Day Four: Tuesday,  August 6, 1991

AM: Show Five - "The Dispossessed"

Video Tape (VHS.0265)

Professor Nan Woodruff explores the impact of the Agricultural Adjustment  Administration on the South and the challenge to landowners by sharecroppers' unions and the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU).

Followed by Q&A.

Historian Robin Kelley presents a brief clip from "Seeing Red' featuring Dorothy Healey and Carl Hirsch and their work with sharecroppers in California and Missouri respectively. Kelley explores the role and leadership of the Communist Party - USA in organizing agrarian and industrial workers.

Professor James Gregory looks at the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930's and speaks of the need to deconstruct the mythology that has grown up around novels like "The Grapes of Wrath" and the photographs of Dorothea Lange. He also examines the impact of the migration on the state of California.

Followed by Q&A.

PM: Show Six - "The Rise of Labor"

Video Tape (VHS.0260)

Q&A with James Gregory concludes.

Professor James Green looks at the rise of the labor movement in the 1930's and the role of the CIO under John L. Lewis.

Followed by Q&A.

Following the re-election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1936, progressives were poised to organize more industries, pass a strong Fair Labor Standards Act and purge the Democratic Party of its Southern landowners.  Historian Steven Fraser explains how conservatives put the New Deal on the defensive.

Followed by Q&A..