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Then you had two things arise: the organized opposition to desegregation and the effect on our friends and neighbors who suddenly felt themselves isolated and afraid. We had a number of families on the farm, but neighbors and friends, black and white, became afraid to continue a relationship because of their fears about safety and being ostracized. It isolated people who were more open-minded but personally afraid to do anything about it.

It must have been especially difficult for you growing up.

The problem was the suddenness that everything changed. Literally overnight the environment changed. It was impossible to continue to attend the local schools, which were still segregated. Three of my four high school years were spent out of state. You go through things, and you look back on them and think, "How could you do that?" But you do what you have to do, and you don't think about it that much.

Did you feel that it was a stand you were taking, or was it something forced on you by the stand your parents took?

It's hard to figure that out. I got angry at the people who were causing it, but I don't think I ever resented my parents for putting me in that position. We never questioned that it was right. Defending your home and your way of life is different than trying to change things, to look for trouble. We were never looking for trouble.

During those times, the community must have banded together spiritually.

In any adversity, it is only natural to look to where support can come from. That was very definitely a factor. I think that there was also a little bit of the reaction of Job, "Why me, Lord? Why me?" If you're doing what you see to be God's will, then whatever happens, that is his will.

How did that experience positively affect your life?

Growing up on a farm is an incredibly positive experience for anyone. You learn independence, you learn how to cope with unusual situations, and you gain a variety of skills that you absorb, rather than learn.

But that was intensified during the period of the greatest opposition. We learned to be our own mechanics. We learned to fix a tractor that we would have otherwise taken to a repairman. We learned to do all those things that in modern society you hire people for. Because of the economic boycott, I learned to fix a tractor from beginning to end. I can take one apart down to the last bolt and put it back together again. Everyone learned to be self-reliant in an almost pioneering way.

How did that affect your faith today?

I'm not so sure that has carried on to my later life. The very deep faith that my parents had is not genetic.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Briars in the Cottonpatch: The Story of Koinonia Farms is available from Christianbook.com and other video retailers.

More about Koinonia Farms, including their Wednesday devotions and how to visit, is available from their website.

In The Beloved Community, professor Charles Marsh says that Koinonia has not received proper attention for its role in the civil-rights movement.

CT's cover story on Habitat for Humanity discusses the organization's beginning at Koinonia.

More CT articles on civil rights and reconciliation includes:

Hope Deferred | Christians are uniquely positioned to further racial equality. (June 29, 2004)

One Lord, One Faith, Many Ethnicities | How to become a diverse organization and keep your sanity. (Dec. 30, 2003)

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March (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49