North Carolina cotton farmer wants Black people to embrace the plant [Video]

HALIFAX COUNTY, N.C. (WBTV) – America has a complicated history with cotton.

Before the civil war, the plant brought great prosperity to the country accounting for more than half its exports. But that success came at a price to enslaved Black people forced into labor to pick the plant during harvest — sometimes under brutal conditions.

The history weighs heavy for many Black Americans, unable to shake the plant’s symbol of oppression.

For Julius Tillery, the plant’s story is still unfolding. He’s clipping away at its dark history, trying to change the way Black people view cotton.

“I want people to see more of an honest view of what cotton is, not just from a media from movies and film standpoint,” said Tillery.

As a fifth generation cotton farmer in North Carolina, Tillery has always seen cotton farming as a family business. It was passed all the way down to …