A 2022 Rural Storytelling Project

Each community comes with untold stories and assets worth sharing and preserving for generations to come. What made or currently makes your community special? Black Farmers’ Network (BFN) wants to capture and document these valuable stories through our Georgia Black Belt Gems project, and we would love your help.

The Georgia Black Belt Gems project offers a deeper discussion about the people, places and things that have made Small Town USA special and is critical to sustaining rural community stories. To capture these valuable narratives, BFN is simply asking community members to submit their town’s rich history using this digital questionnaire. 

Topics to archive from the form below can range from cooperatives; community farms; farming families; historical churches or religious organizations; Black-owned newspapers and social clubs; political organizations; hidden business districts (cafés, theaters, boarding houses, hotels, juke joints); community festivals (old and new); schools and other institutes; segregated public swimming pools or beaches; segregated parks and recreational areas; family cemeteries; Black residential areas; sites where lynchings or violence may have occurred; segregated hospitals; and Civil Rights meeting posts.

This project helps broaden BFN’s reach to rural residents and history keepers. It also serves as the basis for Black Belt communities to attract the interest of others about their area’s unique history and therefore leverage outside investments in time, resources and intellectual capital. Our goal is to help rebuild the capacity of these extraordinary places.