Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit

The Struggle for Power and Equality in Holmes County, Mississippi

Diane T. Feldman

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2025
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496857491
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: History

Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit: The Struggle for Power and Equality in Holmes County, Mississippi chronicles the profound history of a low-income county that became a pivotal site for Delta organizing during the civil rights movement. Landowning African American farmers, who enjoyed more economic independence than sharecroppers, emerged as the grassroots leaders of the movement.

The volume begins with the county's Native American heritage, moving through the periods of removal, land sales to speculators, the rapid increase of enslaved labor in the nineteenth century, and early African American political engagement during Reconstruction. Author Diane T. Feldman explores how African Americans fostered cooperative landownership efforts in the 1880s and 1920s, alongside the development of schools and churches, particularly the Church of God in Christ, a denomination founded in Holmes County. The fight for voting rights started with African American farmers in the 1950s and gained momentum with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s. Their struggle to desegregate schools culminated in the landmark Supreme Court case Alexander v. Holmes, which abolished dual school systems in the South.

The final chapters cover the past sixty years and current initiatives to restore food production in the Mississippi Delta. Enriched with recent and historic photographs, this volume serves as a microhistory of a single county, illuminating broader themes prevalent throughout Mississippi and the rural South.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introducing Holmes County
• Chapter 1: The Land Is Mine—Before 1860
• Chapter 2: Civil War to Jim Crow—1861 to 1890
• Chapter 3: A New Century—1900 to 1950
• Chapter 4: Desegregation and Voting Rights—1950 to 1980
• Chapter 5: The Second Redemption—1960 to Present
• Epilogue: Still Here
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author