ALLIGATOR, MS - JUNE 20 - James "Dance Machine" Watson, stands for a portrait at Bruno's gas station, on US HWY 61, in Alligator, Mississippi, on Saturday, June 20, 2009.
MOUND BAYOU, MS - SEPTEMBER 13 - Painted portraits of the mayors of Mound Bayou, MS, the Mississippi's first autonomous African American community, are photographed inside the Mound Bayou City Hall, on Monday, September 13, 2009. The top portrait is of the settlement's founder, Isaiah T. Montgomery, former slave to Joseph Davis, the older brother to Confederacy President Jefferson Davis.
DUNCAN, MS - JUNE 22 - A young boy reclines on the back of a car in Duncan, Mississippi, on Monday, June 22, 2009.
MOUND BAYOU, MS - DECEMBER 23: A flock of black birds swarm over a harvested field near Mound Bayou, Mississippi, on Thursday, December 23, 2010.
BATESVILLE, MS - JUNE 22 - The exterior of a mechanic's shop outside of Batesville, Mississippi, photographed on Monday, June 22, 2009.
DUNCAN, MS - DECEMBER 21 - Alex stands for a portrait beside his new car, on Tuesday, December 21, 2010.
DUNCAN, MS - SEPTEMBER 13 - Tiffany Coffey sits for a portrait in the living room of her home in Duncan, MS, on Friday, September 13, 2009.
MOUND BAYOU, MS - DECEMBER 19 - A woman prays in the back of First Baptist Church during it's 122 year anniversary celebration on Sunday, December 19, 2010. First Baptist is the oldest congregation in Mound Bayou.
MOUND BAYOU, MS - SEPTEMBER 13 - Rev. Earl Hall sits for a portrait while playing chess inside of his home in Mound Bayou, MS, on Monday, September 13, 2009. Reverend Hall leads Mound Bayou's 122 year old First Baptist Church, the community's oldest congregation.
Project Summary: On June 12, 1910 a New York Times headline declared, “Ex-Slaves Dream of a Model Negro Colony Comes True…Where No White Man Can Own a Square Foot of Land.”
I apply to the Michael P. Smith Fund with the intent of continuing my work in Mound Bayou, the first completely African American freedmen settlement in Mississippi - once heralded by Booker T. Washington and President Theodore Roosevelt as being a “shining example of black achievement.”
Isaiah T. Montgomery founded Mound Bayou in 1887. His intentions were to create an autonomous settlement for freedmen seeking shelter from the less stigmatized version of slavery known as sharecropping that began to take hold as the new South emerged.
Congratulations to all of the Finalists in the 2011 Michael P. Smith Fund For Documentary Photography
2011 Finalist Brandon Thibodeaux
Mound Bayou, Mississippi