Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Delta and Providence Cooperative Farms Papers #3474, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received of A. Eugene Cox in March 1960, August 1962, and May 1963.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC staff and Jessica Sedgwick, September 2008

Encoded by: Jessica Sedgwick, September 2008

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, March 2021, and by Jackie Dean, December 2021 for ArchivesSpace migration.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American agricultural laborers--Mississippi--History--20th century.
• African Americans--Mississippi--Economic conditions.
• African Americans--Mississippi--Social conditions.
• African Americans--Mississippi--Social life and customs.
• African Americans--Mississippi.
• Agricultural laborers--Arkansas.
• Agricultural laborers--Economic conditions.
• Agricultural laborers--Health and hygiene.
• Agricultural laborers--Mississippi.
• Agricultural laborers--Social conditions.
• Agriculture, Cooperative--Mississippi.
• Agriculture--Arkansas--History--20th century.
• Agriculture--Mississippi--History--20th century.
• Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
• Amberson, William Ruthrauff, b. 1894.
• American Friends Service Committee.
• Bolivar County (Miss.)--Economic conditions.
• Bolivar County (Miss.)--History.
• Bolivar County (Miss.)--Social conditions.
• Bolivar County (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
• Commission on Interracial Cooperation.
• Consumer cooperatives.
• Contraception--United States.
• Cooperative League of the U.S.A.
• Cooperative marketing of farm produce.
• Cotton growing--Mississippi--History--20th century.
• Cotton picking machinery.
• Cotton plantation workers--Southern States.
• Cox, A. Eugene.
• Delta Cooperative Farm (Hillhouse, Miss.)
• Eddy, Sherwood, 1871-1963.
• Farms--Mississippi--History--20th century.
• Fellowship of Reconciliation (U.S.)
• Fellowship of Southern Churchmen.
• Franklin, Sam H.
• Holmes County (Miss.)--Economic conditions.
• Holmes County (Miss.)--History.
• Holmes County (Miss.)--Social conditions.
• Holmes County (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
• Kester, Howard, 1904-1977.
• Minter, David R.
• Mississippi--Race relations.
• Mississippi--Social conditions.
• Mississippi--Social life and customs.
• Mitchell, H. L. (Harry Leland), 1906-1989.
• Niebuhr, Reinhold, 1892-1971.
• Providence Plantation (Miss.)
• Raper, Arthur Franklin, 1899-1979.
• Rust, John.
• Sanger, Margaret.
• Sharecroppers--Arkansas.
• Sharecroppers--Mississippi.
• Socialist Party (U.S.)
• Southern States--Economic conditions.
• Southern States--Politics and government.
• Southern States--Race relations.
• Southern States--Social conditions.
• Southern States--Social life and customs.
• Southern Tenant Farmers' Union.
• Tenant farmers--Mississippi.
• Treadway, Blaine.
• Young Women's Christian Association of the U.S.A.

• Paul J. Vanderwood Papers Concerning Delta Cooperative Farm (#3892)
• Arthur Franklin Raper Papers (#3966)
• William Ruthrauff Amberson Papers (#3862)

Delta Cooperative Farm, started in 1936 in the community of Hillhouse (later called Rochdale) in Bolivar County, Miss., and Providence Cooperative Farm, started in 1939 near Cruger in Holmes County, Miss., were attempts by a philanthropically supported corporation, Cooperative Farms, Inc., to help southern agricultural laborers out of their economic plight. The cooperatives were organized around four principles: efficiency in production and economy in finance through the cooperative principle, participation in building a socialized economy of abundance, inter-racial justice, and realistic religion as a social dynamic. To these ends, the Delta and Providence cooperatives were to pay African Americans and whites equal wages for work, and provided social and other services, most of which were open to neighboring communities. These services included a cooperative store; a medical clinic, eventually run by physician David R. Minter; a credit union; a library; a community building; religious services; educational programs, including a school for African American children; summer work camps for visiting students; and community institutes. In addition to growing cotton, agricultural operations eventually included a dairy farm, a beef farm, a pasteurizing plant, and a saw mill.

Delta Cooperative Farm was founded by missionary evangelist and author Sherwood Eddy, who served as secretary-treasurer, and Reverend Sam H. Franklin, director, 1936-1943. In addition to Franklin and Eddy, the original board of trustees included theologian Reinhold Niebuhr; John Rust, inventor of the cotton picking machine; and Professor William R. Amberson. Later trustees included Blaine Treadway, Charles S. Johnson, Arthur Raper, and Frederick Patterson. Most of the first member families on the farm were sharecroppers who lost work following the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933; many were also refugees from East Arkansas who were evicted during a strike in the mid-1930s. Interracial efforts on the farm primarily focused on establishing economic equality, as whites and African Americans worked together and were to be paid equally depending upon the amount and quality of work done. Living arrangements, schooling, and social affairs were segregated, while it appears that some religious services and the medical clinic were integrated. The farm was managed by a democratically elected council made up of five members, no more than three of whom could be of the same race, and was organized into a Producer's Cooperative and a Consumer's Cooperative. Delta was funded primarily through capital investments. Over time, members were to amortize the capital funds supplied by the board of trustees and would gradually gain control and ownership of the farm. The capital funds would then be used by the trustees as a revolving fund for the establishment of more cooperative farms.

