Ep. 3 Kansas Farmers and the 1979 Tractorcade (Releases April 3)
In the winter of 1979, thousands of farmers from across the country drove their tractors straight to Washington, D.C., clogging highways, paralyzing traffic, and demanding to be heard. Among them were dozens of Kansas farmers, many from small towns like Kinsley, who joined the Tractorcade to protest mounting farm foreclosures, falling crop prices, and the federal government’s failure to protect rural communities.
Organized by the American Agricultural Movement, which began in Campo, Colorado, the Tractorcade wasn’t just a protest - it was a populist cry for survival. Kansas farmers had been fighting for economic justice since the days of the Populist Party, and now, nearly a century later, they were back in the streets, but this time on wheels.
In this episode, we trace the route of the Kansas farmers who rolled through the prairies on their way to the nation’s capital. We revisit the stories preserved by the Kinsley Public Library, where oral histories capture the voices of those who made the journey. We explore how the Tractorcade connected local struggles to national policy, and how these rural Americans asserted their right to economic liberty and representation.
It’s a story of protest, perseverance, and patriotism - Kansas-style - where farmers behind the wheel became spokespeople for the values at the heart of the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of fairness.
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