Organizing

Overview

The Ceremony of the Land was first performed in 1937 at a convention for agricultural worker organizing -- a precursor to the National Agricultural Workers' Union (NAWU). It was written by Reverend Howard Kester, a preacher and activist who worked with the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, the NAACP, and the Committee on Economic and Racial Justice. The ceremony was frequently performed at union conventions as a call and response.

Questions

  • How does the ceremony describe the land and its fruit?
  • How does the ceremony invoke solidarity among "races of men" and the "disinherited"?

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Ceremony of the Land Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.