Green Corn Rebellion

The Green Corn Rebellion took place in 1917 in rural Oklahoma. It was a popular uprising of Native Americans and poor farmers who identified with the Socialist Party. Up until that time, the Socialist Party regularly won 10% of the vote in Oklahoma elections. The short-lived uprising was set off by when the government attempted to enforce the draft instituted by Woodrow Wilson on the farmers and Native Americans. The rebels saw World War I as a rich man's war and resisted violently. The rebellion was brutally put down and the Socialist Party in Oklahoma was effectively destroyed. Nationally, the Socialist Party was blamed for the rebellion, although the incident was set off spontaneously without their knowledge. This was one in a series of events causing the demise of the American socialist movement and it added fuel to the repressive atmosphere of World War I.