Green Corn Rebellion

The Green Corn Rebellion took place in 1917 in rural Oklahoma. It was a brief popular uprising against military conscription by poor farmers aligned with the Socialist Party of America.

The Socialist Party had been a significant political force in Oklahoma, regularly winning 10 percent of the vote in elections. As did many socialists in Europe, the Oklahoma farmers viewed World War I as a rich man's war and violently opposed U.S. participation in it.

The short-lived uprising erupted when the government attempted to enforce the national draft law passed by Congress. In August 1917, a group of Central Oklahoma farmers, spurred on by local socialists and the Arkansas-based Working Class Union organized to oppose the draft. The rebels may have believed they would get the support of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). However, the IWW had rejected affiliation with the WCU in May 1917 because the WCU included farmers, shopkeepers, doctors and lawyers and not just wage workers. Arming themselves, a few hundred rebels met on the banks of the South Canadian River and prepared to march on Washington, D.C..

Taking the Green Corn Rebellion seriously, local townspeople marshaled their own forces, fought several small skirmishes with the rebels, and eventually scattered them. The battles killed four townsmen, three rebels, and a local schoolteacher mistakenly killed by a posse after he ran a roadblock. Fact|date=February 2007 In all, 266 men were arrested; 150 were convicted and 75 sent to jail. The rebels served terms ranging from a few months to 10 years, and while most were paroled or pardoned after a short period, five men remained in the Federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, in February 1922.

The rebellion weakened the Socialist Party in Oklahoma, although the party did help former Oklahoma City mayor John C. Walton to be elected governor in 1922. Nationally, the Socialist Party was blamed for the rebellion, although the incident was set off spontaneously without its knowledge.Fact|date=September 2007 This was one in a series of events that undermined the American socialist movement and fueled the Red Scare.

A fictionalized account of the abortive revolt can be found in William Cunningham’s novel, "The Green Corn Rebellion" (New York: Vanguard, 1935).

See also

* Farmers' Alliance
* Populist movement

Further reading

* cite book
last = Burbank
first = Garin
authorlink = Garin Burbank
title = When Farmers Voted Red: The Gospel of Socialism in the Oklahoma Countryside, 1910-1924
publisher =
volume =
pages =
date = 1976
publisher =
* cite book
last = Kohn
first = Stephen M.
authorlink = Stephen M. Kohn
title = American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts
publisher = Greenwood Press
date = 1994
pages =
doi =
id =
* cite book
last = Peterson
first = H. C.
authorlink = H. C. Peterson
coauthor = Gilbert C. Fite
title = Opponents of War, 1917-1918
publisher =
date = 1957
pages = pp 39-41
doi =
id =
* cite book
last = Sellars
first = Nigel Anthony
authorlink = Nigel Anthony Sellars
title = Oil, Wheat & Wobblies, the Industrial Workers of the World in Oklahoma. 1905-1930
publisher = University of Oklahoma Press
date = 1998
pages = pp 77-92
doi =
id =
* cite book
last = Sellars
first = Nigel Anthony
authorlink = Nigel Anthony Sellars
title = Treasonous Tenant Farmers and Seditious Sharecroppers: The 1917 Gren Corn Rebellion Trials
publisher = Oklahoma City University Law Review
volume = 27
number = 3date = Fall 2002
pages = pp. 1097-1141
doi =
id =