But by the early 1890s, during a punishing economic recession, Democrats had alienated white farmers and laborers of the Populist Party by supporting railroads, banks, and other powerful interests at the expense of jobs, workers’ wages, and schools. White farmers in the Populist Party, also known as the People’s Party, were driven to ruin during the devastating recession. Cotton prices collapsed—from 25 cents a pound in 1868 to 12 cents by the 1890s. Banks refused to loan money to most farmers, forcing them to borrow at usurious rates from the merchants who bought their crops. They turned
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