Theme: Endure

Throughout American history there have been many impactful rebellions, and one of them was called the Green Corn Rebellion. In the early 1900s, the Working Class Union (WCU) organized In Oklahoma and Arkansas in order to march on Washington and end WWI. 
In early August of 1917, hundreds of men, including white, African American and American Indian, came together at Sasakwa, Oklahoma. They gathered at the farm of John Spears, who was an aging Socialist. The men formed the militant wing of the working-class movement and planned to march to Washington. On the way, they survived by eating barbecued beef and roasted green corn. This is how the rebellion got its name.
	In the early stages of the rebellion, a tenant farmers’ revolt broke out in three counties along Oklahoma’s South Canadian River. The rebels began burning bridges and cutting telegraph lines on August 3, but they soon faced authorities which halted the revolt. 
Three men perished in the conflict, and around four hundred others were arrested with 150 of those men being convicted and recieving federal prison terms of up to ten year's. The rebels endured by continuing the revolt, fueled by hardships held against local landowners, buisnessmen and state and local authorities. 
	This event impacted American society because State and federal authorities utilized the revolt in their efforts to suppress the WWI, although neither these entities, nor the socialists had any official part in the uprising. 
The rebellion continues to impact us in the present because it has influenced culturally significant works, like the novel, The Green Corn Rebellion, by Oklahoma-born author William Cunningham. This book depicts how people wanted WWI to end and memorialzed the rebellion and the endurance of the rebels several year's after the events of August 1917.

Emery Sewell

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