Populism in the South Revisited

Some of the nine essays in this volume recast previously published material and others foreshadow future monographs. The editor James M. Beeby describes the essays as “case studies that analyze local politics in the South” pertaining to various facets of the Populist movement, and he arranges them chronologically from the end of Reconstruction to the 1920s (p. ix). In the first essay, Joel Sipress focuses on Grant Parish, Louisiana, revealing that the area's main obstacle to Populist success was its difficulty achieving biracial cooperation. While local whites were willing to make a political alliance with blacks that would benefit both races, they were outnumbered in the state by those who were not. Thus by the turn of the twentieth century, racism had defeated Populism in Louisiana. Next, Matthew Hild examines the role of the Knights of Labor in Georgia's Populist movement. He concludes that while the Knights of Labor was no more successful than the farmers at creating a viable political alternative to the Democratic party in the state, the organization left an impressive legacy as Progressives later passed part of its reform agenda into law

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