Provided to YouTube by CDBaby Raggedy, Raggedy Are We · John L. Handcox John L. Handcox: Songs, Poems, and Stories of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union . .

John L.

Complete your John L. Handcox record collection. Discover John L. Handcox's full discography. Songs, Poems And Stories Of The Southern Tenant Farmers Union ‎(CD, Album). West Virginia University Press Sound Archives.

Young John was enamored with the work of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and began writing poems and songs primarily as a way to entertain his classmates and family.

John's story will not be forgotten, now that Michael Honey has got it down on paper. I believe his songs will live on. In that sense, John will never di. - Pete Seeger, from the Foreword. Honey's book is essential reading to understand the history of labor and black music in the rural south. Handcox (1904-1992) was a Great Depression-era tenant farmer and union advocate from Arkansas renowned for his politically charged songs and poetry. In 1935, Handcox joined the Southern Tenant Farmers Union and began writing songs and poetry to rally the group's members. Two years later, Charles Seeger and Sidney Robertson recorded him for the Library of Congress. His songs were later promoted by fellow protest songsters, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Joe Glazer.

He became a traveling organizer, poet, singer and songwriter for the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union. Jail, arrests, beatings and murder destroyed the union. John and his family went west to San Diego, and people in the union movement thought he had died. He worked as a carpenter and selling produce from his backyard until folklorists rediscovered him nearly 50 years later. His life and his songs and poems stand as a testament to this fact. Even as multinational corporations make inordinate profits by driving down the wages and living standards of workers today, it is always possible, John believed, to make this a better world. Watch a video of John Handcox talking and singing I Live On.

John Handcox (1904-1992) was a singer/songwriter active in the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.

Southern Tenant Farmers Union. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. New York: Covici-Frede, 1936. Mitchell, H. L. "The Founding and Early History of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Arkansas Historical Quarterly, vol. 32 (1973), pp. 342–369

The Negro Migration to Canada after the Passing of the Fugitive Slave Act. Landon. 1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. The University of Chicago Press Books. Chicago Distribution Center. The University of Chicago.