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One of the first actions taken by the union was the filing of a lawsuit against Hiram Norcross. This was to ensure that the rights of sharecroppers under the AAA were protected and received a share from the government subsidies.

There were many letters written protesting the eviction of hundreds of farmers. The STFU sent five men to Washington to carry out an appeal to the Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace. Two African Americans, E.B. McKinney and N.W. Webb, were chosen to go to Washington to denounce the continual eviction of tenant farmers.

The very first strike of the STFU was in 1935. Cotton pickers were demanding for a better pay rate. Cotton planters wanted to pay forty cents per one-hundred pounds that fall season of 1935 but the union, under H.L. Mitchell direction, demanded for one dollar. After a few days of striking, many cotton plantations offered seventy-five cents and fewer offered a dollar. This marked the union’s first victory.

During World War II, the STFU leadership recommended its own members to find work outside of the plantation fields of Arkansas. They set up an “underground railroad”. This was a transportation network that transported over 10,000 workers to jobs in the northern and eastern regions of the United States.

After World War II, they changed their name to the National Farm Labor Union and were charted by the American Federation of Labor. From these changes, the organization began operating in California. In this state the NFLU was involved in the DiGiorgio Fruit Corporation strike of 1947. After a year and a half on strike, the union had succeeded in improving conditions for its worker. Another important strike that the union was organize was in Corcoran, California. The union, along with 30,000 men and women, fought against cotton pickers wage cuts. The strike was also a success.