In the Mississippi Delta, Black Farmers Are Rebuilding the Legacy of Land Ownership

JONESTOWN, Miss. — As Pastor Bennie Brown sat in the bright red pews of St. James Missionary Baptist, just a few feet away from the podium where he preaches every Sunday, the 71-year-old farmer recalled feeling the spiritual presence of the ancestors. 

The church is located in Jonestown, an all-Black rural town in the Mississippi Delta, about 12 miles north of Clarksdale and 67 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee.

Today, the church serves as a place for traditional worship, but for the community’s ancestors, it began as a brush, or a hush harbor. It was a secluded meeting place for those who were enslaved to pray and cry out for liberation. They constructed several additional churches that also functioned as hush harbors. 

Just a few miles from St. James lies the building where, after the Civil War, these Black churches founded the Swan Lake Association.

As Black land ownership declines and Black farmers represent less than 1% of the nation’s more than 3.3 million producers, Brown and others are on a quest to train up the next generation of farmers in the Delta.

It’s in his blood. 

His father benefitted from the Swan Lake Association, which was founded by 17 Baptist churches in 1870. The mission? To build community support for Black people in the Delta through education, agriculture, and ministry. They also wanted to help them lease and buy land so that they could build wealth and own their own farms.

However, over the years, the mission has faltered; and if there is no revival, the work of the elders to build up the association — which now consists of only eight churches — may be nonexistent.

Brown says he won’t let that happen. 

“I became one of the elders myself, and the legacy that I’ve been talking about now has to be protected, and that has to be a reverence by me,” he said. “I’m the one now who’s in charge, and so if I don’t do it, then it’s not going to get done.”

After 57 years on a nearby plantation, where Brown was born, his father moved to Jonestown, bringing with him an 8-year-old Brown and his siblings. Within five years of becoming a part of Swan Lake, his father — who had a third grade education — leased about 75 acres, bought a home, and launched multiple businesses, including a service station, café, and store, Brown said.

He achieved the association’s mission: successfully transitioning from a sharecropper to leasing land.

“I didn’t realize at the time how radical it was … the idea of now leasing land felt more independent, but also felt more responsibility for the family to really make things happen to work harder to produce,” Brown said. “We could determine our destiny. We were in charge.”

For decades, Black farmers have faced systemic barriers to access land and resources and well documented discrimination by the federal government, particularly the United States Department of Agriculture. It has resulted in the decline of Black farmers nationwide. Tariffs, USDA office closures, and federal funding freezes brought on by President Donald Trump and his administration haven’t improved the environment for Black farmers, leaving many in a state of uncertainty. These factors have jeopardized the livelihood and businesses of some farmers. 

Brown and other Delta farmers told Capital B they remain focused on their work in agriculture, undeterred by the current political climate and the elimination of federal grants. He says he has faith and Black people have seen these types of attacks on their livelihood before given this country’s history. Through Swan Lake, Brown created a farm incubator to teach Black folks how to farm — whether their interest is in aquaculture, raising hogs and chickens, or growing soybeans and vegetables. 

Currently, there are seven farmers, each cultivating 1-acre plots. He helps them register their farms and establish them as legitimate businesses so they can earn a living, reviving the original concept envisioned by the founders of the association. His hope is that they will scale their operations by growing new crops or investing in new equipment.

A love for farming that grew with time

For a time, farming was the furthest thing from Brown’s mind. 

He grew up on a plantation, but also during a tumultuous time in this country’s history. He may have been too young to remember the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, but he came of age during the 1960s, and by 19 he joined the Air Force. 

And the plantation “soured his idea” of what farming was about. “It made me feel like farming was slavery,” he said. 

By the time he came back in 1980 to help his father run his then-grocery store and finish his undergraduate degree at Delta State University, he saw the decline of Swan Lake and witnessed more elders pass away. 

Ever since, he says he’s been called to carry on, and protect, the legacy.

Part of that is “putting the farm back into the hands of Black farmers,” he said. For the past 20 years, the Swan Lake Association has leased its land to white farmers. Over the years, some Black families sold their land, stopped farming, or distanced themselves from the area, and profession, entirely.

Brown has had to fight for Black farmers to lease land. He noted that some resistance comes from the board of trustees within the association. Three years ago, when Brown presented the idea of a farm incubator to the group, they did not believe it was a good concept.

But, he’s been able to make inroads with the association, which resulted in leasing more than 400 acres to fourth-generation farmer Christi Bland-Miller, whose favorite crop to grow is rice.

But it was no small feat.

On a fairly humid day in late June, Bland-Miller parked her truck near her uncle’s soybean field, blasting the air conditioner, as she recalled the details of the moment she walked into a meeting with Brown to discuss the potential partnership with the board of trustees of Swan Lake. 

