Historical analysis reveals how labor organizing spanned employment and unemployment among rural laborers, highlighting structural barriers to organizing displaced agricultural workers.
Key Points
To examine how the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union mobilized agricultural laborers and unemployed sharecroppers while broadening labor claims to include food, housing, and public aid.
Archival analysis of Mississippi Freedom Labor Union documents, movement correspondence, and official government records from 1965 to 1966.
Qualitative evaluation of oral histories and community-level actions, including the Strike City encampment and public assistance campaigns.
Demonstrated that organizing across boundaries of employment and joblessness linked traditional wage demands directly to struggles for housing, food security, and public employment.
Identified that rapid agricultural mechanization, employer retaliation, internal divisions, and legal exclusion from federal collective bargaining frameworks curtailed the union's long-term sustainability.