22. The Union Guaranteed Legal Representation
The sharecroppers who joined the union did so because they wanted to have legal recourse to the funds that they believed the white landowners owed to them. In exchange for membership dues, the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America had the goal of arranging legal services to ensure that payments were rendered.
This would mean that landowners who had been keeping false accounts to keep their sharecroppers in perpetual debt would have to be transparent about their account books. Not only would they lose money, but the African Americans that they despised would have legal power over them.
