Macon Magazine

40 maconmagazine.com | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024 Dr. Womack, what can you tell us about your story and why you do the work you do? I grew up in a rural Alabama community. Many people were landowners who grew their own food. My grandparents were very good stewards of the land, and so they always had fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, chickens, fresh eggs, and all of that. I saw the beauty in that kind of life. But as I went to school and started work, I encountered a lot of people who only knew stereotypes about rural people and how we lived. I wanted to change that story. I wanted to have some authentic voice to the narrative. D r. V e r o n i c a L . W o m a c k PHOTO BY MATT ODOM | INTERVIEWED BY JULIA MORRISON For folks who aren't familiar with the term "the Black Belt," what's the key takeaway? The Black Belt region is a crescent- shaped swath of land that extends from eastern Texas to Virginia's eastern shore. Historically, it was an agriculturally based society fueled by Black enslaved labor. Then we moved into sharecropping; we moved into low- skill, low-wage manufacturing labor. But we also have to think about the Black Belt in terms of the foodways that it created, the beautiful quilts that the women have crafted over the years, the music that came out of this place, the community. Often, the Black Belt is only defined by its negatives. That's not the whole story of the Black Belt. The resilience of the people, the history, and the culture is something that I want to hear more about. I see my contribution as highlighting that distinct culture that we have. That's what the Black Belt is to me. It's agriculture, it's music, it's food. Through BFN, you've been drawing attention to Black farmers. Can you give our readers some examples of how digital presence and resources ensure the success and longevity of Black Belt farmers? For a long time, many of these farmers lived in places without broadband internet. Something that I noticed during my research was a lack of African American farmers' presence online, especially from small farmers, family farmers. So, I wanted to tell the story because that's really my community's story. Many of the stories published about Black farmers have been about their H E R O E S A M O N G U S W e caught up with Dr. Veronica Womack at Comfort Farms in Milledgeville. She's a political science professor and the executive director of the Rural Studies Institute (RSI) at Georgia College & State University and the founder of the Black Farmer's Network (BFN). She combines research with storytelling to shine a light on policies that will help the rural South, particularly the Black Belt region.

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