3 Feature Article “The Forgotten Rebellion” by Dale Ingram
8 Feature Article “A Retrospective Look at the Oklahoma ‘Book Trials’ from the TwentyFirst Cen tury” by Wilma Lewis Jaffe
14 Lest We Forget “Oklahoma Story” by Wilma Lewis Jaffe, January 1943
18 The Farm Report “A West Tulsa Legend” by Lisa Merrell
20 The War Desk “GI Coffeehouses: Getting Down to the Grassroots” by James M. Branum
28 Labor Conquers All “Labor Interests and Legisla tion” by Rachel C. Jackson
30 Cultural Front “My Two Favorite Okie Po ets” by Davis D. Joyce
Note from the Editor
Issue #3
February 20, 2011 Dear Readers, Finally our third issue is out, and it’s been a long time coming. Our editorial staff was heavily involved with last year’s inaugural Oklahoma Laborfest. Though the event was a beautiful success that publicly celebrated Oklahoma’s workingclass culture and labor history, it took a tremendous amount of time away from the Reve lator project. We apologize for the delay and we hope the extra content in this issue will make up for lost time. In this issue we have a double feature; two brilliant articles that are sure to amaze and inspire share the Feature Article column. The first, “The Forgotten Rebellion” by Dale Ingram, unearths not only a forgotten moment of regional resistance but also skillfully unpacks Will Rogers’ involvement in local fundraising for starving tenant farmers in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. We are also honored to publish Wilma Jaffe’s “A Retrospective Look at the Okla homa ‘Book Trials’ from the TwentyFirst Century.” Wilma was an eye witness of the police raid of the Progressive Bookstore in Oklahoma City in 1940. As a sixteen yearold girl, she watched as her father, mother, and brother, along with many oth ers, were arrested for patronizing a bookstore owned by the Communist Party of the United States of America. In her article she tells her story and presents a well reasoned argument for taking the Criminal Syndicalism laws off the books in Okla homa. Wilma believes any law that suppresses dissent in a democracy is dangerous for us all. As a special treat, our Lest We Forget column is a republication of an essay Wilma wrote in January 1943 to rouse local and national support for her husband Eli Jaffe as he and the three other defendants in the Book Trials faced the decision
Also in this issue. . . Photos from Oklahoma Labor Fest—Page 36 Oklahoma Lunar Almanac—Page 29
2 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3
The Oklahoma Revelator is published from time to time in Norman, Oklahoma, by Red Flag Press. We pride ourselves in being a newspaper by Okies and for Okies.
Our Staff EditoratLarge Rachel Jackson Editorial Assistant James M. Branum The Oklahoma Revelator is © 20082011 Red Flag Press. All contributions are copyrighted by the in dividual writers with rights to publish granted to Red Flag Press. The Oklahoma Revelator c/o Rachel Jackson P.O. Box 49 Norman, OK 73070
of the Oklahoma Court of Appeals. The two make a beautiful pair, and serve as a testament Wilma’s lifelong commitment to justice.” In between we have the Farm Report by Lisa Merrell who chronicles her experience inheriting her father’s homegrown and wildly successful heirloom tomato plant business in West Tulsa. It’s a beautiful and honest tribute to her father and to sustaining the family farm tradition in our state. James Branum, in the From the War Desk column, discusses lessons in organizing that can be learned from the G.I. resistance movement. The Labor Conquers All column (by yours truly) raises awareness of the need for working people to be on guard as the newlyelected public officials begin their terms of office and the legislative session starts. In the Cultural Front, column Oklahoma Historian Davis Joyce introduces two Okie poets who have inspired his heart and lightened his load through the years. We hope you enjoy this issue as we’re pretty proud of it ourselves. We wish you strength, satisfaction, and com fort throughout 2011. Thank you for your work and your support! Sincerely,
www.oklahomarevelator.com
Our cover photo for this issue is “Sapulpa Bale Out” by Rachel C. Jackson
Tell your friends to check us out. . . www.oklahomarevelator.com
WORK FOR THE REVELATOR We know we’ve not assembled a complete compilation of view points, and we’re looking for Oklahoma writers who are willing to contribute to filling in our gaps. If you have an idea for a col umn or a feature, or you’re interested in writing for us or helping us in any capacity, please send an email to okrevela tor@gmail.com, or drop us a line at P.O. Box 49, Norman, OK, 73070.
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 3 Feature Article:
The Forgotten Rebellion By Dale Ingram Originally published in the Arkansas Times, January 19, 2006. Reprinted with permission from the Times and the author.
Introduction Today, England, Arkansas, seems to be the most normal small farm town in the South. Its hopes and heartaches are in the cotton fields, the football field, and one more verse of an altar call at one of its abundance of Baptist churches. Every weekday, the highway lanes going out of town are busier than those coming in. Most drivers return at sunset, after an eighthour shift in Stuttgart, Pine Bluff or Little Rock. Others drive away and never return, leaving a population of 3,362, or 2,972, depending on which Welcome to England sign greets you. It is big enough for a miniKroger and Sonic DriveIn, too small for a WalMart or Olive Garden. God is on their side, but prayers for rain have not been answered, and the cost of fuel to run the tractors is near an alltime high. It’s the gray days between harvesting and planting, giving folks in the coffee shops, post office and feed stores time to wonder who will be the next farmer to surrender. It is Jan. 3, 2006, and there is no hint that 75 years ago to the day the course of American history was changed by farm ers who converged on England, demanding food for their starving families. “Our children are crying for food, and we are going to get it.” Some oldtimers claim the socalled “England food riot” never happened. Others say it damned sure did. But most in England — or Arkansas or the nation — have never heard of it. But for those who read the newspapers across America in the days after Jan. 3, 1931, it was hard to miss the drama. “500 Farmers Storm Arkansas Town Demanding Food for Their Children,” read the front page of the New York Times. “Disease and Hunger Stalk England, Ark. School Children in Rags; Help Needed at Once,” reported the Chicago Daily Tribune. “Our children are crying for food, and we are going to get it,” was a quote attributed to the rioting farmers. “We’re not beggars! We will work for any amount if we can get it. We’re not going to let
Daughter of Day Laborers, MacIntosh County, OK, June 1939. Taken by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration of the WPA. Retrieved from the Library of Congress .
our families starve!” Stories described how tenant farm ers around England had run out of options. The land was parched, their livestock frail, the local bank had closed, the lard and flour buckets were empty. “People strag gled along the county roads begging for food” from homes and churches, a 91yearold lifetime Englandarea resident recently recalled. “There was no welfare, no So cial Security, no nothing back then.” The hard conditions were not unique to England; they were pervasive throughout the South. But on January 3, Lonoke County tenant farmer H.C. Coney was inspired by a distressed visitor to his house. As he described it (dialect and all) in The New Republic magazine: “We all got pretty low on food out there, and some was a starvin’. Mebbe I was a little better fixed than most, ’cause we still had some food left. But when a woman comes over to me acryin’ and tells me her kids haint’ et
4 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 nothing for two days, and grabs me and says, Coney what are we agoin’ to do? then somethin’ went up in my head.” Coney said he got his truck, picked up some neighbors and drove into England where a crowd of hungry men became a mob. The American Red Cross received the brunt of the anger. The agency was responsible for hand ing out food vouchers for the needy, but the England of fice had exhausted its supply. Coney said he was upset at the Red Cross for trying to shoulder the whole burden of relief efforts while lobbying against federal aid. A few farmers were armed, the news said, but there was no vio lence. The protestors were mollified when the Red Cross got permission from a regional office to issue more vouchers, and when local merchants voluntarily distrib uted food without payment. Farmers dispersed and took food home, while one witness — a parttime stringer for the Associated Press newswire — dialed his editors. “The England food riot stands out as a cancerous ab scess.” Were there 50 or 500 farmers? Were they lazy or previ ously prosperous? Did the Red Cross and merchants re spond because of threats or generosity? Was it spontane ous or well organized — maybe even Communists were involved, as one Ohio congressman claimed? The pri mary dispute is whether the events of Jan. 3 could genu inely be portrayed as a “riot” or “rebellion.” “The farmers meant business, and I’m sure there was a lot of tension, but I’m sure it was sensationalized” in the national media, said Jerry Jackson, longtime editor of the weekly England Democrat. But 75 years ago, precise details of the England riot became insignificant. After the news, “Droughtstricken Arkansas became a metaphor for anxieties spawned by the Depression,” wrote historian Ben Johnson in Arkansas in Modern America, 1930 1999. The fingerpointing, the debates in Congress, and media spinning began. Emboldened by the headlines, Democ ratic U.S. Sen. Joe T. Robinson, born in Lonoke County and the first Arkansan to reach national political promi nence, moved to earmark federal dollars for loans — “not handouts” — for drought relief and questioned the “intelligence” of those who thought the wellmeaning Red Cross programs were adequate. Ignorance of the enormity of the problem was the issue, the senator said, claiming the riot in England was not the first event of its kind in Arkansas and that others had been “suppressed.”
The refrain by Robinson and others: How could the U.S. government in good conscience find a way to feed plow mules from surplus grains while watching its people starve? For President Herbert Hoover, the idea of budg eting federal funds to fight poverty and feed the hungry was not new, but it was risky, and could erode the incen tive for citizens to work. Only in natural disasters (such as the Great Flood of 1927 that engulfed about onefifth of Arkansas) had Washington responded with dollars. This crisis could be overcome, ultimately through self reliance plus relief from local communities, churches and charities. Arkansas Gov. Harvey Parnell, a Democrat, joined the Red Cross in attempting to minimize the “situation” and reassure all that conditions were not critical. Parnell re fused a request from the mayor of England to put the Na tional Guard on standby. “The people of Arkansas and the American Red Cross are taking care of the situation in a satisfactory manner …” Parnell wrote the media. “Conditions, although not so good because of the drought adversities, are not alarming and indications are that a normal condition is being resumed.” News reporters quickly came to Arkansas tenant farms and cabins, reporting harrowing details and statistics. They introduced the world to the faces and names of the starving. And they looked for someone to blame. “The England food riot stands out as a cancerous abscess upon our distribution in this land of enormous surpluses,” wrote the Newark (N.J.) Journal. “They [England farm ers] live in a country whose president, it has been said, has a heart that beats in sympathy with suffering human ity; but whose heart is, in fact, as cold, selfish and un sympathetic as the heart of a watermoccasin.” One letter to the editor in a Chicago paper stated, “While our well fed senators debate upon various subjects, hon est and industrious citizens beg for a little food to ward off starvation. The governor of Arkansas should resign at once and permit someone to assume the office who could meet an emergency.” In California, a 51yearold man read the news from Eng land, then sat down at his typewriter. “Paul Revere woke up Concord. These birds woke up America.” It was no surprise Will Rogers noticed the stories from Arkansas. As the world’s first multimedia star, Rogers
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 5
Day Laborer, Carter County, OK, June 1937. Taken by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration of the WPA. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.
