N.C. Farmers' Alliance
Rockingham, Richmond County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
N.C. Farmers' Alliance. Organized by statewide convention of delegates in Rockingham, Oct. 4, 1887. Leonidas L. Polk elected first secretary.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
On October 4, 1887, delegates gathered in Rockingham to organize the North Carolina Farmers' Alliance, choosing Leonidas L. Polk as its first secretary. The Alliance channeled the grievances of hard-pressed farmers in the Gilded Age, agitating for fairer credit, railroad regulation, and cooperative marketing, and it became a seedbed of the Populist movement.
Why it matters
This meeting launched one of the most powerful agrarian reform movements in American history, giving ordinary farmers a political voice against railroads and monopolies.
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Related people
- · Leonidas L. Polk
Themes & tags
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