The 1930s were filled with important sit-down strikes. In Missouri at the close of the decade, even farmers sat down to protest eviction from the cotton fields they farmed.

On Jan. 9, 1939, 1,700 mostly African-American farm families led by the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, the NAACP and other groups, began the Missouri Highway Sit-Down. The tenant farmers worked cotton fields they did not own and were suddenly evicted on New Year’s Day so owners could pay them a daily wage rather than share crop proceeds with them. "We have no place to go," said William H. Jones, one of the evicted farmers. "We don't know if this will do any good, but it will show the people what we are up against." What people saw were camps with family belongings set up in the middle of southeast Missouri’s Highways 60 and 61 to protest. While snow and icy drizzle fell, the farmers’ families slept in the makeshift huts and kept warm with fire barrels, drawing attention from the media with photos of women and children living in the road in such dire conditions. Even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt talked about their plight in her national column. The action also joined black and white farmers together in a rare show of racial unity on a broad scale.

Authorities cracked down on the sit-downers, forcing many to move to flood sites along the Mississippi River. Eventually the sit-down was ended by state authorities, but the action did spark action from the federal government. Officials created a five-point plan to address their needs and eventually offered them grants and low-interest loans. #PROUAW

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