relied on current events as the source of his awshucks satire in newspapers, radio, stage and screen. For Rogers, it was like reading hometown news. In 1864, his father and fatherinlaw fought for the South in the Battle of Pea Ridge. In 1879, he was born to a ranching family in the Cherokee Nation west of the Arkansas border. And in 1908, he was married in Benton County to Betty Blake of Rogers. Millions of readers of Rogers’ syndicated column were accustomed to his jabs at outoftouch politicians, but his Jan. 7 column was like the kick of a Delta plow mule: “We’ve got a powerful government, brainy men, great organizations, many commissions, but it took a little band of 500 simple country people (who had no idea they were doing anything historical) to come to a country town store and demand food for their wives and children. They hit the hearts of the American people, more than all your Senatorial pleas, and government investigations. Paul Revere woke up Concord. These birds woke up Amer ica.” And he wrote, “… you let this country get hungry and they are going to eat, no matter what happens to budgets, income taxes or Wall Street values. Washington mustn’t forget who rules when it comes to a showdown.” But to Rogers, the Arkansas crisis inspired more than a daily column. On Jan. 16, Rogers visited Hoover in Washington, D.C., to appeal for federal relief for drought
victims. His idea was dismissed. The following week, Rogers went to see the Arkansas drought first hand, visit ing England, Pine Bluff and the region, accompanied by local media and Red Cross officials. When Rogers toured the rural Central High School north west of England, someone pulled aside a 9yearold bare foot boy in overalls for a picture with the Hollywood star. The boy, Herschel Archer, still lives in England, where he was born in 1921. Archer said he saw the photo pub lished in the Arkansas Gazette and years later in a Will Rogers biography. “It [the Rogers visit] was real important to the commu nity here,” Archer said. “He was really a downtoearth sort of person.” In his column, Rogers wrote: “Just come from England, Ark., the town you read about, where the people wanted food. It seemed might peaceful and happy now. Went to the school there, where the chil dren were being fed at lunch time, all they wanted of fine vegetable soup, cooked in a big vat that had been a whisky still and presented to the cause by a patriotic moonshiner.” Archer said he indeed ate soup cooked in a converted moonshine vat, and while he never went hungry, poverty surrounded him. “[Classmates] thought I was rich be cause I had a nickel or so,” he said. From Little Rock on Jan. 22, Rogers announced on na tional radio that he was organizing an ambitious tour — hopscotching on a plane across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas to perform 50 shows in 18 days — to raise money for the Red Cross drought relief program. For cities and small towns hosting the “relief tour,” it was uplifting and momentous. Since Rogers debuted in “all talking” movies in 1929, his popularity had soared. In 1934, the year before he died, he was the number one box office star, edging out Shirley Temple and Clark Gable. Folk singer Woody Guthrie contended “the second most famous man who ever lived on the face of the earth was Will Rogers.” Jesus Christ was first. The Arkansas Democrat, which dubbed the humorist a “drought relief crusader,” reported $38,191 was donated by Arkansans during 19 performances that started in Rogers on Feb. 9 and ended in Texarkana on Feb. 12. The Stuttgart stop was typical. A crowd greeted a late arriving Rogers and his entourage at an airport. They were escorted by local dignitaries to an overcrowded theater where Rogers was the headline performer. In Little Rock, Rogers gave two performances. The Democ
6 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 rat reported, “The wit kept the audiences in an uproar of laughter with his wisecracks which have made him fa mous throughout the civilized world.” The humorist told a crowd in Helena that Arkansas did not owe him any thanks for his relief tour, that the state had paid him when he married Betty Blake. “The tour, in conjunction with Will Rogers’ assorted national radio pleas, ultimately saw $3 million raised for the American Red Cross. Those donations checked the growth of an already catastrophic situation. For example, the agency fed 150,000 people per week in Arkansas in January 1931. By the end of February, that number had increased to 500,000 a day,” one historian wrote. “The more I get into examining [the food riot], the more I believe it had an impact on Will Rogers, and through him, I believe it touched many, many people,” said Ste ven Gragert, curator of the Will Rogers Memorial Mu seum in Claremore, Okla. In October 1931, Rogers had not given up on promoting more federal relief, and he found a chance on yet another national radio broadcast, where he had been invited by Hoover to join him in lift ing spirits and convincing local citizens to support local relief efforts. Rogers encouraged local action, but he “got off mes sage.” He insisted government should do much more to assist the 7 million jobless and “arrange some way of get ting a more equal distribution of wealth in the country.” Rogers said “the most unemployed and hungriest citizen had contributed to the wealth of every millionaire,” so they deserved more help in desperate times. “It wasn’t the working class that brought this condition on at all. It was the big boys themselves who thought that this financial drunk we were going through was going to last forever. They overmerged and overcapitalized, and overeverything else. That’s the fix that we’re in now.” The next year, Will Rogers was at the convention hall when Franklin Roosevelt received the first of his four Democratic nominations for president. “It is not impossible that Herbert Hoover’s career in the White House turned on the accidental inspiration of a tenant farmer in Arkansas.” If organizers of the England food riot tipped the political scales against Hoover, as an American Heritage maga zine article suggested in 1972, it does not take much of a leap to declare the town the birthplace of the New Deal and the layers of government relief programs that have been introduced since.
Do not expect anyone to erect such a sign. The event isn’t in the history lessons in England schools because, they said, it is not part of the curriculum “framework” offered by the Arkansas Department of Education. There are no plaques where H.C. Coney stood, no monument where Will Rogers performed. England Democrat editor Jackson, whose paper did not recognize the anniversary, said there is no intentional oversight; it’s simply that a younger generation has a de clining interest in history. It may be more curious why Arkansas, which embraces the death of a teenage Confederate spy, a hanging judge, a Flood of ’27, a Crisis of ’57, and Shootout of ’69, has not found a greater place in its lore for the England food riot. Oklahoma has spent a halfcentury distancing itself from the Joads. Possibly Arkansas is not eager to be symbol ized by its own truckload of bedraggled farmers. Yet, there are echoes in England of that day 75 years ago. More than 500 children in the England school system receive free or discounted lunches. In a town where 18 percent of residents live below the poverty level, Kroger each day serves multiple shoppers who use food stamps or other federal programs at the checkout registers. Each weekday, the Lonoke County Council on Aging feeds about 28 at a senior citizens center, and delivers 26 meals to the homebound in the area. Every four months or so, they also deliver commodities to those who qualify. Center director Emma Bridgman has guided the England senior citizens programs for 25 years. “Our goal is one third of the daily guidelines of vegetables, protein, bread and dessert,” she said. “We’re constantly fighting budget cuts. We just have to have more fundraisers, like raffles on quilts.” From the Cooperative Extension to student loans, from Social Security to childsupport payments and work assistance programs, for better or worse, the economic fabric of England is stitched with federal dollars. And those who debate the folly or necessity of so many fed eral programs seem as busy as ever. In the chambers of the U.S. House, Rep. Marion Berry, a Democrat whose father was from England, made head
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 7 would not be born from the events of January 1931, but rather from an even more obscure event seven months later. By then, many England farmers were prospering again. Ample rain had fallen, and crops were bountiful. At the same time, England farmers noticed news of a “hunger march” in Henryetta, Okla. The stories said 500 paraded on the streets, carried an American flag, prayed for God’s guidance, and begged for food. On Aug. 15, millions of Americans read yet another newspaper column about England farmers: “Say, you talk about a people and a place being apprecia tive of what was done for them when they was in trouble. Remember England, Ark., they had all the trouble during the drought last fall? Well, there is the coalmining sec tion of Oklahoma (same as the coal mines everywhere) they were mighty hard up. Well, this England, Ark., just loaded up thirteen heaping truckloads of food and sent them to Henryetta, Okla. Now that’s remembering ain’t it? England is in a mighty fertile country and this year they really raised something. Course they can’t get noth ing for it, but ain’t it nice they help others out with it?” Signed, Will Rogers. Editor’s PostScript: Congressman Marion Berry did not run for reelection in 2010. He was succeeded by Republi can Rick Crawford this January.
Day Laborer, Wagoner County, OK, June 1939. Taken by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration of the WPA. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.
lines in the current session of Congress after Republicans proposed a budget that would cut more than 250,000 peo ple from food stamp rolls, reduce student loan programs, and scale back other benefits. Republicans argued poor Americans would benefit from the legislation because it would reduce the budget and eliminate waste. “What could be mean about demanding that services to people who need them the most are ad ministered effectively, wisely, and efficiently?” one GOP congressman said. “Do we not have a special obligation to root out those dollars that have been directed to the people who need them the most but are not finding their way there because of inefficiencies in government?” Berry, whose district includes Lonoke County and Eng land, thought cuts should come from elsewhere. “I’m absolutely amazed at the [Republican] boys over there. I wonder what you are going to do when you grow up,” he said. He said Republicans’ comments demon strated an “unparalleled display of ignorance, stupidity and just downhard foolishness.” “I cannot believe that you have the audacity to come to this floor with this assault on women and children and try to portray it, as this Howdy Doodylooking nimrod said, that he wanted to talk about family values.” Berry’s comments were declared improper “discourse” by some. They were noted in humorist Dave Barry’s 2005 yearinreview of wacky events. The Arkansas con gressman said he does not regret his words (“Probably I should”), but he hoped they contributed to House passage of a budget that included less severe cuts to social pro grams than originally proposed. “I don’t have any problem cutting spending, but we can go through that federal budget and save $40 billion or $50 billion and not hurt anybody,” Berry said. “I thought it was interesting that the only targets [of the GOP proposal] had to do with single parents, lowincome people, foster care, child support enforcement, and changes in welfaretowork. “I wish we could get as much focus on what I think are misappropriations of funds for people like Halliburton as much as someone who might misuse $40 worth of food stamps.” “England is in a mighty fertile country and this year they really raised something.” Maybe it is more appropriate that the legacy of England
8 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 Feature Article:
A Retrospective Look at the Oklahoma “Bo By Wilma Lewis Jaffe It was a Saturday morning in August of 1940 and a farm family was scurrying to complete their chores of milking the cows and feeding the chickens before making their weekly trip into Oklahoma City on various errands which often included a stop at the Progressive Book Store on Grand Avenue. The father, C.A. Lewis, had been a dedicated union mem ber in the carpenter’s union and a leading socialist in Oklahoma and Kansas at a time during the early 1900s when there was a close relationship between the socialist movement and unions, so he visited the Progressive Bookstore when he could to pick up reading material that gave him a different perspective on workingclass issues than that provided by the mainstream press. As the family of father, mother, seventeen year old son, and sixteen year old daughter approached the entrance of the bookstore (129 ½ Grand Ave.), they were grabbed by plainclothesmen and shoved into a police car. That is, all were shoved into the car except for the girl, who was left alone on the streets of downtown Oklahoma City with three dollar bills which her father had quickly stuffed into her hand. The plainclothes officers, after much discussion of their estimate of her age, decided they couldn’t arrest a minor. I was that girl. Fortunately, growing up as I had with no source of family income except what we could produce on a small, bone dry plot of red clay during the double jeopardy years of the depression and the dust bowl had taught me some survival skills. I had seen my mother who had begun life in a sod dugout in western Oklahoma just simply tackle, against all odds, whatever had to be done. From my father I had acquired a good understanding of the power structure’s repression of workingclass activ ism and political dissent. I understood immediately that what was happening was political, and I began coping as best I could. Little did I know then that it would be over two months before my parents were released. After sheer survival, my second priority was to get word out about the arrests because I surmised the case was
"Oklahoma Matron Saint," Wilma Lewis Jaffe, Oakland, CA, January 2008
much larger than the arrest of the Lewis family. I became what is now known as a “whistleblower,” which was a good thing because the approximately twenty people who were caught up in this dragnet were booked in the Okla homa County Jail under false names to preserve secrecy as long as possible. Arrests had taken place simultane ously at a number of locations and had caught up random victims who had no knowledge of, or connection to, the Progressive Book Store. One example was a man who was visiting his brotherinlaw. He found himself in jail, and his wife and baby were stranded in a strange city. After a crazy season with the police blotter showing rea sons for arrest including, among others, “entering a build ing and (he) looked like a Communist” and after the sub sequent release of some of those accidentally caught in the dragnet, there was a need for a charge that could actu ally lead to trial and conviction. The Oklahoma Criminal Syndicalism Law, passed by the state legislature in 1919, provided the basis for prosecutions and conviction of four people. They were each sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary and a fine of $5,000. What were the trials like? To begin with these convic
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 9
ook Trials” from the Twenty-First Century tions were based on the premise that the defendants were in violation of the law merely by their possession of cer tain books in their homes or, worse yet, because of books which existed in the public place, the Progressive Book store, a place which they had entered. Luther Harrison, an editorial writer for the Daily Oklaho man explained in an article of August 21, 1940, that as a state legislator in 1919 he authored the Criminal Syndi calism Law. His article ran under the headline “To Pre vent Violence,” yet there was no argument presented dur ing any of the four trials that any of the defendants had advocated, much less caused, violence, or that they had even read or subscribed to the views expressed in any of the books presented as evidence in the trials. This was the beginning of a slippery slope that only went downhill, as usually happens when government tries to "Love Always Wins," Eli and Wilma Jaffe's 50th Anniversary Souvenir
curtail freedom of the press, a right guaranteed by the Constitution and a right essential to a democracy. I attended Eli Jaffe’s trial in its entirety because I had, by that time, developed a romantic interest in this charis matic, caring man with his deep concern for those in need and his willingness to fight for justice against great odds, surprisingly often successfully. As my attraction to him deepened over time, I married him. The courtroom floor during his trial was stacked with boxes and boxes of books. The books were indeed on trial, and this case was earning its popular name, “the Oklahoma Book Trials.” John Eberle, the Assistant District Attorney, only pre sented three arguments. He started with the issue of Eli Jaffe having no middle name, implying, underscoring, and driving home again and again that this proved his name was an alias. I, as Eli’s widow, possess his birth certificate. His parents really didn’t give him a middle name. After that was drummed into the jury, the next ar guments by Eberle consisted of his waving some pictures, implying that the occasion pictured was a social one. Then finally the books. Eberle read short excerpts out of context from book after book in a pretext of random se lection. Although the defense was prepared to present an expert witness to testify that each and every book taken from the bookstore was to be found in some library or libraries somewhere in the U.S., the defense motion was denied. End of trial. Conviction to ten years in the peni tentiary and a $5,000 fine. There were three other trials along pretty much the same lines and with the same out come. It is true that the Progressive Bookstore was operated by Robert Wood, the Communist Party organizer in Okla homa. It is also true that the Communist Party was a legal political party and that people visited the Bookstore for many reasons: some, like my father, looking for reading material with a workingclass point–ofview, unem ployed workers, dispossessed farmers, or others looking for answers during hard times, or even those who were simply curious. How broadly was the Criminal Syndicalism Law going to be interpreted? To define all of the people who entered that space under any circumstance whatsoever as crimi nals? The Prosecution was claiming very broadly.
