FREEDOM'S SEEDS: Collective Agency and Community Resilience: A Theoretical Framework to Understand Agricultural Resistance

Abstract

First paragraphs: In 1962, Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer traveled to the county seat in Indianola, Mississippi, in order to register to vote. This wasn’t her first time and it wouldn’t be the last. Although she had been warned with threats of violence and threats of death, she was determined to continue until she was able to exercise her right to participate in electoral politics. Upon her return to the Marlow Plantation, the plantation owner, W.D., confronted her. She had been a dedicated employee for 18 years as a share­cropper, time- and recordkeeper, cook, and domes­tic. He told her to withdraw her application for voter registration or leave. Her home, as paltry as it was, was a condition of her employment and that of her husband, Pap. Like many African Ameri­cans, she faced homelessness and joblessness as the price of political participation. She must have feared with good reason that she would be lynched...

Keywords

• Collective Agency
• Community Resilience
• Black Farmers
• Agricultural Resistance
• Agriculture History