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I could be wrong, but I think places like ATL and PG County offer a great deal of hope for what a strong Black community can be. Now I said I'd be on the first thing smoking out of the South, but I'm using my 2023, 61-year-old, Harlem-ghetto-raised sensibility. I have no idea what I would have done if I was actually born and raised in the South during the height of Jim Crow. While I can't possibly know, it is interesting to contemplate. I imagine the pull of a cohesive community and family ties in the South is a strong bond, that kept many Black people (most I believe) firmly planted in the South and clearly some were willing to fight to stay. The people who left the South for the North severed, or weakened, those bonds. Both of my parents left the South for North, the only ones from their respective families who did. This weakened ties with the family they left behind and these ties were furthered weakened in subsequent generations. I The splintering is not just along class lines it was within communities and families. For some maintaining a cohesive family is hard enough, trying to do it across a so-called race is virtually impossible -- especially in the dog-eat-dog, winner-take-all culture American culture.