Page 13 - Carrer Channel Magazine 1

FINANCIAL WELLNESS & AWARENESS
HEMP
FARMER
RETURNS TO
HIS ROOTS
by Vanessa Collier
Hemp farmer James Collier, a native
Clevelander, turned his life upside down
when he made the life altering decision to
become a hemp farmer… in Georgia no less.
What began as an intriguing idea,later
evolved into a compelling pupose that had to
be walked out. Leaving all of his earthly
possessions behind, he headed for Georgia,
taking the biggest risk of his lifetime.
James knew his family had land in the south,
land that had been in the family since the
early 1930’s. The land served as a means of
income for his great, great grandparents, Bill
and Laura Brown. A married couple raising
twelve children and several grandchildren.
The couple owned over 300 acres of land in
Barnesville, Georgia.
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James Collier
It’s a mystery to us all how an illiterate,
African American man could amass such a
great fortune in land, but he did. Some of
the land came from the purchase of a small
home that included a large amount of land,
other portions of the land were purchased
periodically as the family income allowed.
Still, one wonders just how African
Americans were able to pull off the
purchase of huge acres of land when many
of them were illiterate, lacking the reading
skills to interpret intricate legal papers
associated with land sales…but somehow
they did. The bigger mystery is that the
land still resides in the hands of the
descendants of Bill and Laura Brown. How
did this happen when so many black
farmers lost their land?
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