10 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 Fortunately, nationally, a growing number of people saw this case as a political frameup and even early on there were a few brave souls in Oklahoma who spoke out, among them a minister of a large, conservative church (Reverand Nicholas Comfort) and the editor of a newspa per in the black community (Roscoe Dungee). The public outcry continued to build over the two and a half years between the arrests in 1940 and the reversal of the con victions by the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals in 1943. Eli Jaffe wrote in his memoir Oklahoma Odyssey of the reversal of the convictions some two and a half years after the arrests. “Was it Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union on June 21st, 1941 that helped me trade ten years in the State Penitentiary and a fine of $5,000 for a hitch in the Signal Corp in World War II? Or were the justices influenced by the continuous waves of protest that flooded Oklahoma from unions all over the nation, from individual citizens, known and not so well known, from the lead editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and cartoon by Fitzpatrick showing the torch of liberty blacked out by the Oklahoma criminal syndicalism prosecutions and editorials in Tulsa Tribune and other publications? “Or was it the innate integrity of men dedicated to justice under the law? “Whatever the reasons, the reality was that on February 17th 1943, two years and nine months after I had been arrested, the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals re versed our convictions. Dick Jones, presiding member, wrote the 41 page decision ... In his decision, Judge Jones ... noted: It is fundamental that the questions of the guilt of any individual is personal and must be deter mined by the activities of that individual ... if this court were to sustain the conviction, it could only be because there is popular demand for it, and this in effect would mean a substitution of mob rule for courts of law.” All three of Eli’s posited reasons for the Oklahoma Court of Appeals reversal of the lower court’s decision un doubtedly had an effect. What is known is that the pro tests against the prosecution accelerated during the period from September 1941 until the final ruling by the Okla homa Court of Appeals in 1943. Publisher’s Weekly in their protest to Governor Phillips said, “It is our firm belief that such convictions allowed to stand, such charges allowed to be made, are a threat to our freedom to write, to publish, and to sell books.” An other letter to Governor Phillips signed by 279 social sci
entists from 74 universities stated that if the books seized in Oklahoma were outlawed in their states, they would have to close their classes. By the end of November 1942, one hundred presidents and secretaries of state and regional CIO and AFL coun cils formed themselves into a labor committee to monitor the Oklahoma criminal syndicalism cases. Newspaper editorials criticizing, or at least questioning the “book” trials in Oklahoma were greatly increasing all over the country. Increasingly, critics of the “book trials” became more numerous and more vocal in Oklahoma as well. The Tulsa World columnist, Lorren Williams, noted that if the trials were held again it would be in a vastly different setting, locally, nationally, and internationally. “Gone would be most of the principals and much of the back ground settings which made the trials a Roman holiday, drawing attention from coast to coast.” Another Oklahoma state voice was heard, that of Mrs. Walter Ferguson. In her column, “A Woman’s View” in the Tulsa Tribune she reported on a conversation she had with a large group of women. According to her report, none of them were communists or facists. She continued that all of them deplored the treatment meted out to the criminal syndicalism defendants and yet none of them had protested. Ferguson urged her readers to ask them selves: “How much would I do to defy the rise of vicious tyranny and injustice at home, and if I will do nothing, do I, in truth, love and serve democracy?” The Ellis County, Oklahoma county attorney said of the defendants, “If I were not prohibited by official obliga tion, I would volunteer to defend them so far as my poor ability might permit, not so much for the sake of these individuals, but for the cause of human liberty.” The increasing volume and boldness of the protests, the change in world politics and the integrity of two of the three members of the Oklahoma Court of Appeals all un doubtedly played a role in the reversal of the convictions by the Appeals Court. There was no guarantee that all these favorable elements would come together at that par ticular time. Without that convergence, the outcome could have been very different. When it was over one might expect it to be over. Not so. For each of the individuals involved on the defense side of the case, defendants and their families, lawyers, and Oklahomabased supporters, there were consequences.
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 11 Personally, I am aware of three jobs that I lost because of my relationship to the case, but I did get other jobs, and I did have a useful and satisfying work life and family life. Others of the defendants and their families had similar experiences of loss or denial of jobs, harassment, and physical threats. But the Oklahomans who spoke out in defense of the vic tims of the Criminal Syndicalism Law and the local law yers who defended them were hardest hit. Two “locals,” Gordon Freissen and his wife, “Sis” Cunningham, came forward to lead an effort to publicize the cases, particu larly in Oklahoma. Gordon Freissen wrote a pamphlet, Oklahoma Witch Hunt, which was distributed widely in Oklahoma, and “Sis” was prominent in organizing the Oklahomabased defense efforts. When the Freissens could not obtain jobs in Oklahoma because of the in volvement, they moved to New York City where Gordon, a journalist, was either denied jobs or fired in short order when his past caught up with him The two courageous native Oklahoma Lawyers, George Croom and Stanley Beldom, who served on the defense team, also paid dearly. Not being able to continue to earn a living as a lawyer in Oklahoma after representing the defendants, George Croom moved to California where he planned to take the California bar exam and practice law, but a serious heart attack and his doctor’s advice to avoid the stress of preparing for the bar exam resulted in his being relegated to being an income tax consultant, used car salesman and manager of a launderette. Stanley Belden remained in Oklahoma for a time, working in a sawmill. Later he moved to Oregon where he made an attempt to obtain a law license, but he was not permitted to take the Oregon bar exam, ostensibly because he had earned his law degree from a twoyear school in Tennes see, although he always blamed the Oklahoma officials. He became a physical therapist and never again practiced law. In a personal sense, there were no winners on the prose cution side either. At the beginning the District Attorney, Lewis Morris, had hopes of riding these cases to the gov ernor’s mansion and Assistant District Attorney, John Eberle, aspired to step into the district attorney’s shoes. These plans didn’t come to fruition. There were no appar ent winners on either side. The Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals decision was a victory, of course, for the defendants and the many peo ple and organizations who came to their defense. More importantly it was a victory for the First Amendment of
the United States Constitution with its guaranteed free dom of the press. The State Criminal Court of Appeals ruling that guilt must be personal, not merely based on books read or possessed, was a strong defense of First Amendment rights. The constant effort of those in power, however, to limit the basic rights guaranteed in the First Amendment to the detriment of those whom they wish to control, has threaded though our nation’s history from the beginning, and it is likely to continue. As criminal syndicalism prosecutions fail other means of control must surely take their place. Any prosecution of groups or individuals for possession of books is a form of selective censorship. In his Ph.D. dissertation, Assessments of Censorship Attempts to Pub lic School Library Media Centers in Oklahoma, Guy Logsdon stated that, “The usual goal of censorship is to make individuals and society pure, by standards imposed by the controlling group.” Because the controlling group almost invariably has more money and more political power, there is a class bias operating against working class individuals and organizations simply because they have less money and therefore less power. This was certainly demonstrated to be true in the many criminal syndicalism trials and convictions across the nation for half a century beginning in 1919. In or around 1919, twentyone states and Alaska and Hawaii passed criminal syndicalism laws. An attempt to pass a national criminal syndicalism law failed however. During the next two or three decades, these laws were used primarily to kill the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), popularly known as the Wobblies. The IWW was a militant leftwing labor organization dedicated to indus trial unionism, economic socialism and radical social equality. The criminal syndicalism laws of numerous states were used to target the Wobblies for the next two or three decades. Trial after trial of Wobblies or pur ported Wobblies, up until the early 1930’s, resulted in conviction after conviction based solely on possession of printed literature or, in some cases, a membership card. A dangerous precedent was being set that no criminal behavior or even advocacy of criminal behavior was re quired for conviction under the criminal syndicalism laws. Having just about killed the IWW with two or three decades of intense attack, the powersthatbe turned the criminal syndicalism laws against socialists, anarchists, and even liberals who strayed too far from establishment
12 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 norms. Unions were also prosecuted, among them farm workers in California and mine workers in West Virginia and Ohio. Celebrities weren’t exempt either. Authors John Dos Pas sos and Theodore Dreiser were indicted for criminal syn dicalism for their support of striking coal miners. In addi tion to the relentless use of the criminal syndicalism against the IWW for decades, which succeeded in essen tially destroying it, this law was used against the per ceived enemy du jour: feminists, unions, writers and vari ous political groups including communists. The practice of not looking beyond possession of printed material or a membership card to prove guilt mostly pre vailed. This was the climate in which the Oklahoma criminal syndicalism trials of 1940 took place. Little wonder that they resulted in convictions! Luckily the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals hewed more closely to the law and with less bowing to the pressure of politics of the time when they ruled that guilt must be determined by some personal action, or advocacy of ac tion, that might conceivably result in a crime. They also added that if they were to uphold the convic tion by the lower courts, it would only be because of popular demand, adding that this would consist of substi tuting mob rule for rule of law. Finally here was a court that put the rule of law above the pressure of the power structure. In 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brandenbury v. Ohio that “the criminalization of the mere advocacy of radical change, absent the threat of imminent lawless ac tion, could not be reconciled with the First Amendment.” The Supreme Court was finally defending the First Amendment against state criminal syndicalism laws after delaying for half a century, very possibly out of defer ence to states’ rights. This resulted in the repeal of these laws in many of the states where they existed. However, in some cases, even after repeal, prosecutors tried and convicted people under the repealed law. Ahmed A. White in his article1 asserts that “the issue that
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bears reflection is not whether we will see a return to widespread enforcement of the criminal syndicalism laws as such against radicals of whatever stripe, but rather whether the concept of antiradical suppression embodied in these statues endures in contemporary society despite the apparent advances in constitutional jurisprudence.” This warning by White is well taken and calls us to vigi lance regarding any laws that may be brought forth to take the place of the discredited criminal syndicalism laws. If there are laws that lie dormant on the Oklahoma law books, or if new laws are created, that threaten the peo ple’s rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, they should not be permitted to wreak the damage that the criminal syndicalism laws did over 70 years ago. Reme dies of bad laws are available through repeal by the legis lature, removal through referendum, or through legal ac tion through the courts. (see next page) Thomas Jefferson maintained that an active and informed citizenry was essential to democratic government. As a matter of fact, he believed it so strongly that he requested the wording on his gravestone should say only that he was the president of University of Virginia, thus implying that he considered that post more important than that of the President of the United States. In light of Jefferson’s view, and in light of the events of the Oklahoma book trials, we might well reconsider our power and our duty as citizens to keep watch over our laws and our lawmak ers. ENDNOTES: 1 Oregon Law Review, “The Crime of Economic Radical ism: Criminal Syndicalism Laws and the Industrial Workers of the World 19171927”
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Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 13 Still on the books —- Oklahoma’s Criminal Syndicalism Laws Explanatory notes in italics are by James M. Branum. §21 1261. Criminal syndicalism defined: Criminal syndical ism is hereby defined to be the doctrine which advocates crime, physical violence, arson, destruction of property, sabo tage, or other unlawful acts or methods, as a means of accom plishing or effecting industrial or political ends, or as a means of effecting industrial or political revolution, or for profit. In actuality, “syndicalism” is a noncapitalist economic sys tem based on the ideals of industrywide cooperative owner ship of resources by the workers. In 1919 when this law was adopted, the principle advocates of syndicalism were the Wob blies (a.k.a. the IWW or the Industrial Workers of the World) §21 1262. Sabotage defined: Sabotage is hereby defined to be a malicious, felonious, intentional or unlawful damage, injury to or destruction of real or personal property of any employer or owner by his or her employee or employees, or any em ployer or employers or by any person or persons at their own instance, or at the instance, request or instigation of such em ployees, employers, or any other person. Note that this statute defines “sabotage” as only being acts to damage or destroy the property rights of employers. There is no similar protection for the property rights of employees or their unions. §21 1263. Advocating or teaching necessity, etc., of crime, criminal syndicalism or sabotage. Printing, publishing, etc., books, pamphlets, etc. Organizing or becoming mem ber of society or assembly: Any person who, by word of mouth or writings, advocates, affirmatively suggests or teaches the duty, necessity, propriety or expediency of crime, criminal syndicalism, or sabotage, or who shall advocate, af firmatively suggest or teach the duty, necessity, propriety or expediency of doing any act of violence, the destruction of or damage to any property, the bodily injury to any person or persons, or the commission of any crime or unlawful act as a means of accomplishing or effecting any industrial or political ends, change, or revolution, or for profit; or who prints, pub lishes, edits, issues, or knowingly circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any books, pamphlets, paper, handbill, poster, document, or written or printed matter in any form whatsoever, containing matter advocating, advising, affirma tively suggesting, or teaching crime, criminal syndicalism, sabotage, the doing of any act of physical violence, the de struction of or damage to any property, the injury to any per son, or the commission of any crime or unlawful act as a means of accomplishing, effecting or bringing about any in dustrial or political ends, or change, or as a means of accom plishing, effecting or bringing about any industrial or political revolution, or for profit; or who shall openly, or at all attempt to justify by word of mouth or writing, the commission or the attempt to commit sabotage, any act of physical violence, the destruction of or damage to any property, the injury to any
person or the commission of any crime or unlawful act, with the intent to exemplify, spread or teach or affirmatively sug gest criminal syndicalism; or who organizes, or helps to organ ize or becomes a member of or voluntarily assembles with any society or assemblage of persons which teaches, advocates, or affirmatively suggests the doctrine of criminal syndicalism, sabotage, or the necessity, propriety or expediency of doing any act of physical violence or the commission of any crime or unlawful act as a means of accomplishing or effecting any industrial or political ends, change or revolution, or for profit, is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be pun ished by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for a term not to exceed ten (10) years, or by a fine of not more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or by both such fine and im prisonment. Provided, that none of the provisions of Sections 1261 through 1264 of this title shall be construed to modify or affect Section 166 of Title 40 of the Oklahoma Statutes. Added by Laws 1919, c. 70, p. 111, § 3, emerg. eff. March 15, 1919. Amended by Laws 1997, c. 133, § 314, eff. July 1, 1999; Laws 1999, 1st Ex.Sess., c. 5, § 212, eff. July 1, 1999. This statute is difficult for lawyers and scholars to make sense of, due to it being composed of one giant sentence, followed by one short one. When we unpack this verbiage, we are struck with a few conclusions… 1. Anyone who advocates for the use of nonviolent civil dis obedience (or as the statue says “the commission of any crime or unlawful act as a means of accomplishing or effecting any industrial or political ends, change, or revolution”) is a crimi nal syndicalist. 2. Anyone who “writes, publishes, edits, issues, knowingly circulates, sells, or publicly displays” any materials that pro mote any form of civil disobedience is a criminal syndicalist. 3. Under this statute, the writings of Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King are illegal to distribute in the state of Oklahoma. Also the Bible (see Acts 5:29) is illegal to distribute under this statute. §21 1264. Permitting use of building for assemblies in vio lation of section 1263 prohibited: The owner, lessee, agent, superintendent, or person in charge or occupation of any place, building, room or rooms, or structure, who knowingly permits therein any assembly or consort of persons prohibited by the provisions of Section 3 of this act, or who after notification by authorized public or peace officers that the place or premises, or any part thereof, is or are so used, permits such use to be continued, is guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable upon conviction thereof by imprisonment in the county jail for not less than sixty (60) days or for not more than one (1) year, or by a fine of not less than One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) or more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), or by both such fine and imprisonment.
