5. An ill-fated attempt to resist the draft and overthrow Woodrow Wilson, the Green Corn Rebellion was a short-lived attempt by Oklahoman farmers to oppose America’s entry into World War One
Following the re-election of President Woodrow Wilson, winning his second term with the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War”, just months later Wilson went before Congress on April 6, 1917, to request a declaration of war. Following America’s entry in the First World War, Congress also passed legislation imposing military conscription via a draft system. Opposed heavily by the Socialist Party, as well as working-class unions and farmers, the Selective Draft Act of 1917 hit rural Oklahoma hard. Depleting poor farming communities of desperately needed labor, impoverishing and ruining whole families and towns, hostilities began to flare.
Starting on August 2, 1917, Seminole County Sheriff Frank Grall and Deputy Bill Cross were ambushed by militants. Burning railway bridges and cutting telephone lines, by the following day the movement had expanded into an armed gathering of between eight hundred and one thousand in Southeastern Oklahoma. Consuming green corn as they progressed, the intent was to rally support and march on Washington, overthrowing Wilson, repealing the draft, and ending the war. Concluding anti-climatically, the rebellion was betrayed and its movements reported ahead to the authorities. Easily defeated by a regional militia, its’ were leaders arrested, tried, and imprisoned.