1939 sharecropper’s strike

The complex issues of race and class in small town America are forefront in the exhibit of Otis N. Pruitt photographs on display at the Missouri State Historical Society in Columbia, Mo. Those issues are intimately tied to Missouri’s history,

In this episode of the Mo’ Curious podcast, we learn about the dramatic 1939 sharecroppers strike in Mississippi County, Missouri.

Landlords in Butler, Pemiscot, New Madrid, and Dunklin counties evicted hundreds of sharecroppers (black and white) who then moved their possessions onto the roadways of Highways 60 and 61.