14 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 Lest we forget:
Oklahoma Story By Wilma Lewis Jaffe Oklahoma City, OK – January 1943 Like millions of other Americans, I hate fascism. I hate it anywhere in the world regardless of what bush it hides behind. That’s why, when I see fascist tactics trans planted in Oklahoma soil, my hatred for it grows closer and deeper. For I feel that I am part of Oklahoma and Oklahoma is a part of me. Here I was born and here I grew up. I love the warmth and richness and color that is typical of the Oklahoma people. And I know too – from first hand living – the tragedy of this rich young state that has been sucked and bled dry in less than half a century. It’s hurt me – like a deep personal hurt – to see the terri ble erosion of the human and natural resources of the state, a state now changed almost completely from home steaders to one of tenant and dispossessed farmers like the Joads. And all this has happened in the short years since 1907 when Oklahoma (“land of the red man”) first became a state. Do you know what untold mass misery this means to a people hungry for land – men who had once owned this land clean and free from the land sharks and insurance outfits? (And how they could contribute to the Food for Freedom program if they only had land!) These common folks are my people. I am proud of them just as I am proud of my Dad, a native Kansan and direct descendent of Thomas Jefferson, that great democrat (with a small “d”), and my mother, a native Oklahoma daughter who helped build this frontier state. My pride also comes from the way in which the Okla homa people are now allout and allin this people’s war. But I am not proud of those “hatelaborasusual” storm troop mentalities who hamper our nation’s war effort with their phony “grass roots” campaign against labor, who gripe against rationing of gasoline, who serve the corporate farmers of the “farm bloc.”
Knowing the deeprooted democratic traditions of the Oklahoma people, carryovers from the Populist and Socialist movements, I am sure these fake grassrooters and white supremacy forces do not speak for decentminded Oklaho mans. But they are dan gerous because they are powerful – dangerous both to Oklahomans and to Americans in every state of the union and in every phase of war work.
Wilma Lewis Jaffe, Circa 1945
It burns me up to think back and remember how some of the “little Hitlers” selected Oklahoma for a dangerous experiment: an experiment to see if the seed of native fascism could be planted here and spread. The story of that experiment has already been widely told and its listeners everywhere (especially the labor move ment) have spoken out sharply in protest. But it is a story that must constantly be remembered by a nation fighting against fascism. And it must be told sharply these days because on February 1st, the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals will hand down its decision upholding or set ting aside the verdict of a lower court that possession of books or alleged membership in the Communist Party is punishable by ten years in the Oklahoma state peniten tiary. Mind you, no overt act has been charged against Bob and Ina Wood, Alan Shaw, or Eli Jaffe, my husband. They simply possessed books to be found in any standard pub lic library or allegedly belonged to the Communist Party. (Any resemblance to Japan’s “dangerous thoughts” or Hitler’s antiCommunist weapon surely is not acciden tal!) Briefly, the Oklahoma story: the pattern of fascism here was launched dramatically by a bookburning in June 1940. A Silver Short preacher, E. F. Webber, played a Goebbel’s role. All the details were complete with storm troop raids on the Progressive Bookshop, owned by
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 15 Robert and Ina Wood; the seizing of books written by Marx, Engels, Stalin, Browder, Paine, Jefferson, and their public burning in Webber’s Tabernacle while the congre gation was urged to sing: America! That was just the prologue. The full flood of terror was unleashed in August 1940. Armed with phony search warrants (to search for liquor since Oklahoma is sup posed to be dry), deputies and detectives invaded private homes and the Progressive Bookshop. Some 22 people were arrested, almost a dozen for the “crime” of coming to the Bookshop for a labor paper. My father, mother, my 18yearold brother committed this unpardonable “crime” and were among those yanked off to jail, held incommunicado for three days, denied legal counsel. They were held under false names so their relatives could not trace their whereabouts. Five of them were placed under bond of $100,000 each! I expect the only reason I wasn’t arrested is that it would n’t have looked so good in the papers to show that a 16 yearold girl had also been jailed. While questioning me, the lawenforcers barked at me that they didn’t care about the constitution because “here we make our own constitu tion.” They finally came to the conclusion: “Aw, she’ll grow up, get married and forget all about this stuff!” I grew up fast since those hectic days in August 1940. I got married. But I won’t ever forget the smell of fascism. The man I married, Eli Jaffe, has been sentenced to the penitentiary for 10 years along with Bob and Ina Wood and Alan Shaw. Nor will I ever forget the fascistlike tactics used to bring about that sentence. How can you forget the fascist, white supremacy ideas that surrounded the whole prosecution? How can you forget hooligan tactics you generally associate only with fascists? My husband was beaten in jail by prisoners, provoked, incited and fed rubbing alcohol by a thuggish jailor. My brother was beaten when released from the county jail, by a bunch of young thugs inspired by the distorted newspaper stories and the general hysteria. Later he was again arrested for “entering a building under circumstances not amounting to burglary.” He was threatened by the head of the “intelligence squad” that “if you tell us what we want to know and the people we want to know about, you’ll walk out of here as free as any body. But if you don’t – you can go to the State Refor
matory for 25 years! Your folks are going for 10 years anyway!” It was in this whole atmosphere of vigilanteism that the trials of Bob Wood, Alan Shaw, my husband and Ina Wood unfolded one after the other. The bitter irony of it all was that they had been kept in the county jail for four months, and were tried in the courthouse, over which read these words of Thomas Jef ferson: “Equal and exact justice to all men, regardless of state or persuasion, religious or political.” It was a kangaroo court with all the trimmings. Fanatical, Christian Frontminded John Eberle, the assistant prose cuting attorney (who resigned after June 22nd) raved, stormed, trotted out every rotten prejudice he could lay his tongue to. “Bob Wood was an agent of Moscow paid with 30 pieces of silver” – “Alan Shaw was friendly to the Negro people” – “Eli Jaffe had no middle name” – “Ina Wood kept a diary of a trip to Moscow” – “Elizabeth Green was a mystery woman.” Before handpicked jurymen, property owners, many of them members of the semivigilante Oklahoma County Civil Guards, Eberle stormed and raved, probably like the fanatic accusers of George Dmitroff. “Antifascist means Communist!” he challenged. “We won’t let these people change our jimcrow laws!” he snarled with prejudice. His evidence consisted of some 10,000 books, hastily thumbed through and marked for every mention of revolution, including industrial revolu
American Federation of Government Employees, Local 916, preparing to march in the OKC 2010 MLK, Dr. Day Parade. Photo by RCJ
16 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 tion. Evidence was the picture of the Oklahoma Youth Legislature in which white and Negro youth were shown meeting together. Evidence were pictures of Stalin and Lenin and Browder and James Ford. Crimes indeed! These attacks against supposed Communists were merely springboards against other known progressives and labor leaders. Courageous Oklahomans, in response to the “criminal syndicalism” prosecutions and other alarming events, had formed the Oklahoma Federation for Consti tutional Rights. And pronto the whole kiboodle of storm troop mentalities came down on their heads. The Dies Committee of Unamericanism was called to investigate; a “Little Dies” committee was set up by the State Senate; Mrs. Dilling (that great patriot) came to give Oklahoma City citizens the full benefit of her Hitler tactics. The Federation members were harassed, intimidated. Several ministers were forced to leave the state. Maurice Halperin, an out standing educator, was discharged by the Board of Re gents upon the recommendation of the Little Dies outfit. Roscoe Dunjee, leading Negro editor, was insulted by the Oklahoma Bilboas. Emboldened, the Ku Klux Klan put on their white sheets and rode about town, opened offices in Oklahoma City, put out patriotic tracts to “put none but Americans on guard.” Well, this is but the opening chapter of the Oklahoma story. Much has happened since those nightmarish days of August 1940. History has galloped along with light ning speed and the attention of freedomloving people is focused on the Number 1 problem of our generation: win ning this people’s war. In this, Oklahoma cannot be forgotten. Alan Shaw, Bob and Ina Wood, Elizabeth Green, my husband, my folks and all the others are out on bail, a terrific amount raised only through the efforts of the International Labor De fense, which has handled every phase of the Oklahoma defense in heartwarming style. All the defendants are active in war service. The men would like to be fighting in the frontline trenches against the fascists but they are classified 4F. Bob Wood hitchhiked 1700 miles to offer his fighting services but the prosecuting attorney said he was just looking for publicity. Perhaps the second chapter of this story was the hearings at the State Capitol in September ’42 where one member of the Criminal Court of Appeals actually refused to hear
argument on the appeal. He said that associate counsel Vito Marcantonio’s charge of “fascist tactics” by the prosecution insulted the state. But the legal arguments have been forcefully presented by Samuel Neuberger and Herman Rosenfield of the ILD backed by “friend of the court” briefs submitted by the National Lawyers Guild, by the National Federation for Constitutional Rights and a host of others. On February 1st, the court is expected to hand down its decision. In the meantime, the voice of winwar America has been speaking loud and clear. The Boston convention of the CIO; the declaration of the National Farmers Union for civil liberties; the New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleve land, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, St. Louis County Indus trial Union Councils’ resolutions; the formation of a La bor Committee on the cases headed by Warren K. Bill ings; all demanding that Mac Q. Williamson, Attorney General in Oklahoma City “plead error” and drop the cases shows that labor recognizes the threat to the war effort contained in these prosecutions. We here in Oklahoma are trying to do everything we can to help win the war. And part of this fight is also to beat the ears down of these fake grassrooters and white su premacists. We are trying to put an end to these “book trials” which certainly don’t help us in winning the war. We are at our battlestations down here ready to give our lives if necessary to win the fight against fascism. That’s why we are rising up on our haunches to beat down the little Hitlers who have been trying to plant their seeds here. We are going to uproot these defeatist weeds OKC 2010 MLK Jr. Day Parade. Photo by RCJ
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 17 just as sure as Red Army boots are stamping down the fascists and American boots are making tracks towards the second front in Europe. The Oklahoma people, sons and daughters of pioneers that settled this frontier land, will always be in their pitching for progress. We are determined that none of these fascistminded outfits will stop us. In the war effort and in the campaign to put an end once and for all to the infamous syndicalism trials (you can help by writing an immediate letter to Mac Q. Williamson, Attorney Gen eral, Oklahoma City), we are going to keep fighting as strong as the farmer breaking new ground. And as proud. Editor’s Note: One month after Wilma wrote this essay,
the conviction of Alan Shaw (one of those arrested at the Progressive Book Store raid) was overturned by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest court in Oklahoma for criminal matters) in the decision of Shaw v. State (1943 OK CR 51). Eli Jaffe was freed by the companion case of Jaffe v. State (1943 OK CR 23). Despite the ruling by the court, the prosecution filed a petition for rehearing in the Shaw case, based on the “extraordinary length of the brief and extravagant state ments” used by defense counsel, as well as the “inherent danger of the communist party.” On April 17, 1943, the court denied the petition, ending once and for all the Oklahoma book trials. OKC 2010 MLK, Jr. Day Parade. Photo by RCJ
We’ve been standing up for the rights of Oklahomans since our 1943 amicus briefs in defense of the defendants in the Oklahoma Book Trials. We still are fighting today for the day when “human rights will be more highly accorded than property rights.”
