The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-22
By JIM ALLEN


THE armed struggle now raging in Tallapoosa
County, Alabama-in the heart of the Black
Belt-between Negro troopers tenants and poor
farmers and armed posses of deputies and white
landlords is a desperate struggle against starva-
ton and feudal tyranny.
Led by the Choppers Union, the Negro toilers
supported by the poor whites in the section, are
defending themselves with breech-loader and
shotgun against a raging, terroristic band of 600
white landlords, deputies and business men mo-
bilized from Tallapoosa and Lee Counties and
armed with machine guns and rifles.
While only one Negro share croppes-Ralph
Gray-is definitely known to have been killed
and six others wounded, while defending Gray
in his cabin against posse of deputies who had
mortally wounded him in an encounter GA the
road, scores Of other choppers lie wounded in re-
treats in the backwoods. OF the thirty-two Ne
gro toilers thrown into the Dadevlle Jail four of
those wounded have disappeared" According to
Police Chief Wilson they have gone cutting
stove wood'-With a lynch mob accompanying
them. The lynch mob is on the rampage-ter-
rorizing and burning. The Mary Church, in
which the Negro toilers held Scottsboro protest
meeting last Wednesday night was burnt to the
ground in broad daylight and the torch has
been applied to number of cropper's cabins,
know whether they were occupied or not"
The troopers are putting up stf fight for
their lives. Sheriff j. K. Young YVES critically
wounded and two other officers were wounded in
gun battle when the Negroes were defending
themselves and the mortaly wounded Gray from
the lynch mob. Three choppers and three Negro
women, who were wounded in this battle, We're
thrown into jail together with the others. An
armed lynch mob is surrounding the jail sup
posedly to prevent Jail break and repel ru-
mored attack by the choppers, but-rnore likely
to carry through a wholesale massacre of the
prisoners. The lynch mob is securing the coun-
try in search for the organizer of the Choppers
Union and others of its leaders using blood
hounds and they armed to the teeth. The
Negro huts throughout the area are deserted.
The skirmishes started Wednesday night when
deputies attempted to break up mass meeting
called by the Choppers Union to protest the
Scottsboro legal lynching and draw up demands
for food from the landowners. Despite the land
lords terror another meeting was held at Dades-
vile, county seat, on Thursday night with over
500 choppers attending.
The southern newspapers are playing up the
struggle as a struggle between the Negroes and
whites The Birmingham Age-Herald has
scream headline ARMED Negro Red Threat
Heard. saturday mornings Chattanooga Times,
under the headline Alabama Posse Moving To-
ward Red Gathering reports that an army of
600 white mobsrnen are moving on another meet
ing of 500 Negro choppers to settle the racial
difficulty"
The struggle of the Negro troopers is for bread
and against dea,-l from starvation On July LIST
all the food allowances granted the troopers by
the landowners we're cut out. The only means of
sustenance for the choppers and tenants was the
meagre allowance of fatback, corn and flour
ranging from one dollars to two dollars worth
week for an entire family-advanced by the
landowners. BY July I the crops had been put
by"-planted and plowed-and by cutting off
the allowances the landlords served notice on,
the croppers-Negro and white alike-that now
they had the choice of starving on the land
while the crops they put by were maturing, or
starving elsewhere. 1t was an effort by the land
owners to drive the choppers off the land and
take their entire crops when harvesting time
came, Then they could employ day labor at so
and rs cents day. The troopers have nowhere
to turn for food They haven't got red cent
The Choppers Union, which first began organ
izing here about two months ago rapidly grew
to take In troopers from practically every farm