1937: Alabama farmers find community in a good old-fashioned square dance

Image: Library of Congress

In the 1930s, the federal government established dozens of experimental cooperative farm settlements across the United States in an effort to provide relief and employment to farmers displaced by the Great Depression.

One of these was Skyline Farms, located on 13,000 acres in Jackson County, Alabama. The settlement was divided into 181 farms, with government-supplied housing and farming equipment to help the tenants work the land.

Like much of the Jim Crow South, the project was only open to white families, though a similar cooperative settlement was created for black families in Wilcox County. Read more...

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