Success Stories

The long white ramp leading up to the porch entrance of the home serves vital functions for homeowner John Bryson, Jr. For many years, John ran his own restaurant, but after a lifetime of hard work and medical issues, John had become disabled. Without a house of his own when a… [Read More]

Family is important to Johnny Murdaugh. When raising his own in Orangeburg, South Carolina, he had to travel outside of his community to enjoy fun activities with his children. Frustrated with the lack of access to entertainment centers and amusement parks, he decided to do… [Read More]

St. Helena Island, South Carolina, is home to the Black-owned Gullah Farmers’ Cooperative. The co-op is named after the Gullah Geechee, an African American community known for its careful preservation of African cultural heritage in South Carolina and Georgia.   “This project… [Read More]

Sandra was born and raised in the rural town of Greenwood, Mississippi, but wanted more excitement in her life. She moved to Los Angeles in her early 20’s and loved it, but she got terribly homesick for her family every time she called home. In 1999, she followed her heart home… [Read More]

Doris is a retired nurse who has lived in her home in Greenwood, Mississippi for 42 years. When USDA Rural Development (RD) and the Delta Design Build Workshop (Delta DB) visited her in late January 2022, her home’s kitchen ceiling beam sagged down so low that she could touch it… [Read More]

The small town of Greenwood in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, once nicknamed the “Cotton Capital of the World,” has seen its share of success, but that was a long time ago. When cotton cultivation and processing became mechanized in the early 20th century, thousands of… [Read More]

Retired schoolteacher and great-grandmother Rutha was due to turn 80 years old the day after she welcomed USDA Rural Development (RD) and the Delta Design Build Workshop (Delta DB) to her recently repaired home in Greenwood, Mississippi in late August 2022.  Last year, Rutha’s… [Read More]