This photo ran in a 1943 edition of the Durham Morning Herald under the headline “Negro Farm Family Makes History in Chatham County.” Ollie and Flonnie Burnett became full owners of their farm in Williams Township after paying off a 40-year FSA loan in only five years. Phillip R. Jackson, FSA supervisor at left, presented the deed of trust to the Burnetts, making them perhaps the first black family in the nation to earn their farm under the Bankhead-Jones Tenant Purchase Act, administered by the Farm Security Administration. Standing behind the canceled papers is Clerk E.B.B. Hatch of Chatham Superior Court. In the rear, left to right are J. Vivian Harris and Lewis Norwood, Chatham FSA committee members and A.N. Tatum Jr., county soil conservationist. The loan which farmer Burnett repaid in record time was $3,022.

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