by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

This past weekend I attended a participatory workshop held in Plains, GA called "Your Town:
Designing It’s Future." This workshop brought in rural development experts and local
community activists to interact and learn more about how to move rural communities towards common
goals. Along with the volumes of materials provided by professionals, we were privileged to hear
first hand stories of the histories of small Georgia communities like Archery, Plains, Monticello
and Pebble Hills.

Deacon Ravens of the St. Mark AME Church stated that he was proud of the independent spirit and
drive for excellence that was generated by Bishop William Decker Johnson on the people of Archery,
Ga., a very small rural community about 2 miles from Plains which was the birthplace of former
President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Ravens compared the life of those who lived on nearby plantations to his
own by referencing a specific incident in his teenage life in Archery.

Mr. Ravens had three brothers, one of which was to be married on a Saturday. While preparing to
go to the wedding, he and his brother’s boss at the saw mill came by. Their boss said, "I,
god, if y’all can’t come to work today, then you need to come and get your pay." Mr. Raven
said that he and his brother ran down to the mill and were there before their boss got back to get
their money and proceed to the wedding. Mr. Raven, a retired High School principal, said that
because they did not live on the plantation and their father owned land, they did not have to bow
down to such threats.

It seems that over time, white people have transformed this "I, god.." saying into the
softer, "By, god.." phrase. Indeed the plantation owner saw himself as "god"
over those who lived and worked out there. And until a countervailing power intervened to transform
his omnipotent view of himself in relation to his Black workers, he stayed "god".

This view of plantation life in the 1930’s and 40’s by Mr. Ravens is in stark opposition to
the image presented by another of the speakers at the "Your Town" conference. Mr. James
Hadley, a retired military man, introduced his newly released book, "African-American Life on
the Southern Hunting Plantation." Mr. Hadley’s father worked on such a plantation, Pebble
Hill, right outside of Thomasville, Georgia, for 53 years.

Mr. Hadley interviewed many people who had worked on these plantations who gave a more positive
view of plantation life such as:

"In retrospect, I feel that many of the surrounding plantations were blessings for rural
blacks that had limited outlets for gainful employment in South Georgia during the early 20’s. The
plantation offered work and a reasonable degree of security for those who sought a safe haven where
they could support their families."

"During the Depression, I found that the families on the plantation were better off because
the plantation owners provided them with…food, clothing, and other things that they could help
them along and gave a break to those that were farming out there."

Indeed the plantation owner took care of a lot of the responsibilities for his workers and their
children that the individual Black farmer or city worker had to do for themselves. This
"burden" became more acute during economic hard times such as the Great Depression. It was
during this time that Bishop Johnson Home Industrial College closed down and many small farm owners
left their farms to seek government assisted jobs.

In a book entitled "One Third of a Nation" Lorena Hickok made extensive
"confidential" reports to her boss, Mr. Harry Hopkins, as she traveled over thirty-two
states between 1932 and 1935 investigating the day-to-day toll the depression was exacting on
individual citizens. In one letter to Mr. Hopkins, head of FDR’s Federal Emergency Relief
Administration, Ms. Hickok comments on the surprising acceptance of Southern white farmers to the
higher wages to "Negroes" provided by the Civil Works Administration (CWA):

"Generally, the farmers seemed to be most enthusiastic about CWA. They felt that it had
helped them, by reducing the number of tenants and laborers they would otherwise have had to
support. There have been many cases, relief people tell me, of farmers asking that some of their men
be put on CWA."

So the CWA and other government programs by offering higher wages attracted both the plantation
worker and the small independent Black farmers to leave the countryside seeking a better life in the
larger cities. However, for the rural communities left behind, life still revolved around those
large landowners who held prominent positions both in the small towns and in the county. These large
white farmers, landowners and their relatives became the city councilmen, mayors, judges and county
commissioners in these rural districts. These rural districts in turn grew or did not grow based on
the development philosophies of these "prominent" families. It was quite hard for the
"little" people to vote against their employers and benefactors.

At the "Your Town" workshop the mayor, a Black city council woman and former city
councilman reported on some of the reasons for their success in breaking the downward trend of the
town of Monticello, GA, population 2,400. The former city council man said that they were able to
break with tradition because the new, more progressive city council had three new members that were
not from Monticello. "Since we had just arrived here over the last several years, we did not
know who to be afraid of," he said.

This fear can be traced back to both the plantation life of the modern era and stories about the
"Knight Riders" and KKK which sprang up during the Reconstruction years. In the South
there are extreme differences in the perception of that history and those institutions developed
during that period. These differences in perception lay at the root of how Blacks and whites in the
rural South are able to or not able to work together for community improvements. For instance in
preparing myself for the "Your Town" workshop, I decided to read up on the history of
Terrell County where I operate Muhammad Farms. Here is an excerpt from a 1970 book entitled,
"The History of Terrell County."

"The Ku Klux Klan was a law and order league of mounted night cavalry men, called into
action by the intolerant condition of a reign of terror under the rule in the South at the close of
the War between the States.

During the Reconstruction Days in the South it became an absolute necessity to have an
organization, such as the Ku Klux Klan to protect Southern firesides. Our own Confederate soldiers
organized it. When they returned home after the surrender, their fortunes gone, and homes destroyed,
they found the "Carpet-baggers" and scalawags here. They were forced to keep the freed
Negro in subjection until he could be freed from the tendency and influences of the scalawags and
carpet-baggers.

From the beginning, there was only the thought of social pleasure and recreation in this order.
But they discovered that their queer costumes, and their weird and mysterious doings affected the
minds of the Negroes, and, so the whites turned their efforts into a means of defense, as was needed
by the South at this time. It seemed as if the very foundation of Southern civilization was
threatened. If white or black in any community of the county was giving trouble they found a K K K
note on the door. This meant leave the county at once."

Many left and never came back and differences of opinion on that reality still effects voting,
decision making, funding and the feeling of community in these rural areas today. Some stayed and
found safety under the wings of benevolent plantation owners. Some dared to continue farming as
independent land owners, albeit on smaller and less fertile strips of land. They remained to fight
these same "benevolent" plantation owners now writing the rules on the County commissions
and USDA County committees. The prominent whites now did not only own the best tracts of land, but
were in charge of distributing the benefits of a forced taxation to the "good old boys".
They were "benevolent" to the Blacks on their plantations while still supporting the
"terrorists" who frightened the "free" Blacks out of their land, businesses and
wits.

These same "Robbing Hoods" have become more sophisticated in their corruption and can
now make wrong seem right, as with the Pigford vs. Glickman Class action lawsuit. The Black farmers
by settling out of court found out the hard way, that lawyers serve the highest bidders, white
sheets can be dyed to look like black robes, "justice" is only blind to itself, the
helpless are left helpless and the public is left without a clue wondering, "well, what do they
want now?"

We hope that you get to see Mr. Tom Burrell on "BET Tonight" this Tuesday, January 22nd
at 11:30 p.m., as he discusses the plight and fight of Black farmers and land owners.

***News Flash: Black
Farmer to appear on "BET Tonight"