Special note: This site is a significant agricultural learning center for self-supporting African American farmers in West Alabama. With the decline of single family-owned farms, the Federation of Rural Coops, through the Rural Training & Research Center supports, educates, and provides a community for small-time farmers.
The Rural Training and Research Center, Epes, has a complicated past steeped in the quite Civil Rights movement of West Alabama. Overshadowed by the events in Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham a legal battle played out between African American tenant farmers and white landowners, resulting in the tenants being evicted. The community came together and formed the Panola Land Buying Association. The goal was to build a place that was theirs. As part of that movement, the Federation of Rural Coops supported the farmers along the way. In 1970 the PLBA formally purchased around 1,100 acres in Epes, Sumter County, Alabama and the Federation of Rural Coops opened the Rural Training and Research Center, supporting and educating farmers across the South. Today, the center is still in operation, but with the decline of small-time farming and rural communities, it needs support. Its facilities are suffering from years of deferred maintenance, but they remain useful. The preservation of this site is more important because of what it represents. The triumph of a resilient community and a focus on preserving rural communities. Sumter County along with the rest of the Black Belt suffer from economic and agricultural decline. Their way of life is increasingly at threat from a culture that is progressing at a rapid pace. It seems, with the proper support, the Rural Training and Research Center can help these communities move forward with sustainable goals.
Special note: This site is a significant agricultural learning center for self-supporting African American farmers in West Alabama. With the decline of single family-owned farms, the Federation of Rural Coops, through the Rural Training & Research Center supports, educates, and provides a community for small-time farmers.
1 Comment
Audrey Haskin
3/24/2021 07:36:21 am
A very true representation of life in the rural south
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Alabama's Endangered Historic LandmarksEach year since 1994, Alabama Heritage has highlighted threatened historic sites throughout Alabama. The “Places in Peril” list has identified more than 215 imperiled historic resources throughout the state, and is compiled by the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation. The locations highlight the results of deferred maintenance, perceived obsolescence, development pressures, and lack of funding—forces that now more than ever threaten our cultural legacy. But awareness is a powerful force, too, and can cultivate a renewed determination to be responsible stewards of our heritage. For more information, visit the AHC or the ATHP websites. Alabama Heritage is proud to bring to you a selection of the places designated as perilous. Please keep your comments to information relevant to the featured place in peril. Alabama Heritage reserves the right to delete any comment that we deem inappropriate. Archives
April 2022
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