Noxubee County, Mississippi has everything. A river winding through some of the most fertile soil in the country. Miles of pineywoods and marshland. Historic downtowns with buildings that still carry the bones of something worth restoring. And catfish ponds, cotton gins, sweet potato fields, agriculture woven so deep into the land it’s part of the identity.

The county sits in the far east-central part of the state, split down the middle by the Noxubee River, a tributary of the Tombigbee, and it’s home to the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, which draws 125,000 to 150,000 visitors a year.

And despite all of it, the county remains in persistent poverty, at a rate more than double the national average.

That’s where Russ Garner has lived his whole life. A generational Noxubee County resident and Communities Unlimited (CU) Area Director Community Strategies, Garner grew up here, watched his family farm the land here, and still calls it home. The Sustainability Team at CU has been working in communities across Mississippi under the USDA Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI), including Brooksville, which is in Noxubee County.

Because of his close ties to the community, Garner stepped back from leading the work. That responsibility went to CU Community Facilitator Amanda McBride.

Building From the Inside

McBride came into Brooksville the way CU approaches every community: by listening. She built a community-led leadership team to surface local needs, challenges, and assets, so any plan that emerged would be one the community actually owned.

Word traveled. Other towns in the county reached out. The work expanded.

“We realized that other communities in Noxubee County wanted assistance,” McBride said.

That became a county-wide effort. Downtown revitalization. Outdoor recreation. Pathways to draw more visitors and keep them longer. And one recurring theme cut across every conversation: there isn’t enough for young people to do here.

“The biggest thing that we’ve heard are youth activities,” McBride said. “There’s not a whole lot for youth and children to do here in the county.”

Dr. Velma Hill Jenkins has served as Mayor of Shuqualak for 32 years, currently in her eighth consecutive term. She and her husband traveled the world during his military career, but they couldn’t picture raising their family anywhere else. Over three decades, she has quietly stacked wins: getting street signs installed where there were none, securing a grant to pave all of the town’s gravel roads, and building a park and walking track where neither had existed.

“When I became mayor, there was no walking track,” Mayor Jenkins said. “There was no park. There were no stores. Our streets were not paved. So now we’re not at point A. I think we have done some things that grew our town beyond where we were. If we could just now put the ribbon on it, put the bow on it.”

She’s not waiting for someone to hand Shuqualak a future. But she knows what it means to have a partner.

“It means everything to me to have Communities Unlimited,” Mayor Jenkins said. 

Macon Mayor Freddie L. Poindexter is newer to his seat but no less committed. A Macon native serving his home community, he’s already working to unify the city and build something lasting. Among his priorities: a Boys and Girls Club for the county that goes beyond tutoring and mentorship to build real-life skills for young people.

“When I was running for mayor, my thing was unity,” Poindexter said. “I wanted to make sure we could create a space where everybody felt like somebody. The only way we can really grow is if everyone works together.”

His definition of success five years out is specific: “A place of recreation. Our Boys and Girls Club being successful. Our parks successfully open. Families going out and enjoying family time in the parks. Businesses open. If we can achieve those goals, I believe we can do it in four years.”

Catherine Mickens, Chairperson for the Noxubee Alliance Economic Community Development and Healthy Noxubee County Coalition, has been part of this effort from the start. Born and raised in Noxubee County, she graduated from the local high school, went to Mississippi State University, and came back. She wants more for the kids who grow up and stay.

“I want them to have a future. I want them to have things that they desire to have. And that’s what I see for Noxubee County.”

When it came to how CU showed up, she noticed something specific.

“When they came in, they didn’t push their ideas on us,” Mickens said. “They asked for our ideas. And they just developed the ideas.”

The community also identified murals as a concrete first step toward downtown revitalization. With CU’s guidance, they secured funding from Trust for Civic Life to commission murals in public spaces across the county’s downtowns. The logic is practical: a mural makes people stop.

“It helps people to spend more than 10 minutes in a community,” Garner said. “They’re spending an hour in a community, so they’re spending more money in the community.”

Mickens sees the murals as something more.

“Certain murals will tell the history and also tell the future. So you don’t have to be from Noxubee County to know our history and to know what our futures are.”

A National Program Comes to Noxubee

When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened applications for its Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) planning assistance program, Garner and McBride recognized the fit immediately. The county’s natural and agricultural assets were exactly what the program was designed to build on. RERC provides planning support to communities ready to grow an outdoor recreation economy and reinvest in their main streets, with special consideration for small, rural, and economically disadvantaged places.

Planning calls between CU, the county, and RERC’s Planning Assistance Team began in early 2026. In May, two RERC consultants flew in to see the county for themselves.

McBride led a full-day community tour with regional partners, mayors, and local leaders. It started at Ole Country Bakery, a local Mennonite institution, over a homemade breakfast, then moved through the downtowns of Brooksville, Macon, and Shuqualak. Mayors walked the consultants through what their towns have built and what they’re working toward. The group saw buildings earmarked for murals, public spaces with room to grow, and the historical layers embedded in every block.

The tour’s centerpiece was the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1940. The refuge draws visitors for hunting, fishing, birding, and nature photography. Most approach from the north, through Starkville, on their way from Mississippi State University. 

“It’s authentic,” Garner said. “Not many people can see the biggest cotton gin in the world, and it’s located here in Noxubee County, Mississippi. Food, agriculture is kind of like a thing that’s done well here. We want to capitalize on that and encourage folks to look at the beauty of the county.”

That evening, the Noxubee County Civic Center filled up. The public workshop drew community members, mayors, the local tax assessor, representatives from the EPA, Friends of the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and more. The RERC contractors led the session, presenting case studies from past projects and opening the floor for the community to map its opportunities and name the steps to get there.

The turnout mattered. Mayor Poindexter noticed it.

For McBride, the workshop itself was a milestone. Getting all three mayors and their communities in the same room, working toward a shared vision, hadn’t happened before.

“We’ve already had a couple of small wins of all three towns coming together in this workshop, including the mayors and just community members,” McBride said. “That’s been something that hasn’t really happened yet. We hope that momentum continues, but I’m excited. We’ve really only begun.”

What Comes Next

CU will continue working alongside Noxubee County, identifying funding sources, supporting the planning process, and finding a path forward. The RERC Planning Team will stay in contact with CU and county partners over the coming months to keep the momentum going.

The county knows what it wants. The assets are real. The people leading this work have deep roots and longer vision: mayors who have spent decades building, neighbors who came back and stayed, a community that showed up to the table ready to plan together.

“I think it is important for everyone to buy in,” Dr. Jenkins said. “Once we’ve invested sweat equity into a situation, we want to see it prevail.”

They already have.

“Don’t write the county off,” Garner said. “It’s going to become an economic tiger.”