THE GREEN CORN REBELLION Triggered by opposition to World War I and the draft, this tenant farmers' revolt broke out in three counties along Oklahoma's South Canadian River in August 1917. While antiwar sentiments fueled the Green Corn Rebellion, it actually grew from long-standing grievances many tenants held against local landowners, businessmen, and state and local authorities. The farmers were particularly angered over the growing control of land by small numbers of wealthy landholders who often resorted to rampant land speculation and outright fraud to obtain property. Speculation and falling crop prices had by 1917 forced over half of Oklahoma's farmers into tenancy. As a result, many tenants and small landowners joined the state's Socialist Party and affiliated organizations such as the Oklahoma Renters' Union. The Socialists proposed expanding the public domain, enac
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