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18 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 The Farm Report:
A West Tulsa Legend By Lisa Merrell Mopping the duct tapepatched linoleum floor brought me to a place of pride and understanding. After deciding to move back to the old Merrell homestead, not much looks like what I had expected. “Trust, just trust,” has been my motto since my Dad fell ill with stomach cancer one summer shy of three years ago. He was known to area gardeners as “The Tomato Man”. To me, he was the most supportive and loving father a kid could have under the circumstances of divorce. Dad’s birth name was Darrell Glen Merrell, born in 1939 to Dan and Louise Merrell on our Old Home Place Farm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My grandparents purchased the home stead which sits ten miles away from down town in 1930. That ten acre plot successfully fed and supported a family of six through the famous Dust Bowl and Great Depres sion. Luckily, they had a consistent supply of crystal clear spring water pulled up through a hand dug well. They raised two large kitchen gardens, kept chickens, ducks and hogs, a milk cow, and a horse named Dan who was used to pull the plow. They probably raised rabbits, turkeys and a goose or two in order to create more variety on the old supper table. That very table continues to serve its life purpose in the same spot. Oh, the stories it could narrate of the family dinners that have occurred over three generations. My memories of overflowing bowls of mashed potatoes, dressing, green beans, huge turkeys and fried chicken will forever remain. The scent of fresh baked dinner rolls to sop up the gudgeons almost fill my senses. The meal is finished off with a wide selection of homemade pies with fluffy meringue topping made with skill by Grandma and Aunt Ginny. Dad would tell me stories of going into Downtown Tulsa to fetch flour, sugar, salt and other sta ples for the kitchen. Being the youngest he and Grandpa Merrell would stand on the corner with ice cold soda and pop corn while watching their fellow Tulsans bustling by. In the fall of 2003, at the age of 32, I moved to the Old Home Place Farm from Seattle to work with my dear old Dad. For years I had known in my heart that I would move back to Oklahoma to learn about what he was do ing with his middle aged years as “The Tomato Man.” It wasn’t the first time we would work together. When I
Darrell and Lisa Merrell Dad and Daughter
was growing up in Oklahoma City with my Mom in the 1970’s and 80’s, he was celebrated as “The Doughnut Man” in Houston, Texas. I would spend my summers and some holidays with Dad, which was a much cherished occasion for me. At the age of eight, I was given my per sonal mini Doughnut Man apron and tshirt and was put to work waiting on customers. My favorite job was dip ping sinful rings of dough into tubs of deep dark choco late and golden maple icing and sometimes dipping again in rainbow colored candies. Dad eventually gave up baking to move back to his roots on the West Tulsa Home Place to provide care for his ailing Mom and Sis. My Aunt Ginny had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and Grandma was suffering from older age and tired hardworking bones. In order to find some peace for himself, Dad began gardening again. His
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 19 first plot was in Grandma’s kitchen garden just 100 feet away from the back door of Grandpa’s handcrafted house. Of course, us Okies have got to have tomatoes in our gardens, so Dad set out to buy his starts. He quickly realized that the varieties of tomatoes he grew and ate as a small country boy were nowhere to be found. So he started with the hybridized varieties like Big Boy, Better Boy and Early Girl. The results of this endeavor have now become a West Tulsa Legend as well as a nation wide story. You see, Dad was an historian by nature. The Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau were among his favorites. What was not among his favorites were these newly developed hybrid tomatoes. They just did not burst with that homegrown tomato flavor that he had re membered. What had happened? He began questioning his Mom and Sis about the varieties they used to grow. They remembered Sioux, Marglobe, Rutgers, Homestead, Tommy Toe, German Johnson, Oxheart, and I am sure many others. This sent him on a search for seeds; he was going to give it another try. To his dismay he could not find one Sioux seed in all of the United States or Canada. Believe me, he was a very thorough man. The Sioux had been the most popular to mato in Oklahoma in the 1950’s. The kind that my Aunt Ginny used to pluck straight off the vine with salt shaker in hand, indulging on the spot until her mouth puckered from that good ole’ fashion acidic tomato twang. How could it be that he could find no seeds? Instantly he real ized there was a problem. Some of the old time varieties (now called heirlooms) were endangered to become ex tinct as hybridization became more popular. Dad did finally find a few Sioux seed through the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook. A man out of Norman, Okla homa, just a twohour drive away, sent him a dozen seeds to get him started. Dad sowed 6 of the 12 (you always should save some back in case of failure) and he was off and running. The next season he grew out some of the old heirloom tomatoes and finally tasted the history he was searching for. With a lot of love and hard work he quickly became known as “The Tomato Man” as he of fered his left over plants to area gardeners on the front porch of the Flea Market. He developed quite the follow ing in his Santa Clause sized overalls and grin. His straw hat and smokin’ pipe will forever be etched in our memo ries of the infamous West Tulsa Tomato Man. Twenty spring seasons have now gone and passed since that first attempt to find a good tasting tomato. After
working with Dad since 2003, growing out our own seed stock for 80 plus varieties, fermenting the seed, storing the seed, starting the seed again, transplanting the seed lings, keeping them warm, getting them sun, food and water, and selling them in their little threeinch pots then starting all over again, I decided that I had finally found a sense of place. I was going to stay in Tulsa to become “The Tomato Man’s Daughter.” What I didn’t know was that I would have to continue his 20 years of work without him. One of my biggest fears in life has been, “What will it be like when my Dad dies?” Following an intense struggle for survival, my Dad, Dar rell G. Merrell passed away on April 24th, 2008 at 4:34 pm. He was surrounded by people that loved him on a gorgeous, crisp, sunshiny day. His death was actually comforting and beautiful. If you have lost a loved one from a terminal illness you know what a relief it is to fi nally see them peaceful again. This spring season was the first “Tomato Man” Season to run without my Dad. What I found was that he really is Continued on Page 27 Lisa’s 2009 Spring Crop Seedlings. Photo by RCJ
20 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3
The War Desk:
GI Coffeehouses—Getting D by James M. Branum Definitions are important. Too often in movement work, we throw terms around and assume mutual understand ing. One of the biggest mistakes seems to be in the defi nition of organizing versus activism. Activism is self expression with the goal of fostering social change, while organizing has a much broader focus with the goal of movement building. In short, activism involves the indi vidual, while organizing must involve the entire commu nity. The current GI coffeehouse projects are excellent examples of effective organizing that can teach important lessons about organizing in general. This larger definition I want to use for “organizing” comes from a challenging source. A recent article in Counter Punch magazine, “How to Build a Movement,”1 put a spotlight on Mark Rudd, a controversial organizer. Rudd started organizing with the antiwar group SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) in the 1960's and was later involved in the “Weathermen Faction” which morphed into the notorious Weather Underground, a radi cal faction dedicated to the violent overthrow of the US government. This group was responsible for several bombings and prison breaks in the 1970's. I admit it seems ironic to take organizing advice from someone once involved in such a destructive movement; however, like many of the Weather Underground, Mark Rudd in recent years has largely repented of his role in the group's violence and has shown this by publicly speaking about his experiences (both positive and negative) to a new generation of social justice advocates. Rudd draws a helpful distinction between activism and organizing in the article. He explains that social change movements today are largely composed of activists and therefore are relatively ineffective (similar to the Weather Underground), while successful movements that actually brought positive change (such as the Civil Rights move ment in the South) were largely composed of dedicated organizers. So, instead of narrowly defining organizing as simply building and defending the infrastructure of an organization, Rudd's more inclusive concept of organiz ing as communitybuilding provides a much richer and more useful means of thinking about social justice on a broad scale.
