No More Cotton To Pick By Phillip Jackson

by Phillip Jackson, Founder and Chairman

June 26, 2007

What will America do with 36 million Black Americans now that there is no more cotton to pick? Last summer, I visited Mississippi. This was my first travel to the rural, deep south. To my surprise, I found that Black people were not involved in the planting, growing or harvesting of cotton. Instead, while White and Latino men drove machines that harvested the cotton, I saw hundreds of young Black men standing idle on street corners, drinking alcoholic beverages throughout the day and evening. For Black people in the South, there is no more cotton to pick.