Each hails from the Black Belt Region — demarcated by its crescent geographic profile. Stretching from Eastern Texas to the Eastern shore of Virginia. A territory historically known for the “lack of” is called home. Systemic disparities have prevailed since slavery. The Old Confederacy days. In education. Health care. Technology. Infrastructure. Black land ownership. And economic development opportunities.

Enslaved African-American people assigned them as “hush harbors.” Informal meeting spaces. Swamps, ravines, gullies and woodlands to congregate and worship secretly in the South. These unofficial locations eventually operated as planning posts for Black farmers of the Reconstruction period onward. Since sharecropping merely replaced slavery, Black churches, crib barns and bermudagrass fields became updated versions of hush harbors. Grounds to organize. Discuss land independence. Strategize to preserve family legacy.

She sashays into the dirt-filled arena. Flanked by young, black cowboys Devinn Jordan, 26, and Mazi Willis, 24, atop stately steeds, veteran rapper and singer Khia Thug Misses hikes up the front of her black, ruffled Western dress. She gives a little leg. Props a hand on her hip.