Providence Cooperative Farm was established in 1938 in hopes that its better quality soil would bring in higher revenues for the project, as there were deficits at Delta for 1936 and 1937. The Delta farm was sold in December 1942 and operations were consolidated at Providence due to better farming prospects and the number of familes at Delta who had left for service in World War II. The consolidation brought the first African American members to Providence, which had been started with six white families from Delta. Providence was organized into a Producer's Cooperative and the Providence Extension Farm. The Producer's Cooperative handled the bulk of the farming, while the Providence Extension Farm, whose earnings funded social work and other services offered at Providence, handled dairy and beef herds and the farming of land that was not part of the Producer's Cooperative. Additionally, there was the Providence Cooperative Association, an organization of African Americans living in and near Providence aimed at community improvement along religious, educational, economic, and public health lines. Educational institutes were held under the auspices of the Providence Cooperative Association, which brought in leaders from institutions such as the Tuskeegee Institute and the Farm Security Administration to teach on topics such as farming methods, community health, and civic problems. In May 1943, Franklin left Providence to serve as a naval chaplain to Asia, and A. Eugene Cox, the farm's accountant, took over as director.

In 1946, Delta Foundation Inc., was organized as a non-profit organization primarily for educational work. In 1950, Sam Franklin, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Charles S. Johnson resigned from the Providence Cooperative Farm board of trustees and a new board of directors was formed. On this new board were A. Eugene Cox; Lindsey Cox, registered nurse at the medical clinic; David Minter; and Mary Sue Minter. By 1950, cotton had become unprofitable at Providence, and from 1950 to 1956, operations were almost entirely centered on education and medical work. Efforts to provide educational opportunities on a broad geographic scale, which were primarily funded through cash rent and the sale of timber, included summer camps, farmer's institutes, the consumer's cooperative, the credit union, and the medical program. The political climate of the early and mid-1950s, especially with regard to McCarthyism, increased tensions between the Providence Cooperative Farm and the surrounding communities, as Providence was accused of being a communist operation that taught social equality between races. Probably due in part to these tensions, cooperative efforts at the farm ceased around 1956 and portions of the land were sold to the individual member families.

Sample item:

Letter from Harvey Barton, an Arkansas sharecropper, to H. L. Mitchell, seeking help in obtaining work on the Delta Cooperative Farm, 29 April 1936 (see folder 5).

Papers include correspondence of Sherwood Eddy, secretary-treasurer; Reverend Sam H. Franklin, director 1936-1943; and A. Eugene Cox, director after 1943. Correspondence is chiefly with and about patrons, trustees, founders, social organizations, educators, religious groups, and other interested parties. Major topics include agricultural issues; fundraising (see especially 1936-1937 materials); donations of money, books, clothing, and other items; interracial issues; member morale; farm operations and conditions; cooperative methods; staffing; poor conditions of southern sharecroppers; medical issues, especially in handling childbirth, malaria, and other illnesses; relations and tensions with surrounding communities, and the establishment and impact of educational, social, and religious programs, cooperative stores, a medical clinic, a credit union, a library, summer work camps for students, and educational institutes for African Americans. Other topics include the eviction and dire conditions of Arkansas sharecroppers following a strike, many of whom became members at Delta; the Rust cotton picker and plans to fund cooperatives with revenue from its sales; and criticisms of the farms' management techniques and member morale from trustees William R. Amberson and Blaine Treadway, among others, which ultimately led to an investigation conducted by the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union in May 1940. Also included are scattered financial material (see especially annual December and January materials); plans; periodic updates on the state of the farm to the Board of Trustees; issues of the farm publication, "The Co-op Call"; membership agreements; letters expressing general interest in the organization and requesting information; and letters from prospective members seeking placement on the farms (see especially 1936-1937). Frequent and prominent correspondents include Arthur Raper of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation; H. L. Mitchell and Howard Kester of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union; Delta trustees Reinhold Niebuhr, John Rust, and William R. Amberson; David R. Minter; and various representatives of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Socialist Party, the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, the Cooperative League, the American Friends Service Committee, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and the Young Women's Christian Association, among others. There is also some correspondence with Margaret Sanger regarding the Delta farm's interest in contraception. Note that the bulk of the papers are from 1936 to 1943.

Other papers include incorporation materials, by-laws, policies, a member's manual, and other organizational papers; minutes of the Cooperative Council meetings; subject files; histories; clippings, including collected newspaper articles about a meeting held in Tchula, Miss., during which David Minter and A. Eugene Cox were asked by the community to leave Holmes County because they had been accused of teaching social equality between races on the farm; ledgers; articles and other writings, chiefly by Sam Franklin and Sherwood Eddy; audits; tax returns; medical reports; financial reports; and other records of farm operations. Note that, like correspondence, these files are most complete for 1936-1943.