Citizens' Alliances

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CITIZENS' ALLIANCES

CITIZENS' ALLIANCES were agrarian organizations formed first in Kansas and then in the neighboring states of Iowa and Nebraska by townspeople who supported the Farmers' Alliances. When the supreme council of the Southern Alliance met at Ocala, Florida, in December 1890, it recognized the value of such support and assisted in the organization of these groups into the National Citizens' Alliance as a kind of auxiliary. Even more eager than the farmers for third-party action, members of the Citizens' Alliance actively participated in the several conventions that led to the formation of the People's Party, which subsequently absorbed their order.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goodwyn, Lawrence. The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

McMath, Robert C., Jr. Populist Vanguard: A History of the Southern Farmers' Alliance. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.

John D.Hicks/a. g.

See alsoAgriculture ; Conventions, Party Nominating ; Cooperatives, Farmers' ; Farmers' Alliance ; Ocala Platform ; Populism .