What is a community organizer? During the Obama campaign, many were either repulsed or thrilled when Obama was said to have been a “community organizer” in Chicago. I wonder if most of the public even knows what a “community organizer" is. Despite some positive progress, I often feel like the peace movement is spinning its wheels. We frequently blame the conservative political environment for our lack of effectiveness, but I wonder if the real problem is that we have forgotten how to engage in genuine community building. Thankfully, there are lots of good models from the past to look to for inspiration and education, such as the Catholic Worker movement, the Civil Rights Movements, and the United Farm Workers. Today, however, the best example I've seen of effective community organizing are the GI Coffeehouse Outreach Projects. Coffeehouse roots Contrary to popular belief, in the late 1960's and early 1970's, the antiwar movement was not the sworn enemy of the rank and file American troops fighting in Vietnam; rather they often were allies in fighting against the war machine. A wealth of documentary evidence as well as books (Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Viet nam War by David Cortwright) and movies (Sir, No Sir) describe GI coffeehouses and underground GI newspa pers as episodes of cooperation between motivated GIs and civilian organizers. The movement began with the growing ocean of discon tent in the ranks of the US military as the Vietnam War dragged on. While many gave in to despair, other troops found hope by identifying the real root of their problems, that they were being crushed by the same oppressive ma chine that was also crushing the Vietnamese people. The realization that their own liberation was tied to the strug gle for liberation of the people of Vietnam was a revolu tionary and critical concept, which led to resistance. Anti war servicemembers published underground newspapers, went AWOL, and refused to go on missions. They pro tested, sometimes in uniform and often under the banner of their new organization Vietnam Veterans Against the
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 21
Down to the Grassroots War. Some committed sabotage on their ships or even “fragged” (assassinated) officers2. In one notable case, a soldier stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, actually tried to unionize the military.3 Over time the civilian antiwar movement caught up to
Preprotest gathering outside The Oleo Strut, cir. 19681972, from UndertheHoodcafe.org
the revolutionary work of the GIs. In time a partnership was born out of the mutual respect that was growing be tween antiwar servicemembers and antiwar civilians. This partnership led to a harvest of incredible and ground breaking work. The main focus of this collective energy was the GI coffeehouses. These coffeehouses (more ac curately described as outreach centers since not all of them were strictly “coffeehouses”) were created to be safe places for GIs to go on their time off duty. The coffeehouses often had fully stocked libraries with anti war literature and were staffed by GI rights counselors who helped soldiers to navigate the red tape of military bureaucracy. Often there was also music and art to help give GIs a little glimpse of liberation in the middle of otherwise oppressive conditions. This work was, of course, opposed by the Brass. The coffeehouses were sometimes placed “offlimits” by the base commanders, but the troops kept coming. After that, the powersthatbe tried other ways to stomp out the re sistance. Local organizers found themselves arrested by the local authorities on bogus charges, and on at least one occasion a coffeehouse was firebombed by local defend
ers of the war effort. Yet, the work to liberate GIs contin ued. I believe that the antiwar GI movement is one of the most important movements in US history. Without it, we might still be occupying Vietnam. How the movement almost died, but stayed alive to fight again The end of the Vietnam War sapped energy from the cause, but it is still unclear why the antiwar movement faded away so quickly. Part of the problem might have been how the history of this era was later rewritten by those in power. Very quickly, corporate and government interests came together to paint a new picture of what had happened in Vietnam. Within only six years of the end of the Vietnam War, Ronald Reagan was elected President. His campaign was based in part on creating a new “history” to explain why we lost the war so that Ameri cans would “feel pride in their country once again.” As these lies piled up, the movement slowly suffocated. The GI coffeehouses died early on.4 Most were shuttered by the time US troops were out of Vietnam because the movement didn't unite behind the need to continue the outreach in what was presumed to be the coming peace time. Also the military quickly discharged most of the remaining lowranking combat veterans, so that before long there were few troops in the military who remem bered that it was the resistance of rank and file troops that made the end of the Vietnam War inevitable. But seeds of resistance remained. Vietnam Veterans Against the War lived on (despite factional struggles that almost destroyed it) and found a new purpose in fighting for veterans to get their promised and muchneeded bene fits. By the time of the First Gulf War, there were still a few brave souls in the military that resisted,5 but no mass movement rose up. Still seeds kept being planted during these years through the work of groups like School of the Americas Watch and Voices in the Wilderness. In 1994, a powerful step forward began when the GI Rights Network (GIRN) was created. Over the next 16 years, this network of peace and conscience or
22 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3
ganizations would answer tens of thousands of phone calls and emails from military servicemembers seeking help to be free from the war machine. Overall though, there were few remaining outreach efforts being made toward active duty troops. What little outreach that ex isted was mostly happening online and through print lit erature, not through groundlevel communitybased orga nizing. The rumblings of rebirth September 11, 2001 changed everything. As the push to war in Iraq grew closer to consummation, the antiwar movement woke from its slumber and took to the streets. Hundreds of thousands marched in almost every major city of the world. Even here in Oklahoma City, more than 1,500 marched against the war. (There were even protests in Oklahoma small towns like Shawnee, Guthrie, Musko gee, and Weatherford.) Despite widespread protest, the war began, and most peace activists gave into resignation and despair. Before long, peace organizers in Oklahoma were lucky if 150 would show up to the protests. The coming years for many of us in the movement were days of darkness. We tried to be hopeful, but it all seemed like an exercise in futility. But then something amazing happened. It was tiny and small, but it was earthshaking. The troops began to resist. It started with Camilo Mejia, the first US soldier to refuse to deploy to Iraq in 2004. He would later go to prison (here in Oklahoma at the Fort Sill stockade) for almost a year, but he stood his ground. Soon others rose up to re sist as well. A new organization was founded from this resistance, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). In the
Coffee Strong near Joint Base LewisMcChord6 in Lakewood, WA
Coffee Strong is the only real coffeehouse among the groups discussed in this article, as it is an actual retail coffee shop located in a strip mall in Lakewood, Wash ington (near Tacoma). It is located within a few hundred yards of the perimenter of Joint Base LewisMcChord in a typical Army town setting. The street is an interesting mix of holeinthewall Asian restaurants, greasy spoons, Army surplus stores and cheap barbers. The neighbor hood is definitely rough around the edges but frankly not as impoverished as many other Army communities. The
Outside Coffee Strong, Photo by Gerry Condon, 2010
VVAW Protest in New York City, 1975 from VVAW.org
coming years, other groups would rise up as well to sup port GI resistance, most notably Courage to Resist. Many longestablished peace groups found new life and a new mission in supporting GI resistance. Despite some successes, the GI movement was conten tious. The duration of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the growing psychic trauma was wearing the move ment down. It was in this context that a new venue for organizing began to be fleshed out: a rebirth of the GI coffeehouse movement. Consequently these new coffee houses (along with the one surviving Vietnam War era project) have brought new life and vitality to the peace movement. Multiple models for outreach – The current GI coffee house movement I have had the pleasure of working with all but one of the new coffeehouse projects. I can't claim to have an objec tive viewpoint, since the organizers at these projects are friends and allies, but I'd like to make an attempt to share some of their successes and failures in the work of orga nizing GIs and veterans.
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 23 principle strength of Coffee Strong's approach is that they have a decent amount of random foot traffic as a retail coffee shop, which has been a boon to outreach. Coffee Strong has computer terminals with free internet access and a nice seating area. They also have a library of books and tons of free literature. The decor is a mix of radical imagery (including a picture of Malcolm X hold ing a gun with the slogan “By Any Means Necessary”) and the staff makes it clear that they are anti war, but not neces sarily pacifists. Coffee Strong also has re sources available for military victims of sexual assault and has a Women's Night for female troops and vets to connect with each other. Like all of the coffee houses, the tone of the place is set by the staff and volunteers. The executive director of the project, Seth Outside Coffee Strong, Photo by JMB, 2010 Manzell is himself a combat veteran and speaks with knowledge to the folks who come to Coffee Strong. Another staff member (and combat veteran) is a mental health counselor, available to provide services to soldiers in need. Coffee Strong tries to be visible in the community by the use of public protest. On a fairly regular basis, supporters of Coffee Strong demonstrate at the gates of JBLM.
A different drummer cafe near Fort Drum in Watertown, NY
This coffeehouse is now closed. I never got to visit this project but have visited the Fort Drum/Watertown com munity and have read the article, “Shooting Pool Alone at Ft Drum: Lessons for the GI Movement,” by Tod Ensign, which told its story.7 According to Ensign, the project existed from October 2006May 2009. They had an excellent facility, with internetequipped computers, a pool table and a library.
However, they were located in downtown Watertown, about 12 miles from base, a distance that was insur mountable for GIs without cars. The project also struggled from not having a committed staff person who was part of the Fort Drum/Watertown community. This has always been a difficult issue (even during Vietnam, many peace activists were not excited about living in the rough Army town environment), so it is essential to have core organizers that are part of the community. Despite these problems, A Different Drum mer deserves praise for staying with the project as long as it did.
Norfolk offbase near Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, VA
In 2009, I got to visit Norfolk Offbase while traveling to nearby Fort Lee on a case. On my visit, I was very im pressed by both the project's facility and its director, Tom Palumbo. The facility is an old warehouse that provides flexible space for events. There is also a nice library area. At last report, this project is still in its early stages and is serving mostly as a hub for general peace organizing. I think one big struggle is that Norfolk has a large decen tralized military presence, which makes it harder to do outreach. Without a single demonstration focus, it is hard to build much visibility in the community.
quaker house near Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC
This project is not a coffeehouse, but I think worth men tioning as it has been doing direct GI outreach for more than 40 years.8 The project is faithbased but of a non dogmatic Quaker variety. The director of the project is Chuck Fager, an author and Quaker historian with a long history of community organizing. Quaker House serves as the central hub for peace orga nizing and GI resister support in the Fort Bragg area. Its location is a bit off the beaten path. In the Vietnam era, it was in a grungy neighborhood right next to the bars and strip clubs frequented by depressed soldiers, but today the area has gentrified. Yet, this quieter location works well in providing a haven for soldiers who need to get away from the Army environment. Besides the local work, the staff at Quaker House also take a huge number of calls from the national GI Rights Network. Another special emphasis of Quaker
24 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3
Photo from Quakerhouse.org
House is their work in publicizing the sadly frequent cases of spousal abuse (and sometimes murder) by sol diers with PTSD.
of the place and brings the passion of an angry Army wife to the fight (her husband served 18+ years in the Army, including several deployments). She stays busy talking to both regulars and new guests of the place. Be sides her, on most days there are a mix of active duty sol diers, recently discharged veterans, and Army wives hanging out. Many of the visitors smoke, talk, and just enjoy each other's company. Regulars may be found play ing video games, checking email, napping, or just talking. Officially the place is open from 510 p.m., but often folks don't go home until midnight or later. There are also a decent number of volunteers, some who stay for weeks or even months at a time to help out, while others just come up for the day to provide help for big events such as BBQ's and protests. One logistical challenge of the work at UTH is that many of the regulars don't have their own transportation. Some of these guys are on meds that prevent them from driving, while others just don't have a car. Because of this, Cindy (or one of the other UTH volunteers) often drives on base
Under the hood cafe near Fort Hood in Killeen, TX
UTH uses a very different model than the other projects. It is decidedly NOT a retail coffeehouse, but rather is more of a community space. It is located in what was pre viously a bail bond office in a fairly rough neighborhood in Killeen, Texas, about half a mile from the East gate of Fort Hood (close enough that you can hear the bugle calls throughout the day when standing outside). The layout of UTH is fairly open. At the front is a big screen TV with a video game system. Scattered through out the place are tables, lamps, and comfy chairs and couches. In the very back is a small kitchen (where you can make yourself a cup of coffee for free), and behind that is the director's office and another smaller room with a TV. Like all of the projects, UTH has a small library and lots of literature from different peace and justice groups. The décor of the place is a mix of images, ranging from a Pal estinian flag, art created by one of the regulars, a framed picture of USMC two star General Smedly Butler (who upon leaving the service became an outspoken opponent of war), and clippings from the local newspaper about antiwar activity. On any given day hanging out at UTH, you are likely to be greeted by Cynthia Thomas. She is the heart and soul
Photo by JMB, 2009
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 25 fort at Fort Hood, as well as providing a training school of sorts for vets who will take their activism on to other locales. Commonalities and differences in the different GI outreach models While each of the projects discussed above look pretty different, there are certain key areas where they all are similar. These similarities can be helpful in providing a model for other venues of community organizing. 1. The projects listen to GIs and veterans without impos ing an agenda on them. 2. The projects allow the direction of the organizing ef fort to be set by the GIs and veterans themselves. 3. The projects seek to be nonjudgmental of service
Protest outside the gates of Fort Hood 2009, Photo by Micke Kern, The Rag Blog
after duty hours are over to pick up the guys from the barracks. Then late at night, someone will drive everyone back to base. Protests are a big part of the work of UTH and are most often focused on the lack of quality health care given to combat veterans at Fort Hood. Many of the activeduty regulars got involved after stopping to talk to participants at the protests. UTH is both blessed and challenged by the fact that most of their regulars happen to be either active duty troops or recently discharged veterans. As a result of this, most of the regulars are only around for a limited amount of time before they get discharged and either go back home or move on to other adventures. Yet, the role of these indi viduals in shaping the direction of the work cannot be understated. The involvement of the troops and veterans in fighting for the liberation of both themselves and oth ers is critical to a truly communitybased organizing ef
26 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 members and their perspectives, yet are willing to defend the “safe space” on behalf of marginalized populations. They do this by speaking out when guests use sexist, rac ist or homophobic language. This is hard to do but neces sary. In time everyone sees that the rules of the Army don't apply here. Sexism, racism and homophobia are simply not acceptable, and of course the tyranny of rank is not welcome either. 4. Multipleviewpoints are expressed and respected. Points of unity are limited to only core areas of concern. 5. The projects are mindful of the mental health and sub stance abuse problems of the participants and try to steer folks in trouble to helpful resources. 6. The projects empower GIs and vets to help other GIs and vets. These strengths help to offset the almost insurmountable challenges that the projects face. The biggest challenge is the draining nature of the work. Burnout is always a real risk, and all too often organizers let themselves be de fined by their activism. This is hard enough for civilian
Photo by Eric Thompson (Courtesy of Under the Hood Cafe)
volunteers and staff, but for recently discharged veterans this dynamic can be harder. The transition to civilian life (even when the soldier is relieved to be free) can be pretty rough. Making this transition while engaged in activism can be even harder. Finally, money is always a problem for the different pro jects. Without the kind of mass support that existed dur ing Vietnam, it is hard to see how a widespread coffee house movement could take root today. Fundraising is a continual struggle and source of anxiety for all of the out reach projects.
Conclusion I strongly believe that the current GI coffeehouse out reach projects are excellent examples of effective orga nizing. The coffeehouses empower GIs and veterans to become organizers themselves. This is important be cause, servicemembers are told from day one of boot camp that, “we don't pay you to think.” So when GI or ganizers tell those same troops, “we do care about what you think, and we want you to be part of our decision making process,” it can be a significant and lifechanging affirmation. At a GI coffeehouse, GIs are not objects re ceiving charity, but rather are the subjects of the move ment, empowered to make their own history. I think all social movements can learn a lot from this. GI coffeehouses are also a safe place. It might seem un important in today's cyberspace era, but having an actual physical space where people can meet together is impor tant. It is hard work to make the space comfortable and free from oppression for EVERYONE, but it is worth it. Finally the coffeehouses teach us that there is not one right way to organize. There are multiple effective mod els. Each coffeehouse has strengths and weaknesses, but all stay focused on the local needs. What they do share is a common tactic of combining confrontational protest action with ongoing practical support of those in need. The protests by themselves would have some value (by putting the post on notice that there are folks in the com munity who care), but this value is multiplied when there is a focus on outreach to GIs themselves. Often the pro tests draw in radicalized active duty soldiers who are looking for a way to fight back. These same soldiers then become the core of future organizing efforts. The coffeehouse approach of combining protest with genuine community building is one that would be useful for any social justice movement. Since this article was written a new coffeehouse project is in the proc ess of being launched to reach out to US servicemembers in Kaiser slautern, Germany. It will be called GI CaféGermany. The author wishes to thank Rachel Jackson and Jim Bligh for their help in fleshing out many of the ideas in this article; Victor Agosto, Fran Hanlon and Seth Manzell for critiquing early drafts of this arti cle; and Rebecca Faulkner and Rachel Jackson for their invaluable editing assistance. An earlier article of this article appeared in On Watch, Vol. XX, No. 3 (www.nlgmltf.org).
