Howard Kester was an American preacher, organizer, and activist, most known for his work organizing the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) beginning in 1934. His work was inspired by a radical version of Christianity called the Social Gospel, influenced by Reinhold Niebuhr among others, and a Marxist critique of the Southern economy. A white Southerner himself, he firmly believed that the only way to create a new "Eden" was to end racial strife by uniting poor black and whites around a common cause. His views on race began when, as a college student, he toured Poland with the YMCA. After visiting a Jewish ghetto he began to see a parallel between Europe's treatment of Jews and America's treatment of blacks. Kester worked with numerous organizations throughout his life that sought equalit