Wiregrass Region

Region Overview

Like the striking spiked grass the region is named after, the rich history and distinct culture of Alabama’s Wiregrass region is collectively captivating. This southeastern sect of the state partially ranges from the southwestern Georgia border and outlines the top of the Florida panhandle. Counties within this region are Barbour, Butler, Covington, Coffee, Crenshaw, Dale, Henry, Houston, Geneva, and Pike.

Documentation of the region dates back as far as the 1400s; the Muscogee union (ancestors of the Creek natives) settled along the Chattahoochee River. Farming became essential to everyday life, and has remained a vital factor in the Deep South today. The lands flourished with cultivation—the common crops being corn and squash. The Treaty of Fort Jackson eventually coerced the Creek natives into Oklahoma.

Home to American legends like John Lewis and the peanut capital of the world, Wiregrass is Alabama’s wildcard. The region attracts a vast range of individuals. Upon first exploring the featured towns—like Dothan, Enterprise, and Ozark—you may notice the seemingly endless fields of corn and cotton. Deeper exploration of the area reveals the obvious sense of community within the region. With such support, it is the perfect place for entrepreneurs to start their own business, families to raise their children, and farmers to nurture their crops; the southern hospitality is definitely extended to neighbors and bootstrapping businesses.

BACK TO THE FIELD

Make Sum'n Shake with Organizations in This Region

Wiregrass Region Organizations

The ACLU of Alabama works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend the individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed to us by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Click here to visit their website.

Alabama NAACP strives to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. Click here to visit their website.

Alabama Rivers Alliance is a statewide network of groups working to protect and restore all of Alabama’s water resources through building partnerships, empowering citizens, and advocating for sound water policy and its enforcement. Click here to visit their website.

A multifaith, multiracial community organizing organization that works to honor God by dismantling systemic racism to create pathways of opportunity for all Alabamians. Click here to visit their website.

The Human Rights Campaign strives to end discrimination against LGBTQ people and realize a world that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all. Click here to visit their website.

Planned Parenthood Southeast provides comprehensive reproductive and complementary health care services in settings which preserve and protect the essential privacy and rights of each individual and advocates for public policies that guarantee these rights and ensure access to such services. Click here to visit their website.

The South Alabama Black Women’s Roundtable is an affiliate of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a 501 (c) 3 non-partisan civic engagement organization that strives to cultivate institutional base-building capacity and intergenerational leadership models at the local, state and national levels.

TOPS provides support and advocacy to those impacted by the criminal justice system and works with the most impacted people to provide support services for those in the shadows of society and to those who suffer the consequences of generational poverty. Click here to visit their website.

Alabama Arise is a statewide non-profit, nonpartisan coalition of congregations, organziations, and individuals that join together to promote policies to improve the lives of Alabamians with low incomes. Click here to visit their website.

The Alabama Poor People’s Campaign is one state affiliate that relaunched MLK Jr.’s movement of 1968 to confront systemic racism, poverty ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. The organization works to build lasting power for poor and impacted people. Click here to visit their website.

The Hometown Organizing Project is a group of small town, rural, and working class Alabamians that build inclusive and sustainable communities where everyone can thrive. Click here to visit their website.

The Human Rights Campaign strives to end discrimination against LGBTQ people and realize a world that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all. Click here to visit their website.

Jobs to Move America is a strategic policy center that works to transform public spending and corporate behavior using a comprehensive approach that is rooted in racial and economic justice and community organizing. Click here to visit their website.

In 2016, The Montgomery (AL) Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., began expanding its organizing efforts with a CALL TO ACTION to fellow organizations and churches. By implementing the Rollin to the Polls (RTTP) Voting Initiative, goals were created to push GOTV efforts by increasing community engagement through voter registration, voting rights restoration, voter education, Election-Day services, and mobilization. Click here to visit their website.

The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people. Click here to visit their website.