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 27 End Notes: 1The article is available online at http://www.markrudd.com/?organizingand activismnow/howtobuildamovement.html 2I mention the fraggings, not to glorify violence but rather to illustrate the level of frustration that service members were experiencing. According to Wikipe dia, more than 230 US military officers were killed by their own men during the Vietnam War. 3The story is told in Up Against the Brass: The Amazing Story of the Fight to Unionize the US Army, 1970, by Andy Stapp. 4One GI outreach project survived (and still exists), Quaker House in Fayette ville, NC. 5See A People's History of the United States, 2003, by Howard Zinn, p. 623 624 6JBLM was recently formed by the merger of Fort Lewis (Army) and McChord Air Force Base. 7Published in the June 2009 issue of the Veterans for Peace newsletter, online at http://www.veteransforpeace.org/files/pdf/2009JuneNewsletter.pdf 8The story of Quaker House is told in the recently published book, Yes to the troops, No to the Wars: Quaker House, 40 years of FrontLine Peace Witness by Chris McCallum.
Resurrecting Oklahoma’s First State Flag 19111925
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Sales benefit the work of Red Flag Press and the Oklahoma Revelator. Warning: Wearing this tshirt in Oklahoma is a FELONY un der unconstitutional Oklahoma Statute 21 § 374. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Continued from page 19 A West Tulsa Legend still here with me. He reminded me to be mindful as I grew out and saved the seed stock in the spring and sum mer. He told me to be careful as I cut down trees and cleared space for more room in November and December. He was by my side in January as I revised “The Tomato Man’s Daughter” Plant List and he helped me pick out just the right the seed stock from our inventory. He was comforting me in February as I worried whether or not our seed would germinate and celebrated with me when it did. In March he rejoiced with us at the completion of Greenhouse #2 (just in the nick of time). He kept me company on the late nights as I transplanted the seedlings to their threeinch pots while he smoked his pipe and told me how this was one of his favorite tasks. He was gig gling with us on the Saturday my Sister Pam and two of her kids came into town to help Mom and me transplant. In early April he held me as I cried about my Mom’s bro ken leg and the sudden passing of my lifetime dog, Jacques. He was hugging me as I marveled the beauty of Greenhouse #2 cuddling 17,856 gorgeous heirloom to mato plants and he hugged me again when the heater failed and we lost some of them. In mid April he sat with cousin Scooder and me at the sales table and listened to our customers tell stories about him and admit to how much they missed seeing him. He helped us teach new gardeners how to plant and care for their new babies and answer questions for those that had them. He cheered me on when I was on my own in May keeping the plants healthy during the 21 days of straight rain. He told my brother Mark and I how proud he was of us when we reached our sales goal for the season at the end of May. He is looking at me right now saying that he is so lucky to have a daughter like me and I am telling him how much I miss him. As I stare at the old orange linoleum floor of my Grandpa’s house, I realize I hardly have a choice but to continue my Dad’s legacy as “The Tomato Man’s Daugh ter,” at least for a while. The roots of our family tree are so deeply established that in order for me to flourish I will need to develop some nice branches off of the rich stalk that is here for me. Hopefully some of my own blooms will set fruit and drop seeds to help grow a prosperous future. A warm thank you from Dad and me to the thoughtful and loving community of family and friends that made our business a success. We are truly fortunate.
28 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 Labor Conquers All:
Labor Interests and Legislation By Rachel C. Jackson Some of you may recall that in May of 2009, toward the tailend of the legislative session, then Senate Majority Leader Todd Lamb (now Lt. Governor) attempted to in troduce Senate Resolution 56 – “A Resolution declaring the official motto of the State of Oklahoma to be: ‘Oklahoma – In God We Trust!” With only a couple weeks left in the legislative session at the time he brought the resolution forward, the move looked more like a strange grab for the attention of fundamentalist interests than anything that Lamb sincerely believed in. Whether anyone on the right noticed or not, organized labor in Oklahoma certainly did. As a group of people who identify personally with the state’s motto – LABOR OMNIA VINCIT – or labor conquers all, Oklahoma un ionists took note. To them, Lamb’s shallow attempt at religiosity indicated a lack of respect for Oklahoma’s working people and an ignorance of state history. Lamb’s resolution didn’t make it far in the 2009 legislature, and fortunately Lamb had the good sense not to reintroduce it in 2010. He must of thought better of it. This state was born in the middle of a golden era for or ganized labor. Solidarity was strong across the United States, as workers from all industries fought big capital for better labor conditions, reasonable hours and fair wages. This movement influenced not only Oklahoma’s working class, but Oklahoma’s founding documents as well. “Labor Omnia Vincit” comes from the great seal of Oklahoma Territory, which was incorporated into the state’s seal. Its literary origin, however, is in Virgil’s Georgics from over 2,000 years ago – a poem written to encourage Romans to take up farming.1 No doubt this had an appeal and a relevance to early Oklahomans, most of whom were busy breaking new ground as farmers themselves – tenant farmers, that is.
Oklahoma has a proud labor history that, in addition to farmers, includes coal miners and oil field workers. This history includes union organizing and company strikes – many of which were successful – for the fairer treatment of working people. The spirit of these efforts and the ca maraderie of the people involved with them still linger in the state’s historical archives – long silenced as a conse quence of a series of red scares that swept across the state, but still there all the same. This historic work done for social justice in the name of Oklahoma labor has a lot to say to us today. Just because you’ve never heard of it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Lt. Governor Lamb’s attempt to change the state motto is simply the latest in a long line of legislation that in one way or another denies the power, value, and voice of Oklahoma labor. And unless you’ve got a ridiculous amount of capital, labor means you. If you work for a living, then you’re labor whether or not your fingernails are greasy, or dirty, or dry and cracked, or just plain achy at the end of the day. If you’re a working person, your labor is your capital. As the newly elected public officials take office this month with promises to do whatever it takes to attract business to the state, we should all be watching to make sure the interests of labor – OUR INTERESTS – are re spected and protected. If they are not, we should look to history for hope, and fight for our own families and our common future. Endnotes: 1 This information is borrowed from an OETA story entitled “Oklahoma Motto Change?” that was reported by Lori Rasmussen and originally aired on May 18th, 2009. The report can be found on youtube.
“The new constitution as now written embodies the noblest thought and highest ideals of the nation. Not in 6,000 years of time has an Organic Law contained so much that was lofty and noble. It is a new Magna Carta. It marks an Epoch in the struggle for justice and liberty for mankind. Labor through the ages will point to it with pride and when we are dust, the seated face of toil would turn to it with hope. The question of one man or another holding office is petty and inconceivably small, and dwindled into nothingness compared with the fate of such a document as this...upon the solemn contents of which will live generations after we are dead.” Kate Barnard, from “Our Grand Constitution,” written for the State Capital newspaper, August 1907
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 29
Oklahoma Lunar Almanac Based on astronomical data for Norman, Oklahoma New Moon Jan. 4th, 3:04 a.m.
First Quarter Jan. 12th, 5:33 a.m. Full Moon Jan. 19th, 3:22 p.m. Last Quarter Jan. 26th, 6:59 a.m.
Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me: New Oklahoma Writing
“Way over yonder in the minor key There ain't nobody that can sing like me” Woody Guthrie Originally published as issue #35 of Sugar Mule: A Literary Magazine (www.sugarmule.com), this groundbreaking an thology includes 188 selections of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and visual art by 78 writers and 2 visual artists who currently live in Oklahoma. A powerful gathering of voices, singing hymns, telling stories, making truth from a powerful place. Rilla Askew, author of Fire in Beulah and Harpsong For sale at Amazon.com or direct from the publisher.
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New Moon Feb. 2nd, 8:32 p.m. First Quarter Feb. 11th, 1:20 a.m. Full Moon Feb. 18th, 2:36 a.m. Last Quarter Feb. 24th, 5:28 p.m. New Moon Mar. 4th, 2:47 p.m. First Quarter Mar. 12th, 5:46 p.m. Full Moon Mar. 19th, 1:10 p.m. Last Quarter Mar. 26th, 7:08 a.m. The rest of 2011’s Oklahoma Lunar Almanac can be found online at www.oklahomarevelator.com
30 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3
The Cultural Front:
My Two Favorite O by Davis D. Joyce I’m sure you’ve heard someone say, “I don’t know any thing about art; I just know what I like.” Well, that’s the way I am about poetry. And I like the poetry of Charles Clark and Alvin O. Turner very much! What I want to do here is tell you why, and mostly share some of it with you. Charlie was a student of mine at the University of Tulsa way back in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, and has been a friend ever since. He has graciously credited me with helping him get in touch with his Native American roots– his mother’s mother was an original enrollee of the Choc taw Nation of Oklahoma, but he didn’t know much about it growing up. What I remember is that I directed him in an independent study on Native American History and Culture; he also took several other classes with me. Over the years, he’s been an actor (“biggest film,” he says, was “The Last of the Mohicans”), producer and host of a news show on Native American topics for ten years on the CBS affiliate in Tulsa, an artistinresidence in schools, and many other things. He’s been the Styles Edi tor for the Lawton Constitution since 1985, and won the Governor’s Art Award for Media a few years ago. But this is about his poetry. Charlie tells me he feels “lucky to come from a heritage where the greatest warri ors might also be the most eloquent poets, and the bright est political leaders might also be the most gifted paint ers.” His poems have been matted and framed in an ex hibit at the Museum of the Great Plains in Lawton, pre sented in a theatrical staging at Cameron University there, used in the American Indian Expo in Anadarko, studied in various public schools and universities, and even read by a speaker at the Democratic National Con vention in 1988. My favorite of his poems is “Indian Grandma:” (Charlie notes in the little 1980 chapbook Me dallions in which it appears that it is “for Nora Keyes.”) the smells in your kitchen make me so hungry your fry bread tastes best the laughter at your table is passed around
as freely as the salt and pepper when it is cold outside no fireside can warm like the quilts made by your hands they sleep on me like the spotted back of a fawn Indian grandma I’m sure your prayers go higher than anyone’s Somehow, one does not have to be Native American to appreciate the beauty and power of those words; Charlie "Spring Forth," Norman, OK, March 2009 Photo by RCJ
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 31
Okie Poets tells me that it has been the favorite of many people over the years. Al Turner I got to know as a fellow historian at profes sional meetings around the state. Then in 1993 he showed up as my Dean at East Central University, and we have developed our friendship further. He is retired now, in Norman, but still serving a little Presbyterian church in Sulphur halftime, and still researching and writing, in cluding poetry; his latest project is a series of poems de picting the infamous Ada hangings of 1909–you can rest assured Al will not fall into the trap of attempting to jus tify, even celebrate, those lynchings as some people have. Here’s my favorite of his poems, entitled “Red”: I suppose you think you’ve said something big and fearsome when you call me that name. I’m here to tell you that it’s just a color to me, the color of blood, not the blue you think runs through your veins, or the silver of the spoon your babies suckled. And, this ain’t about color. It’s about fair and right and justice and what the American way ought to be. It’s about hungry children and their daddys who want work but can’t find it, or who give their lives to some company that forgets about ‘em when the price is right. So go learn a bigger word like some of mine. And call me any word you damn well please, except one. I ain’t yellow– but you know that.i
Speaking of Woody Guthrie: Noting that Oklahoma’s own Reba McEntire led the audience in a singalong of Woody’s “This Land Is Your Land” at the Concert for America on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Al wrote this poem, “Too Bad Woody”: Too bad Woody you had the misfortune to be both Okie born and Oklahoma remembered. We reckoned “Oklahoma Hills” an alright country song but your other words and legacy were best recalled by dust bowl refugees, tramps, union men and unwashed folk singers. The good people of this fair state turned blind eyes to the history that shaped them, marched past their doors, down Route 66, seeing in every Sandtown and Hooverville breeding grounds for reds and other malcontents. Too bad Sooner Land we had the misfortune to measure greatness by yards rather than words hearing so much less than half what a red neck songster had to say. At least that’s the way it was until the end of an ugly year when a grieving nation sought to reclaim the promise of the land we loved and called on a redheaded Okie girl to help them sing his song–our song.ii
I’ve told Al that I think he gives voice to the common folks of the Depression/Dust Bowl era as well as anyone I know of–with the possible exception of Woody Guthrie.
