Shoun Hill, Photographer, Black Farmer Cause

I met Shoun Hill a couple of years ago.  We were on the land at a function sponsored by the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association. We had music, food, furniture, t-shirts, and golf carts all around.  The stage was Gary Grant's front porch. A marvelous occasion.

Shoun had come up from Georgia where he was doing a photography fellowship. My first image of him is that of Shoun emerging from a cloud of dust, camera in hand, as he took photographs up close and personal of a black farmer harvesting peanuts in Tillery, North Carolina.  At that time he was doing work that he describes in this video that follows.

Now, he is fund raising for an important photographic project that will tell the stories of Black farmers and their struggles to hold on to their land.  Art, photography, and music are incredible ways to tell the story.

Early on there was John Ficara, an incredible talent with his camera.

Now there is Shoun Hill. Remember that name.  Shoun Hill.

I plan on supporting his work via my pocketbook.  I hope you will consider doing the same. There are some tax write-off possibilities as well as perks that he will put in our hands.

Here is the link to his fund raising page.

Here is the link to his photography page.

Please forward these links around to your family and friends.

It is a noble cause.

Out with 2008; In with 2009

So, what actually happened with the good people who have been a part of this venture over the last twelve months. Until justice comes in all of its boldness, there is always room to do more; on the other hand, I think we are only called upon to do what we can do in our own small corners of the universe. I think there will forever be this restlessness within me until Jesus comes in all of His glory. Until then, we'll just do the best we can.

In February, we traveled to Tillery and Whitakers, NC to take part in the 10th Annual Black Land Loss Summit Conference sponsored by the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.
At that conference Justice Teams III and IV met movers and shakers in the Black farmer movement as well as some key officials in the USDA, some of whom had their names in the papers not long afterwards. Interesting for us all. Posts from February and March of this year on this blog will give you pictures, memorable moments, and memorable quotes from that amazing trip. That one is etched forever in my head and heart.

In the Spring, Justice Team III members spoke at the annual conference of the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. This link summarizes that important presentation.

We continued to collaborate with various advocates around the country, some writing articles and some writing books. All of which, we pray, will be used to tell the story of Black farmers in new places and spaces.

During the Spring, Summer, and Fall, Justice Team III lobbied with a variety of congress persons and presidential candidates on behalf of the Black farmer and family. We mailed letters and sent emails to a lot of offices, and, we even got some responses back.

Justice Team III ventured out a bit into the world of white farmers, interviewing a few and comparing and contrasting the lived experiences of white farmers versus black farmers. Were there differences. No doubt about it.

In the Spring, we recruited Justice Team IV, and those good people began to meet to formulate ideas around the notion of white privilege and how it impacts the lives of people of color, especially Black farmers.

We were able to publish a piece in a refereed journal that chronicles the larger sociopolitical historical background of the Black farmer. That was a labor of love with a competent ACU professor.

In the November, current and former students from Teams II, III and IV presented a poster at the national conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy in Memphis, Tennessee. A great visual was created with the assistance of professionals from the Chickasaw Nation as we attempted to compare and contrast what we called "community narratives" of Black farmers and Chickasaw Nation citizens.

In the fall, members of Justice Team IV traveled from Abilene, TX to Ada, OK to prepare for the AAMFT poster presentation. What a grand time that was.

Justice Team IV members are now preparing for a three hour workshop at the 2009 annual conference of the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

There were some wonderful times of collaboration between us and two talented musicians and one talented photojournalist. Those labors have yet to come to fruition, but I'll comment more on them in the next post. All we need there is funding to bring those efforts out into the public eye. I think they are worthy efforts because they use the gifts of quality people, telling the stories of Black farmers via photographs and music.

So, is this a time for boasting? Of course not. What in the world would we be boasting about?

Is time a time to evaluate and dream and scheme for 2009. Of course. There's always room for planning, praying, and humbling ourselves before God's mighty hand for His direction and guidance.

That's my prayer for our meager efforts for 2009.

Story from Arkansas

Check out this video:

Seems like yesterday....

At the end of December, 2004, when the snow had made the area in Abilene where I live a winter play land, while out jogging one morning, I made a decision to write my grandsons each day, to reflect on things like running, life events, relationships, etc. That commitment was something I kept religiously. Here, then, is a part of a letter written on June 28, 2005 (hopefully they won't mind this one peek into their letters), one of the most memorable days of walking alongside advocates and farmers in this righteous cause. So, three years later, here are the words I penned to two children that day.

"We arrived in Raleigh, NC on Monday night after leaving you in Ada early Monday morning. We drove to OKC, took a flight to KC, MO, and then much to our surprise, we had to fly to Baltimore, MD in order to get down to NC. That was long, long, long, long. Then we found our way to the hotel, a nice one by the way, and then had dinner and bought a potted plant for the grave of a deceased farmer and his wife.

Then, yesterday morning, we were up and out early, something like up at 5:00 am our time and out to drive to Tillery, NC at 6:00 our time. We go there in plenty of time and just drove through the area.

Then at 10:30 things began to pop. We met the Black Farmer president, heard the history of the Tillery community, watched a video of the group that meets in the community center, met several kids and a bunch of adults, and then set off on an amazing lunch meeting. We sang, prayed, and read scripture like it was church, except that all the participants, and all the people at the meeting, except for your Mema and Poppie, were African Americans. We were the only white faces we saw all day long.

We had a great lunch, did a silly exercise led by an elderly, retired teacher, and then the farmer president asked Poppie and Mema to speak. That’s called an impromptu speech. Mema was amazing, and I’d called mine 'adequate,' but she’d give it higher marks. Mema had the crowd crying about her story of interviewing a Black soldier who fought in WWII. She was on, definitely on.

They gave us a cake for our 35th anniversary and sang over us.

We then talked and visited until thunder clouds came up, so we moved our activities out to the farm and the place where a farmer couple is buried. I had asked for permission to place flowers at the grave site, and the farmer president and his family said yes, and several community people came. It was raining, but we all had umbrellas, and we sang, said some words, quoted some scripture, and took a lot of photos. A lot of people spoke kind thoughts toward Mema and Poppie, and about the deceased farmer and his wife.

Grandchildren, I cannot begin to speak to you of how deeply moving that experience was. To say a few words over the fallen warriors who fought the good fight for the freedom to farm the land, to place flowers at their tomb, and to be received graciously by their family and friends all speak to the generosity of people who come together for a common cause.

Afterwards, we went to the farmer couple’s house, talked, ate, drank water or cokes, and sat under the awning and laughed and told stories. I really liked Gary, the young man who’s graduated with a degree in English from ECU; PJ, the tall, tall, tall young man who’s just graduated and going to school in RI to study cryogenics; Raymond, the retired police officer who came home to Tillery, who may be related to me through our common Cherokee heritage from Orangeburg; Gary Grant, the NBFAA president; and his extended family.

So, this morning as I sit in the semi-dark at the motel in Rocky Mount, I am filled with awe, wonder, and praise. It’s a long, long way from West Texas to Tillery, NC, but the human spirit of grace and peace connects them both. In the words of John Denver, 'In the eyes of all the people, the look is much the same; the first one is the last one when you play a deadly game.' He was talking about nuclear war, but the 'deadly game' I’m talking about is racism, a game that destroys all of us, those doing it and those receiving it."

Yes, that was an amazing day with an amazing group of people. Thanks for reading these words as I've attempted to describe it.