Shape of the South: Glimpses of the Black Belt

In the heart of the US South lies a crescent-shaped region known as the Black Belt. Within this small geographical area - named for its fertile black soils which for a few short decades produced more cotton and claimed more imported ensalved peoples of African descent than any other area of the Antebellum South - we can find a microcosm of the racial and social tensions that mark the American Experience to this day. Once a land of abundance and simultaneous cruelty, the Black Belt counties of Mississippi and Alabama are today one of the poorest parts of the US by all demographic measures. My exploration of this place is both a documentary study and a confrontation of my own privilege in that, though I lived for 10 years within a couple of hours of this place, I knew nothing of both the tragedies and the triumphs of the Black Belt. That a woman can grow to adulthood in America unaware of the details of this place is a problem that I hope my work in the Black Belt will help to correct.