” according to Wikipedia.

7. Members Took Action

“The Colored Alliance called a general strike of Black cotton pickers in 1891 to demand a wage increase from 50 cents to $1 per hundred pounds of cotton but lacked the resources to gain wide support. The Cotton Pickers Strike of 1891 was crushed by mobs of white vigilantes and posses that resulted in the death of 15 strikers, including several who were lynched. Other strikers were thrown into jail. The violent response to the strike action prevented similar future protests,” American Historama reported.

8. They Used The Media To Get Their Message Out

In 1889, the Colored Farmers Alliance began publishing its own weekly newspaper called the National Alliance. This attracted more members.

9. The Movement Was Taken Down

“In 1896 the Populist Party made a decision to combine with the Democratic Party and the presidential candidacy of William Jennings Bryan. Important members of the Colored Farmers Alliance vigorously objected to this action but their views were overridden. The Populist Party lost its political independence and Black Populism was destroyed,” America Historama reported.

10. Legacy Lives

By the turn of the century, Black Populism was crushed by relentless attack, hostile propaganda, and targeted assassinations of leaders and foot soldiers of the movement. The movement’s legacy remains, though, as the largest independent black political movement until the rise of the modern civil rights movement,” according to In The Lion’s Mouth.

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(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

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