The Georgia Farmers’ Strike

Author Lee Lancaster retraces the movement of a remarkable time in our nation's agricultural history.

In 1976, America sent a peanut farmer from Plains to Washington, D.C. Farmers throughout the nation, especially in Georgia, had high hopes for President Jimmy Carter, but those dreams vanished when he seemingly disregarded their problems--historic drought and embarrassing commodity prices. Peach State farmers took to the streets, slow rolling a tractorcade on I-75 toward Atlanta. The result was the largest ever farmer-led demonstration in the United States. The farmers pledged not to sell, plant or buy anything until "100% parity" was obtained. The farmers eventually steered their tractorcade to D.C., trying to prevent the foreclosure of dozens of farms with help from an armed group in Middle Georgia and a real estate tycoon from New York who would become the forty-fifth president.