There is a tension you must hold in Perry County, Alabama, between strength and fragility, beauty and dismay, resilience and defeat. The moment you discount its people and cry “poverty,” Perry County bewilders you with overwhelming abundance and gratitude. The moment you discover the outright richness of life there, you must contend with the exhaustive power of poverty to steal home, health and even your next meal.
Photo Gallery: Perry County Alabama
Alabama: Perry County is a series about holding a healthy tension between a perspective of scarcity and one of joy and strength. What, in all realities, appears to be extreme poverty may actually represent generations of strong, resilient families who have made a true home in Perry County.
Video: Frances Ford on Change
Twenty years ago, Frances Ford left her nursing career in Selma, Ala., to seek justice and development among her lifelong neighbors in Perry County. She speaks in this video about change in Perry County.
Video: Frances Ford on Justice
Twenty years ago, Frances Ford left her nursing career in Selma, Ala., to seek justice and development among her lifelong neighbors in Perry County. She speaks in this video about justice in Perry County.
Video: LaQuenna Lewis
LaQuenna Lewis serves as leader of CET ministries, a nonprofit of Eagle Grove Baptist Church and one of Sowing Seeds of Hope’s newest development partners. She speaks in this video about working in Perry County.
Video: The Kings
Willie Roy and Jennie Bell King helped build their new home in Marion through Sowing Seeds of Hope’s self-help housing initiative. They speak and sing in this video about their experience.
There is nothing too good for the poor
A wealthy woman once gave Dorothy Day a diamond ring as a gift to help support the work of the Catholic Worker. According to some other workers, she slipped it into her pocket for a little while. A short time…
Are the poor really blessed?
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” I don’t believe for one minute that Jesus is saying it’s a good thing to be poor. Nor do I…
Give me your rings!
Aliança! Aliança! That’s the word the hooded young men wielding guns kept saying. How did they know that’s who we were, I wondered? We were the Aliança de Batistas do Brasil. How could these strangers know that?