4/30/2024 0 Comments Brown movers helpers vicksburg ms![]() We work every day …every day from Monday to Saturday, and then on Sunday we get a little rest, and then we’re right back at it,” he said. I know the Lord will make a way, but we just got to deal with what we got to deal with.” - Ollie Tate Jr.īack outside, Ollie Tate Jr. “I’ll turn 57 next month, and I’ve been on that farm 42 years. has been farming for more than half his life. “Right now, they’re working 20 hours a week, but after the harvesting season is over they probably won’t be working any - I think the young man said from October to January 2020, they will not be working at all.” It’s a life-changing experience for them to not be able to work during the peak season,” Green said. “When your best season gets displaced, then it’s hard to rebound from that. He says even though the Mississippi is starting to drop and places like Holly Bluff are slowing drying out it’s not the end of the story. brings food, diapers, clothes and other supplies to drop off locations like the fire department.ĭonald Green is the council’s executive director. To help with everyday items, the Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities, Inc. Buses came to where they wouldn’t come, so we had to get the kids to school by car.” Water all around your house.in your yard, you can’t cut your grass. It’s just everything has been moved around. travel, going to buy groceries for the family. He’s married with five kids and says life has changed on and off the farm. ![]() “Especially for the guys who work for hourly wages. You know, the checks are…it’s been strained a little bit,” Mann said. “We’re 30 to 40 hours a week now where we’re usually 80 hours. Inside the fire station, the conversation continues as a box fan tries to keep up on this hot summer day. Now I see what it’s like when you’re working, you got a job…and you got to take care of your family.” - Andrew Wyatt “I mean it was just exciting because I rode around in the boat. He shares his experiences from back then: When Andrew Wyatt was younger, he experienced the flooding in 1973. “So we had to cut back on grocery shopping cause we had the light bills and the cable bills still coming in.” the light bill and cable, and that kind of stuff,” Wyatt said. Farmworker Andrew Wyatt lives with his partner and grandchildren. “It’s not only the farming, it’s this water…it’s got the wildlife displaced and folks businesses are shut down, it’s just got everything coming to a halt." - Billy Brownīut the bills and costs of everyday life haven’t changed. “The money I’m making now, it’ll take me like three weeks to make what I’ve been making one week,” Tate adds.īecause workdays are shorter there are less of them.īilly Brown talks about how the flooding impacts the community on multiple levels: “This year we have 165 acres out of 4,000 acres planted,” Brown said. ![]() ![]() Normally at this time of year farmers would be planting soybeans and corn, but farms are underwater and there’s not much for farmworkers like Billy Brown and Ollie Tate Jr. More than 500,000 acres in the South Delta have flooded - and half of that is farmland. I meet some farmworkers on their lunch break, grabbing a slice of shade under the fire department’s awning.Įverybody here is talking about one thing. ![]() Holly Bluff is small - there are maybe a couple of hundred people who live here, and most of them are tied to the land. MPB’s Alexandra Watts traveled to the village of Holly Bluff in Yazoo County to find out what’s next for farm workers, who’ve been struggling for months.Ī farmworker maneuvers a backhoe to move dirt from the side of the volunteer fire department in Holly Bluff, Mississippi - about an hour north of Vicksburg. But it’s a slow process affecting business owners and farmers in the region. The Mississippi River is finally dropping, and that means backwater floods in the South Delta should be able to drain. ![]()
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