She walked in fully prepared, wearing her summer dress and pregnant with twins. However, she didn’t expect the line of questioning that awaited her. She had come in with an offer significantly higher than the previous rent they had received, after consulting with Brown about current rental prices. 

“How do you know what we’re currently getting?” one trustee asked.

“Do you have a tractor?” another one questioned.

Bland-Miller chuckled, thinking: “Who would come asking for 400 acres without a tractor?”

They didn’t think she was a farmer, she observed. 

This is one reason why representation is crucial, especially in today’s climate. Bland-Miller, who farms with her husband, Robert Miller, and her father, James Bland, owns 600 acres, but farms about 2,000 acres of land across four Delta counties. 

Similar to Brown, the 38-year-old did not envision a future in farming, despite having grown up knowing her family’s farming history and working alongside her father as a child. From a young age, her dad dreamed of becoming a farmer, even after graduating from college and facing the reality of securing loans with high interest rates. 

Bland comes from the generation of farming where there were “more farmers going out of business than it was coming in,” he said.

“When I told my mom I was gonna farm, she literally started crying,” the 65-year-old said, sitting in the back of his daughter’s truck. “It’s tough.”

But, Bland’s love for the farm kept him in it, and now he gets to work with his daughter to continue their legacy.

Bland-Miller graduated with a chemistry degree at Mississippi State University, but as she spent more time helping on the farm, she realized it could be a viable business. She eventually joined the family enterprise full time. 

“The more people you have involved, the more sustainable you can be,” she remarked, embracing her role in the family business.

The older Bland encouraged younger farmers to get a mentor. It’s why the Miller family’s mission is to expose youth to the different facets of farming — from row crops to cattle to technology. They recently hosted a Farm to Table event, an idea curated by Miller, where 75 people attended. 

“If they can’t sit at the table, it’s my job to make them a table to sit at,” said Miller, who referenced his 20 mentees. He didn’t grow up in agriculture, but married into it, he says, enjoying the journey and all it has to offer. 

He added: “Whatever I’m doing, agriculture-wise, it’s my job to bring them, whether it’s digging out a riser, whether it’s the Farm to Table event, whether it’s planting seeds at Mr. Bennie’s farm, whatever it is to get them involved and show them that there’s a difference in agriculture than what it was 100 years ago.”

Getting back to the basics

Over in Quitman County, Robbie Pollard has collaborated with Brown and others, often sharing information and providing resources. He, too, didn’t think he’d follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who grew commodity crops. Instead, he pursued a career in information technology.

Years later, he found himself learning how to grow vegetables, learning from YouTube videos and older farmers. He began looking for a farm, and in 2019, he landed a space in Marks, where he grows on about 5 acres, though the land is around 96 acres including woods. He’s hoping to launch his own incubator program, teaching people to grow their own food.

The 50-year-old is already doing the work, he’s actively training at least one farmer and works with others, sharing fertilizer, irrigation, and equipment. Through his cooperative, Happy Foods Projects Inc., they assist farmers by selling their products without charging for the service.

“We’re working together,” he said, while walking around his farm. “Each one, teach one.”

He also works with an elementary school in Clarksdale to build a community garden and partners with the University of Mississippi on his initiative, the North Mississippi Food RX program, which buys produce from local farmers and sells food boxes to underserved communities in several counties throughout the Delta.

“You want to make sure to grow your own food so you can be self-sufficient. We do know how to grow our own food. We just gotta get back to the basics,” Pollard said.

Back in Jonestown, Brown’s hope is that through the work they are all doing, others come on board and do the work together. 

Since St. James has served as the anchor institution, Brown has been able to partner with organizations such as But God Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit, to access the resources they need.

One of those partners is Rootswell, which has helped to strengthen and open markets so the farmers can sell their food and also help nourish local communities from the Delta’s “ancestral soil,” said Tyler Yarbrough, director of Mississippi Delta Programs at Partnership for a Healthier America, a collaborator of Rootswell. Since 2023, the two groups have been able to distribute 500,000 servings of fresh produce from Mississippi farmers and local vendors, including those with Swan Lake. They also helped Swan Lake secure a grant to purchase farm equipment.

“This summer, expect to see more fresh, local produce from Swan Lake across the Delta showing up in places like J’s Grocery, a healthy corner store we’ve helped reimagine with a legacy merchant family, and on the 14:19 Mobile Market, rolling out every Saturday starting July 19 to serve rural communities across Coahoma County,” Yarbrough added.

Swan Lake has even secured contracts to sell their produce.

“We [have to] return to the basic elementary function of being church folk — folks who understood that our faith is stronger than anything else that we have ever had,” he said. “What we have is stronger than our money, stronger than these institutions have been around us, and that’s what keeps us going.”