In Mound Bayou, Mississippi, which once stood as a proud symbol of African American self‑governance, unemployment among African American residents is soaring as White South African farmworkers fill local roles under U.S. visa programs, often earning more than locals.
These new laborers are entering through the H-2A agricultural visa program, which legally requires farm owners to prove that no local workers are available before recruiting abroad.
For years, Mexican laborers dominated these positions. But with the U.S. government dramatically tightening immigration policies, Mexican workers have largely stopped coming, creating job vacancies that South Africans have rushed to fill. According to South African agricultural organizations, approximately 25,000 South Africans came to work on American farms during the 2024–2025 agricultural season alone.
Data from the U.S. State Department shows that between 2011 and 2024, the number of South African agricultural workers in the United States surged by 1,300 percent, a growth rate far exceeding that of any other nationality.
Farm owners argue they cannot find suitable local workers. But for generations of African American families who have farmed this land for centuries, the situation represents something far more troubling. Many view it as a form of racism that is actively damaging the state's economy.
"I see it around here, I see these guys when I go to Walmart. They are usually wearing short pants and they speak in Afrikaans to each other. It doesn't make sense to me economically. If you bring people in from another country to work on your farm and you're paying them more, that means you have more going out from your pocket to them. A lot of things in a racial perspective that White supremacy does doesn't make economic sense," said Herman Johnson Jr., director of the Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and History.
In 1887, freed slaves built this small town with their own hands on the swampy land of the Mississippi Delta. At its peak, Black agricultural workers here owned and cultivated their own land, making it a powerful symbol of African American self-governance in the United States.
On this land, the issue of race has never truly departed. From the plantation era to the present day, skin color has always been an inescapable variable here.
"What you're doing is really shutting down productivity, because everybody is productive, everybody has creativity. Until Mississippi, overall, realizes how racism hurts them, Mississippi will always be one of the last-rated states in the country," said the director.
Historic Black farming hub hit as White South Africans take Mississippi farm jobs