Oklahoma has indeed had an ambivalent attitude about Woody. But maybe we’re over it now, with his home town of Okemah drawing thousands to the annual Woody
32 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 Once, about three years ago, Charlie himself served as my “holderupper.” My minister and his wife had just lost their 3year old daughter. I was struggling emotion ally: My wife and I had experienced losing a child, my Mother was in a downward spiral that resulted in her death a couple of years later, and I truly love my minister and his family. At the service, one of the people I saw whose presence meant a great deal to me, provided some sense of stability and continuity, was Charlie’s son, who I have known all his life. I was in touch with Charlie about all this, and part of his response was to write me a poem. He called it “A Song for Davis”: a river may not always take the course we expect but the waters keep flowing. we drink from it and are strengthened. even in darkness the sound of it near lets us sleep in comfort. at sunrise we see and know it is always. I don’t think I’ve ever had a poem written for me before! It meant so much to me that I shared it with my minister. I’ve mentioned that Al serves parttime as a minister,
"Springtime Family Photo," Antlers, OK, April 2009—Photo by RCJ
Guthrie Free Folk Festival, Charles Banks Wilson’s por trait of Woody hanging in the state capitol, and Woody enshrined in the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. So there, do I have your attention? Or rather, do Charlie and Al have your attention? I love these guys. And I’d say I love their poetry, but my wife, Carole, says you can’t love inanimate objects. (Question: Are poems like Charlie’s and Al’s really inanimate?) It might be natural for you to wonder, since I consider both these guys good friends, whether they know each other. Well, yes. But just barely. When my book, Alternative Oklahoma, was a finalist for the 2008 Oklahoma Book Awards, Carole and I had made plans to spend the night after the ceremony with Al and his wife, Carmelita. I mentioned that to Charlie. He came back immediately with an email that said “the Al Turner?” I didn’t know quite what to make of it. Turns out Charlie did not know Al, but knew his work and admired it. So we all sat together at the cere mony. It should be perfectly clear by now that you’ll get no ob jectivity in this essay. I wonder, is objectivity really an issue when it comes to poetry–writing it or reading it? Actually, over the years, influenced by radical historian and activist Howard Zinn, I came to question the possi bility and desirability of objectivity in history also. We should be open and honest and up front about our bias, as best we can, and then proceed to write the best history we can. Or, in this case, the best essay about poetry we can! Let’s get back to the poetry. Here’s Charlie’s “Gentle Warriors (for Russell Means)”: the women have always been our holderuppers they bear our hardships our children our future from the women come our leaders medicine men and artists they are our strength and our reason to stay our women hold us together
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 33 though he’s supposedly retired. Here’s a poem, called “Bidding Al Goodbye,” in which he imagines (or plans?) his own funeral: When I die, do not bore those assembled with maudlin memories of family or friends even if their speaking abilities match the task. Let the final words over me remind those who gather that: hope gave my life meaning; I was loved well by many, but best by one; I thrived on thought and discovery and did not stop the search or cease to grow. Then, start the music. Let some booming bass or fine tenor sing “Beulah Land;” let him follow that with “I Won’t Have to Cross Jordan Alone.” Then, rock the house. Play Kevin Welch’s “Long Cold Train” and send them out to the sounds of “Spirit in the Sky.” Its theology is weak but the beat and destination are right.iii I hope I don’t have to go to Al’s funeral, but won’t that be a great one? Al is a big fan of the music of Kevin Welch. I can remember he had trouble containing himself when he first played us Welch’s “Long Cold Train,” about riding the train to Heaven to meet family members already passed on–at nearmaximum volume! And by the way, in case there’s any doubt about the “one” who loved Al best? You don’t have to get to know him very well to see what an important role his wife, Carmelita, has played in his life. She shows up frequently in his poetry, but my personal favorite is the dedication to her in Re Membering Journeys: Sweet Carmelita no one neatah Pretty Carmeletta they don’t get bettah Loving with Carmelighta Great God Allmighta Now that’s poetry!
A few more from Al; I have said that I think one of the things he does best is speak in the voice of common folks. Here’s “Commodities Line, 1934”: Daddy walked with pride his head held high to the end of the line. He had taken life’s worst no quarter asked and less given. He watched men die, leaving behind half a leg in Belleau Wood– Lost two babies to the flu; worked through heat and pain; would rather have starved and would have too but for the kids he could not watch do without when all he had to do was stand in line. The common folk are not always white, as in “Wayne R, 1964”: Black, unlike me, he had always had to face those who did not care who he was. Our youth and intelligence a bond despite my roots, unexamined, masked as reasoned moderation. But I soon came to know I could not have walked his road as well nor tolerated one like me if I had. Just three more from Al; believe it or not, I’m trying to restrain myself, as he did when he was turning my wife and me on to Kevin Welch.
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34 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3 “Hard Year”: That was the year they shot pigs, killed calves, poured milk all over the ground, and plowed food under while people went hungry. The sheriff was put in charge of enforcing those rules but cried like a grown man as he turned his back on the law he served–and a blind eye to the home demonstration club as the ladies canned and pickled the beef and pork. The sheriff had learned his lessons from cotton patch mules that could not pull their plows over the growing plants, proving to one and all that sometimes even mules knew more, than presidents. You may have noticed Al has a sense of humor; you’ll see it again in “Analogies”: I am an analog guy trapped in a digital world where structure is hidden behind symbols understood best by those who cannot read. I take small comfort in the discovery that cappuccino is merely a richer version of the kind of coffee granny made for little boys and espresso is very close to the brew Grandma boiled in her skillet, but without the grit I liked to chew. I hope to discover the meaning of latte by the time I learn the new icons on my computer screen just before they shuffle them all again. And finally from Al, a poem which provides a transition back to Charlie for the conclusion to this essay; here’s “Ownership”: The ones who first claimed the land are no longer here. History passed through but did not stop
when their lives did. Now, their memories, the things they built, even the stones that mark their graves and the bodies within are all being drawn back to the land that has always really owned them. Four more from Charlie–first, “Tribe”: together we are we are felt our power is beheld together another grandfather a mountain of our past spoke saying apart we are like fingers each one can be cut off easily but together we make a mighty fist together we are the force of all that is together Then, in a similar vein, “Footsteps of the Elders”: footsteps are there in front of me they are very old and I have heard stories about where they lead I cannot go where they have been but I can walk in the way they have been made they have been here longer and the Creator
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 35 has shown them and preserved them This is a new one Charlie shared with me, as yet unpub lished, entitled “herds”: spring and summer clouds roll blacken the horizon on this very prairie in 1870 it took three days for a single buffalo herd to cross railroad steel laid in their path the tracks of both are long broken and buried so they say so they say did you not expect the ghosts of my brothers to haunt your heaven? thunder Finally, “The Survivors”: it is never easy to be different from most that is why so many Indian people choose to live away from the city THE CITY DOES HOT HAVE AN INDIAN HEART ...some say it has no heart at all our people believed that all things have life even the stones and water if there is no heart how can there be life? it is easier to be Indian among Indians life is not like it used to be it never has been
and never will be like it was before and Indian people who can learn to live with this change and still be Indian are the survivors there is much reason to live and be your whole self Indeed there is. And dare I suggest that these two poets, Alvin O. Turner and Charles Clark, can help us in that regard? At least, hopefully, you can see why I consider them “My Two Favorite Okie Poets.” ENDNOTES: i The poem is actually called “Red–1,” because there’s another poem called “Red–2,” about a totally different subject. Al notes, in the 2002 collection in which this poem appears, Waiting for the Rain, that the last lines are adapted from an unpublished play by Eli Jaffe. ii This one appears in Al’s second book of poems, called ReMembering Journeys, published in 2007. iii Al notes in a footnote to this poem that Norman Greenbaum, who wrote and recorded “Spirit in the Sky,” has been told by funeral directors that it is among the most requested songs for funerals, and that any and all are welcome to use it without charge.
An inspiring account of the life of Howard Zinn (author of A People’s History of the United States), by Oklahoma’s own Davis D. Joyce "...a must read..." Oklahoma Observer, December 1025, 2004 "the same readable, jargonfree style that has made Zinn's books as popular with general readers as they are with historians." Foreword
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36 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3
Pictures from Oklaho
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 37
oma Labor Fest 2010 Photos (starting from the upper left and moving clockwise) are: 1. Carlos Tello, Oklahoma State Capital Muralist, and Tim O'Connor, President of the Central Oklahoma Labor Federation. 2. Roxanne DunbarOrtiz shows off her new Okla homa Laborfest Tshirt at Coffy's in the Plaza District. 3. Bailey Perkins reads from the Oklahoma WPA Slave Narratives in Oklahoma Speaks. 4. Oklahoma Speaks Readers and Musicians line up for photographs after the performance. 5. Carlos Tello with his finished live paint, a powerful tribute to labor solidarity (Photos by Rachel C. Jackson)
38 The Oklahoma Revelator Issue No. 3
Logo designed by Rachel Jackson and Tree and Leaf Clothing for Oklahoma Laborfest
Issue No. 3 A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional 39
Our Authors for this issue Dale Ingram is an Oklahoma historian, freelance writer, and public relations consultant in Little Rock, Arkansas, born and raised in the area of Seminole, Oklahoma. He has a degree in journalism from Oklahoma State Univer sity and was formerly the Washington correspondent for the Tulsa Tribune. He enjoys archival research, espe cially as concerns Oklahoma history and culture. In Oc tober of 2009, the Tulsa World published several articles written by Ingram in commemoration of the 75th anniver sary of the death of Oklahoma bandit Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd. These articles can be found under his name in the Tulsa World online archives. In 2006, the Arkansas Press Association recognized "The Forgotten Rebellion" as published in The Arkansas Times with the thirdplace award in freelance writing among all newspa pers in the state. Wilma (Lewis) Jaffe grew up on a one acre plot of dry Okl;ahoma clay during the dust bowl and the depression of the 30s. Her family's sole support was what they could grow on that plot, but she remembers it as a good life , "except", she says " we didn't have money." She feels lucky to have had her mother, a real Oklahoma pioneer who was born in a sod dugout on a western Oklahoma homestead to inspire her love of the land, farms and farm life. She credits her father for inspiring her to a lifetime of work for peace, and social, political and economic jus tice for all working people. After a college education, professional employment and a comfortable income she still proudly describes herself as "working class". Lisa Merrell lives in her Aunt Vera’s house the historic Brady Heights District in Tulsa, OK. She gets great joy from playing her guitar, hanging out with her dogs, and directing the music at Christ Episcopal Church in South Tulsa. She continues to make improvements to the Merrell family home place in West Tulsa, and build her father’s heirloom tomato plant business with each passing
season. She looks forward to the upcoming growing sea son and anticipates seeing old friends and making new ones as they come to get their plants. Each and every one of them are grown with love. James M. Branum is a solopractice attorney who works in the areas of GI Rights and consumer bankruptcy law. He is also the Minister of Peace and Justice at Joy Men nonite Church of Oklahoma City. He is involved in orga nizing with the GI Coffeehouse movement, the Okla homa IWW, and the Oklahoma Center for Conscience. He is an avid dog lover and a lousy gardener—but never gives up on the garden due to his love of the famous Yel low 1884 Pinkheart tomato. Rachel C. Jackson lives in Norman, Oklahoma, and is working toward a PhD in English. Her area of interest is regional rhetorics, particularly suppressed public rheto rics occurring at the intersections of race and labor. Once she gets done with school, she hopes to regain her sense of what she likes to do otherwise. As far as she remem bers at the moment, this includes gardening, beading, painting, graphic design, and writing creatively. Davis Joyce is Professor Emeritus of History, East Cen tral University. He's a proud Okie....but also proud he doesn't fit the dominant political climate in Oklahoma today! Indeed, he is the author of a book on the life and writings of radical activist and historian Howard Zinn entitled Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision and the editor of two collections of Zinninfluenced Okla homa history volumes entitled "An Oklahoma I Had Never Seen Before" and Alternative Oklahoma, both published by the University of Oklahoma Press. He sees part of his mission as getting our state back in touch with its progressive/radical/liberal/left traditions. He and his wife, Carole, are retired on Lake Spavinaw, in northeast ern Oklahoma.
“The average Oklahoma feels that Will Rogers spoke for him. He does not want to hate anybody; he would rather shake hands, squat down in the shade, roll a Bull Durham cigarette, and ask: ‘How’s things going at your house?’” Gordon Friessen, Oklahoma Witchhunt, 1941
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A People’s Almanac & Cultural Occasional
The Oklahoma Revelator
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