LUGOFF, S.C. (AP) â Sadia Pollardâs father has a memory.
Itâs the 1980s and Pollardâs father, a young man then, drives by his grandparentsâ home and farm in the Chesapeake Bay area. The day is hot. He sees his grandmother bent over and digging in the dirt, maybe pulling weeds or taking a vegetable from the ground. Heâs embarrassed that his grandmother is working the farm, Pollard said.
He thought farming âwasnât respectableâ at the time, said Pollard, who uses nonbinary pronouns.
In some rural communities like their great grandmotherâs, leaving âis the biggest thing you could do,â they said. âTo leave and not have to do what your grandparents did.â