Smithsonian Article

Inside the little-known story of the Green Corn Rebellion, which blazed through the Sooner State a century ago

These days, rural Oklahoma is the last place anybody would look for leftist revolutionaries, but in 1917 the area exploded into full-blown insurrection. The state's tenant farmers, many of whom were Socialist Party members, viewed the Great War in Europe as a conflict that benefited only the rich. When the federal government enacted a draft, an uprising in eastern Oklahoma saw local townspeople skirmishing with rebellious farmers, including whites, blacks, and American Indians. More than 250 men were arrested — some sentenced for up to ten years' imprisonment.

An Agricultural Law Research Article:

Treasonous Tenant Farmers and Seditious Sharecroppers: The 1917 Green Corn Rebellion Trials by Nigel Anthony Sellars

In the summer of 1917, the rural counties bordering the South Canadian River in central Oklahoma seethed with anger. Tired of economic exploitation, bewildered by the United States' recent entry into a European war, and hardened by the possibility of being drafted, hundreds of working-class tenant farmers banded together and determined to foment a Socialist revolution. The Green Corn Rebellion had begun.

Chapter 6 from Sam Marcy’s Book, The Bolsheviks and War

“The anti-war struggles of the past in the U.S. have not always been mere protest movements of a passive character composed mainly of middle class elements and the youth. Those earlier struggles against wars of U.S. imperialism were altogether different, particularly the movement against the first imperialist world war of 1914-1918. The truth of the matter is that at that time the struggles had mainly a working class and socialist character. Opposition to the war took on many forms and was often militant in character resorting to direct action and armed resistance. Opposition to the draft was widespread, and took on massive proportions in many of the cities of the U.S…”

Grass-Roots Socialism answers two of the most intriguing questions in the history of American radicalism: why was the Socialist party stronger in Oklahoma than in any other state, and how was the party able to build powerful organizations in nearby rural southwestern areas?

Adopted at the St. Louis National Emergency Convention, April 7-14, 1917 and Ratified by Referendum

“The Socialist Party of the United States in the present grave crisis solemnly reaffirms it allegiance to the principle of internationalism and working class solidarity the world over, and proclaims its unalterable opposition to the war just declared by the government of the United State…”

And Still the Waters Run tells the tragic story of the liquidation of the independent Indian republics of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles, known as the Five Civilized Tribes. At the turn of the twentieth century, the tribes owned the eastern half of what is now Oklahoma, a territory immensely wealthy in farmland, forests, coal, and oil. Their political and economic status was guaranteed by the federal government—until American settlers arrived. Congress abrogated treaties that it had promised would last “as long as the waters run,” and within a generation, the tribes were systematically stripped of their holdings, and were rescued from starvation only through public charity. Called a “work of art” by writer Oliver La Farge, And Still the Waters Run was so controversial when it was first published that Angie Debo was banned from teaching in Oklahoma for many years. Now with an incisive foreword by Amanda Cobb-Greetham, here is the acclaimed book that first documented the scandalous founding of Oklahoma on native land.

In August 1917, a ragtag coalition of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and renegade Socialists rose up in rural Oklahoma to stop the draft and America’s entry into World War I. They imagined a vast army of the oppressed rising with them, marching on Washington to topple the government. the “Green Corn Rebellion” though bold, was short-lived.

Columbia University history professor Eric Foner examines the rise of socialism in America in the early 20th century. He talks about the Socialist Party in New York City and Milwaukee, and looks at the Socialist Party of America presidential campaigns of Eugene Debs.