Briars in the Cotton Patch
Briars in the Cotton Patch is the intriguing story of a courageous Christian whose historic racial experiment predated the more famous civil rights movement by fifteen years. "Dr. Clarence Jordan is an inspiration to all those who believe in peace, freedom, and justice." President Jimmy Carter.
Koinonia is the Greek word for Commune, or 'to have things in common.' It is a word that Clarence Jordan discovered when he began his studies in the Greek New Testament, an idea that found purchase in a small farm in Tennessee. His original purpose was to teach young poverty stricken men how to farm as a way to support their families. It soon became evident that Koinonia Farm was meant to be so much more than just that.
"What was happening at Koinonia Farm was virtually happening in a vacuum. It was the backwater of the civil rights movement. It still doesn't have its place in history and I suppose it never will." Dallas Lee, author of Cotton Patch Evidence: The Story of Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm Experiment
Briars in the Cotton Patch: the Story of Koinonia Farm is an hour long documentary about the founding and the journey of faith of a multiracial Christian Communal Living Experiment. Founded in 1942, the farm was progressive in racial acceptance and paid all workers, regardless of color, the same wages, an idea unheard of at the time. The civil rights movement as most know it did not begin for another 15 years. Much of the documentary focuses on the struggles of the Koinonia Partners and Friends, facing prejudices that escalated to severe violence over the years on several occasions. One such incident is retold by member Con Browne, in which he describes machine gun fire missing three children reading bedtime stories. The bullets only narrowly missed them by six inches. Attacks like these often went unpunished, investigations leading no where if even conducted at all.
The film opens with a rather harsh collection of footage and photographs of KKK violence, audio clips that include the N-word and accounts from the children and surviving members of the early Koinonia Farm. Much of the documentary focuses on the oppression the farm and commune members faced. There is a great deal more focus on the violence and opposition than on the achievements of the Farm. While it is astounding that Koinonia Farm is still thriving, now in Americus, Georgia, there is only an off handed mention of how many families and farmers waded through the farm and its troubles. Some attention is paid to their ability to adapt even during a time of economic boycott, at which time they began their still thriving mail-order business shipping pecans and other produce.
Brief biographies are included of founder Clarence Jordan and a member that joined in 1968, Millard Fuller, who with Jordan's support founded Habitat for Humanity. Although Habitat for Humanity branched off and took on a larger than life role of its own, Koinonia Farm still proudly claims it as a sister organization. The film, it should be noted, was directed and written by Millard Fuller's daughter, Faith Fuller.