For over 30 years, Habitat for Humanity has worked in the Mississippi Delta as a program to unite local people and outside volunteers in partnership to address the issues of substandard housing.
As an explicitly Christian organization distinctly, perhaps uniquely, dedicated to an ecumenical vision embracing all people of good will and shared values, it has worked diligently to not only provide decent, affordable homes but also to create an environment of reconciliation and affirmation that has attracted literally thousands of people from every background imaginable.
At its best, it has given hope to the historically downtrodden and a sense of meaningfulness to privileged people hungry for it.
By no means does Habitat eliminate poverty and the dysfunctional issues surrounding it, but it does provide an opportunity for people from all walks of life to participate in addressing some of the social ills that continue to beset us.
By now, most Americans, including the fine people of Coahoma County, are aware of and recognize Habitat’s efforts. What most people here don’t necessarily recognize, however, is how central to the vision and impact of the larger Habitat organization that Coahoma County has been and continues to be.
Back in the mid-1980s, Habitat visionaries in the Delta recognized local limitations in their hope to bring about the desired changes in housing availability.
In short, there just weren’t enough people nor financial resources in this largely rural, underpopulated region to provide the kind of money and peoplepower necessary for sustained building, despite the heroic efforts of those early advocates.
So, they came up with a unique solution to both problems — they conceived of a program that would bring college-age volunteers to the Delta over their Spring Break weeks, to work alongside potential Habitat homeowners and organizers and to pay themselves for the construction materials necessary for the building.
The program actually started in the little town of Coahoma and proved immediately successful, though, of course, on a small scale at first. Students from all over the United States came to Coahoma where they were greeted and housed by Mayor Washington Jones and his staff of dedicated newcomers to the area like Joe Carton, Karen Kennedy and Ray Hunt.
The wildly successful experiment at Coahoma resulted in the building of dozens of Habitat homes in the little community of 300 and the program became known as Collegiate Challenge.
According to the official Habitat website, the little experiment that started and found success in Coahoma has now sent over 300,000 college students to various Habitat worksites throughout the United States and even, at times, outside the country and has become a mainstay of the entire Habitat program.
And it started and found success right here in Coahoma County!
As local folks began to notice the little revolution happening in Coahoma, they wondered why it couldn’t be expanded.
Building, led by local folks like Butch East and Otto Preus, had already begun in places like Tutwiler and Clarksdale, but other equally appropriate areas remained untouched.
One of those areas was Farrell on the west side of Coahoma County, and some of Farrell’s residents, like Dorothy Jenkins and Ida White, began to wonder why the little revolution that was happening in Coahoma couldn’t be replicated.
As a result, with the help of the Coahoma leadership and willing contributions from Collegiate Challenge volunteers and other outside groups, building began in Farrell.
The only problem was that the actual Habitat for Humanity by-laws had set up requirements for affiliate status, and Farrell met none of them (except, of course, for the need), so a hapless Habitat official was dispatched to tell the people in Farrell to cease and desist.
he local folks were, of course, deeply disappointed by this turn of events but proceeded to grace the official with a warmly welcoming community potluck, by the end of which the official had been won over. When he left, he promised them that he would do his best to persuade Habitat officials to bend the rules a bit.
The result was a merging of Farrell with the nearby hamlet of Sherard to create the Farrell-Sherard affiliate, and, with generous grants of land from local planters like Dan Crumpton and Jack Sherard, building began.
In the very beginning, much of the early work, including the transformation of the Sherard Methodist Church into a dorm for Habitat volunteers, was carried out by groups of outside volunteers like the Buckeye Builders (OH) and the Kairos Carpenters (IN), but soon, Collegiate Challenge groups joined the fun.
As a result, the little F-S affiliate, despite its incredibly small size, was able to build a house a year throughout the mid-1990s and into the new century.
And, in 2001, this little affiliate from Coahoma County Mississippi was honored with Habitat’s Jimmy Carter Award for most houses built per capita in the United States, and board president Dorothy Jenkins was flown out to Los Angeles to receive the award at the annual organization-wide Habitat meeting.
The next year, Farrell-Sherard won the award again, and then nearby Jonestown and soon thereafter, the story goes, Habitat stopped giving out the award, as it became clear that these little Delta affiliates, through the contributions of local homeowners and landowners and the enthusiastic support of outside volunteers, would always win.
The significance of Habitat’s influence, in the establishment of Collegiate Challenge and the retirement of the Jimmy Carter Award, is not confined to home-building and has continued to the present.
Young people initially brought to the Delta by Habitat have partnered with local leaders and supporters to create not one but two nationally recognized after-school programs here in Coahoma County -- Spring Initiative and Griot.
Serving to fill in some of gaps prevalent in the underfunded Mississippi education system, Griot has created job opportunities at their Meraki coffee shop in Clarksdale, while Spring Initiative has succeeded in turning out a number of first-generation college students, and both groups have partnered with the renowned Quapaw Canoe Company.
In a non-profit world mostly funded by large grants and very wealthy benefactors, these programs have survived and thrived on the basis of smaller contributions from churches, civic organizations, local grants and an impressively large number of individual donors.
And, as long as they can manage to continue to raise the proper support, they show no signs of stopping anytime soon.
These notable accomplishments are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the impact that Habitat for Humanity and their related programs in Coahoma County have had on the lives of literally thousands of people, here and all over the world.
Individual stories of personal growth and healing, discovery of meaningful purpose in life, and deliverance from some of the nastier cycles of poverty that continue to bedevil the region abound.
At the same time, it is clear that there is still plenty of work left to do and plenty of more good stories waiting to be created.
The needs of the local affiliates in Coahoma County remain pressing. But the history is one of tremendous accomplishment and it is a history that needs to be told and embraced as inspiration as we all move forward together.
Dr. Bill Sutton is affiliate coordinator of the Clarksdale Area Habitat for Humanity.
