"The exodus of residents and businesses started in the ’50s and ’60s as the Civil Rights movement rattled the Deep South to its core and upset the status quo in town. Gin owners were reluctant to process cotton from black farmers, and local businesses resisted service to an integrated clientele. When the social order of segregation was disrupted, white flight beset the area, draining predominantly black towns of money and resources. As opportunities diminished in these places, black people were forced to leave, too, seeking better lives in northern cities like Chicago and Minneapolis—an exodus that coincided with the tail end of the Great Migration.
“As more and more people left town, I watched as the vacant houses were torn down,” Eleanor said. Witnessing the steady deconstruction of her hometown in the wake of fleeing neighbors and family would seem like a harrowing experience, but it gave her a strange sense of relief. “Many of those houses had been around since slavery, and for generations our people lived in those little shacks across the south. They only stood as a reminder of bad times—seeing them torn down made me happy.”
What followed wasn’t a rebirth, however, but a lukewarm continuation of the racist traditions from the past. The old slave shelters may have been destroyed, but the same tired, overworked hands continued to toil in the fields with little hope of upward mobility...
After being forced off of the farm, Andrew was left with no equity from the home he lived in or the land he tilled. Additionally, working on the farm provided him with no insurance or benefits, and certainly no severance package after losing his job. Andrew was completely unprepared to take on life outside of the farm.
“There were a few farming jobs around here, but I knew none of the owners treated their workers right,” he said. “If a tractor broke down, they’d cuss at you and maybe even hit you. And if it rained for a month straight and there was no work on the farm, that was a month without pay.”...
“You could probably say I’m poor, I wouldn’t disagree,” [Marcus] said. “But my attitude is, I’m just a pilgrim. I know I’m not going to be here forever; I’m only passing through. To me, poverty is about attitude—I [can’t be] focused on planting roots on this earth and seeing the fruits of my labor. I’m too old for that now.”"
Stories of how it started, and how it is maintained - and what it's like to live in poverty. (unfortunately, all the interviewees seem to be male, though some women are mentioned as sexual assault victims)
There is also a brief story in here about false murder charges against a former mayor that I want to know more about.
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