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The civil rights movement of the '60s drew many of its leaders from this black middle class, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Julian Bond. Theirs was a generation that profoundly changed the attitudes of the nation, and those who remain in the neighborhoods they left are enjoying the fruits of that change. New jobs opened up for educated blacks, and their affluence is reflected in spacious homes, manicured lawns, swimming pools and two-car garages. Often scorned by militant blacks, the affluent middle class walks a line between memory of the old and pride over its success with the new. Says Commerce Department Official Jake Henderson: "They may think we're not in sympathy with the black revolution, but the black really never thinks in terms of middle class status. He thinks, 'How can I improve myself and my family?' and then he thinks, 'How can I improve my race?'"
Perhaps the most dramatic example of the fusion of law, economics and the awakening political power of blacks currently shaping the South can be found in the renaissance of Hancock County. Five years after a voter-registration drive began reclaiming the blacks' franchise, Hancock County's courthouse is run by a predominantly black school board, county commission and judge of the ordinary. But holding political control over a dying, poverty-ridden county is an empty victory, so Hancock's blacks are trying to create a new standard of living to make power worthwhile. In a tiny hamlet called Mayfield, the East Central Committee for Opportunity, a foundation-funded economic arm of Hancock's blacks, is building one of the world's largest and most scientific catfish farms. The $1,000,000 300-acre farm includes a hatchery and a flash-freeze processing plant. The farm is being built with concrete blocks from another E.C.C.O. plant by a contractor who agreed to the E.C.C.O. demand that unskilled black laborers be taught the operation of heavy construction equipment. Says Director John McCown: "We're going to reverse the pattern of rural migration. We used to have kids leaving town in their tuxes on graduation night. Now we got them coming here from Viet Nam and staying. You've got to decide whether you want someone else telling you what to do, or whether you want to grab a corner of the land and make a piece of history for yourself."