McClellanville is a small town in rural South Carolina whose economy relies heavily on commercial fishing and seafood production. Unlike other coastal towns in South Carolina, McClellanville has kept its working waterfront from developing into high-end residential property, restaurants, and hotels. At the town’s fishing docks, one can still see commercial fishing boats unloading their catch and restocking with fuel, food, and ice for another trip out to sea. As idyllic as this scene is, this way of life is threatened by more than just development: its workforce is disappearing.

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.  

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 to take care of her ailing mother and never looked back.  

“Ain’t nowhere like my little country town,” Sandra said.  

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 while standing on her slanted floor. Her roof had holes and was deteriorating, walls were separating, and floors were sagging. Water had leaked through the roof, and other factors contributed to the house’s structural problems. 

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 sharecroppers and laborers lost their livelihoods. This economic struggle reverberates today; the median household income in Greenwood is just over $32,000 a year.  

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 (Delta DB) Workshop to her recently repaired home in Greenwood, Mississippi in late August 2022. 

In January 2022, retired correctional officer Willie led USDA Rural Development (RD) specialists through her pitch-black, frigid home in Greenwood, Mississippi. Her three-room house had no permanent electricity, running water, plumbing, or interior finishing. In her bedroom, icy wind and daylight came through cracks in the outer walls, highlighting the lack of insulation.