January to March, 1969, 1969

Following a meeting in Chicago, the leadership of the AMC decided to forego the organization of Louisiana sugar field workers in favor of sugar mill workers, since the latter were covered under the NLRA while the former were not. See especially Frank Lapeyrolerie's letters of protest to Patrick Gorman over this decision (Feb 17, 28), as well as Mitchell's letters to Harry R. Poole (Feb 18; March 4), and NSF Executive Secretary Fay Bennett (March 27). There is a letter from James Youngdahl to Mitchell on the current status of Local 300 v. McCulloch (Feb 4); see also the Motion For Summary Reversal filed with the US Court of Appeals in the case (March 4). The papers include a good deal of correspondence between Mitchell and Ann Johnson of the Southern Students Organizing Committee on a plan for students to conduct a survey of sugar workers during the coming summer (Jan 28; Feb 3; March 5, 17). Also on the subject of sugar workers, see the report of an organizational meeting held at Houma, Louisiana (Feb 5, n.d.) and a magazine article on the self-help housing program at Edgard, Louisiana (n.d. [March])