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Article: Raising hopes and sweet potatoes; Mississippi farmers hope that a promising market for sweet potatoes will help draw back the families that abandoned their southern homes.(NEWS)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- July 26, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A late-night flash flood has threatened fields where sweet potatoes were to be planted here on this day.
It is early. High winds, a bright sun and 80-degree temperatures have not yet burned pearl-sized dew drops from the grass. Wardell Sanders is standing ankle-deep in mud, using a shovel to make way for water to run off the flooded field.
The scent of earth can be tasted. Sweat beads on Sanders' brow and trickles down his cheeks.
Like the freed slaves who founded this all-black town in 1887, Sanders, 67, believes his shovel and labor are part of something that may forever change life in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.
So he works ...