Cotton, Kudzu, Migration and Me

By Sylvia Reedy Gist 

I was convinced that my negative experiences with cotton and kudzu vines while growing up in the rolling hills of Holmes County, Mississippi, would result in me never wanting to return to the state.  Having hacked through unrelenting kudzu vines to remove them from around stalks of cotton, having picked cotton boll-by-boll on my father’s dirt-poor farm in the hills of Holmes County, and having been transported miles by truck through mountains of kudzu vines to the Mississippi Delta to chop and pick cotton from sunup to sundown, for wages as low as $2.00 a day, I ran away from home at the youthful age of 16. Armed with an intense desire to escape the backbreaking labor associated with cotton and kudzu, and excited by the prospect of bright lights and promises of better economic opportunities, I participated in the Great Migration to the North, vowing never to return to the South.  I relocated to Chicago, and subsequently to numerous other states throughout the nation. As time passed, and after having traveled almost around the world, I realized that a burning desire for serenity, the greenery of cotton and kudzu vines planted in my nostalgic subconscious mind. Thus, I became a part of the New Migration and returned to Holmes County.

The southern region of the United States was considered the cotton capital of the world throughout first half of the 19th century. Delta planters in Holmes County ranked among the top cotton producers in the nation. Their ability to make huge profits came from the free slave labor that they battled with the Civil War to keep. Sharecropping and other inequitable arrangements between emancipated African Americans and planters used cotton as the base for the meager, often-unfair daily subsistence that planters meted out to day laborers who found it almost impossible to make a living.  The industrial revolution lured many to the North who were following the promise of  a better life. The mechanical cotton picker was founded in Clarksdale, Mississippi, during the 1940s, and it gradually reduced the demand for manual labor in the cotton fields, further reducing the ability of Blacks to earn a decent living.  Thus was started the Great Migration from the South, and yours truly was a willing participant.

Kudzu vines existed throughout my youthful life in Mississippi.  The plant was introduced to the United States during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876.  Presenters at the exposition promoted the vine as a backyard greenery decoration due to its large leaves and sweet-smelling blooms. For several decades after the 1930s, the U.S. Soil Conservation Service promoted the vine to prevent erosion. The rapidly eroding hills of Holmes County were  prime candidates for erosion prevention.  Indeed, kudzu can be called “the vine that hid the red dirt in the county.” Drive 10 miles in any direction in the hills section of the county and you are likely to see vine-covered trees, ditches, abandoned homes, cars and telephone poles. 

When the New Migration brought me back to Holmes County, to my delight I found artists integrating cotton and kudzu that depicted the local culture.  Combining the two, the craftsmen rendered creations that are pleasing to the eye.  The transportable wreath (pictured) is an example of local folk art. It was designed and created by a local resident with support from Entergy Mississippi and can be in the Foundation’s virtual exhibits at www.mhtr.us.