Georgia Farmers' Strike, The

The American Agricultural Movement vs. Jimmy Carter

Lee Lancaster

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781467154253
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439678435
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Author Lee Lancaster retraces the movement of a remarkable time in our nation's agricultural history. In 1976, America sent a peanut farmer from Plains to Washington, D.C. Farmers throughout the nation, especially in Georgia, had high hopes for President Jimmy Carter, but those dreams vanished when he seemingly disregarded their problems--historic drought and embarrassing commodity prices. Peach State farmers took to the streets, slow rolling a tractorcade on I-75 toward Atlanta. The result was the largest ever farmer-led demonstration in the United States. The farmers pledged not to sell, plant or buy anything until "100% parity" was obtained. The farmers eventually steered their tractorcade to D.C., trying to prevent the foreclosure of dozens of farms with help from an armed group in Middle Georgia and a real estate tycoon from New York who would become the forty-fifth president.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Gimme Jimmy!
• 2. A Farmers’ Strike Is Ordered at the Chuck Wagon Café
• 3. The Fire Starts at Hurricane Creek
• 4. Happy Thanksgiving, Jimmy!
• 5. Onward to Atlanta
• 6. Country Comes to Town
• 7. The Strike Begins at Midnight
• 8. I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
• 9. Mister Farmer Goes to Washington, Or Bob and Emmett’s Eggcellent Adventure
• 10. Reenacting the Alamo in McAllen, Texas
• 11. Washington Got My Goat
• 12. Plains, Trains and Tractorcades
• 13. Planning a Tractorcade to Washington
• 14. The Tractorcade to Nowhere
• 15. Washington Got My Goat—Again!
• 16. Johnny Colston
• 17. Eviction
• 18. Something Brewing in Bleckley County
• 19. Bleckley County Rebellion
• 20. An Unimaginable Sacrifice
• Bibliography
• About the Author