Challenges to the authority of the government, claims of a stolen election, and the death of a police officer. True, these are all recent events, but the story is much older.
The early 1930s were short on money and long on anger about it. It was a fertile climate for the growth of extremism, and grow it did in the Rogue Valley, coalescing around an organization called Good Government Congress.
Jeff LaLande, long a student and teacher of Rogue Valley history, tells the story anew in the book The Jackson County Rebellion: A Populist Uprising in Depression-Era Oregon. The events are gripping, the figures colorful, and the parallels with our time often too close for comfort.
Jeff LaLande shares details of a turbulent time in the region.