1980

SMHA won a favorable US Supreme Court decision in the “Itinerant Workers Law” case. SMHA filed suit against the State of Louisiana and St. Mary Parish for enacting a worker registration ordinance which required all persons applying for a job to be photographed and fingerprinted, answer personal questions, and pay $10 for the privilege. The Court ruled the ordinance unconstitutional and ordered compensation. A third woman joined SMHA’s senior staff. An agricultural and rural life specialist from the Midwest, she brought with her an understanding of broad-based strategies to bring whole communities together on “common ground.”