John Beecher 1904–1980

Name ______Class ______Date ______The Great Depression Begins Biography John Beecher 1904–1980

WHY HE MADE HISTORY Throughout his eventful life, John Beecher wrote poetry that spoke for the poor and forgotten.

As you read the biography below, write down a list of some of the jobs John Beecher held in his lifetime. In what way are these related to the subjects of his poetry?

Born to a well-off family and assured of a pleasant future, John Beecher chose instead a life that took him through some of the most significant social events and upheavals of his time. Beecher was a descendant of two crusaders for good causes. One was the nineteenth-century New England antislavery minister Henry Ward Beecher. The other was Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one of the most influential books of the antislavery movement before the Civil War. Like these forebears, John Beecher fought for justice and equality for all people. Beecher’s poetry spoke for—and often in the voices of––the working people of his time. His poems often featured the downtrodden, the forgotten, victims of discrimination, those cheated by politics, business, history, and the law—in short, people like those who were forced to take to the road during the Great Depression. Beecher had shown great sympathy with everyday working people since he was a child. In the 1920s, while his family encouraged him to attend and graduate from college, Beecher was still undecided. At one point he quit his studies and came home to Birmingham to work in the steel mills. Finally convinced to finish his education, he graduated and began a job teaching writing. However, soon after the Depression started, he left his job because he felt it was more important to help those who were in trouble. Working for a series of New Deal agencies, Beecher conducted studies of farmers in the upper Midwest. In Florida he carried out the first study of the seasonal laborers and was instrumental in building the first camps for those workers in Florida. While heading several different regional social service agencies, Beecher also found time to write a series of poems about African American sharecroppers Ned Cobb and Cliff James and their efforts to organize sharecroppers in the South. Later, in World War II, Beecher joined the Merchant Marine and served aboard the Booker T. Washington, the first truly integrated vessel to take part in the war effort. The ship was commanded by an African American captain and had a crew of both blacks and whites.

In the 1950s Beecher was teaching at San Francisco State University. Another Red Scare was sweeping the country. All educators who worked in state schools were required to take a loyalty oath. Beecher refused, calling the request illegal and in itself un-American. He was fired and blacklisted for nine years. No school would hire him. Beecher later sued for reinstatement to his job and for lost pay and eventually won. In the course of his life, he also managed some European study and travel. Twice married, he raised a son and daughter. For a time he lived in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, where he farmed and worked at a small press founded by him and his wife. One of his own volumes of poetry was published there, illustrated by Barbara Beecher, his wife. Through it all, Beecher never stopped writing. His poetry speaks in the voices of those men in the steel mills, of the black sharecroppers seeking a better life, of small farmers pushed off their land, and often in the voice of Beecher himself as he struggles to make sense of what he sees and experiences. In his later years, Beecher was in demand as a reader of his own poems, often traveling to schools around the country. It cannot have been easy to be around John Beecher. Friends report that he seemed always to be furious about some cause. A friend from Alabama described Beecher as “a perpetually sore toe in a too-tight shoe.” Still, given the issues he cared about, it is hard to imagine him otherwise.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN? 1. Recall Rearrange the following items in the order they happened. Which item can’t be arranged this way. Why? 1) Beecher and his wife start a small press. 2) Beecher serves aboard Booker T. Washington. 3) Beecher works in a steel mill. 4) Beecher composes poetry about working people. 5) Beecher is fired from his teaching job.

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______2. Evaluate If John Beecher were alive today, what are some events, institutions, or people he might take issue with? Explain your answer.

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ACTIVITY Read some of John Beecher’s poetry. Then form small groups and determine which poems each group will present. Plan, rehearse, and present a program with an introduction, a reading, and a conclusion.