AT A GLANCE: The populist Party Movement

  • Oklahoma Commemorative Stamp 1957
    Oklahoma Commemorative Stamp 1957

    • The Farmer’s Alliance movement, which morphed into the Populist Party, was made up of struggling farmers who needed help and felt the government should assist.

    • The Populists’ platform consisted of eight major planks: the direct election of U.S. senators, government control of railroads, federal supervision of co-ops, allowing initiatives and referendums, a graduated income tax, women’s suffrage, prohibition and the free and unlimited coinage of silver.

    • Oklahoma wrote the first constitution since the formation of the Populist Party, except for Utah. Being in the region where Populists were the strongest, Oklahoma produced the nation’s only Populist constitution.