Years ago I was honored to meet the man in the above photo! His name is Oscar Lorick and he is a farmer in Cochran, Georgia. Mr. Lorick became national news as the poster child for all farmers in the mid 80’s when he was one of 20,000 farmers to be foreclosed on by the banks. However, in Lorick’s case Larry Humphrey’s another farmer/librarian/alledged KKK friend from Oklahoma showed up with many of his buds and set up an armed defensive perimeter around Lorick’s home. When asked why as a KKK member he and others were defending a black man, he responded that “we saw him first as a farmer, before seeing him as a black man.”. Well, I guess that’s a step in the right direction…sigh! Later, when Sheriff Coley showed up to remove Lorick from the property, he was met by Humphrey and his armed men. Of course things got pretty tense. To throw hot water on the situation Melvin Dixon stepped forward to pay Lorick’s bill and lease the farm to him for a dollar per year until Lorick could pay him back. Turned out the do-gooder had some old warrants and he was arrested, but before things could explode Atlanta businessman Frank Argenbright after hearing about Dixon’s arrest showed up on the news with a ski mask covering his face, promising to finish the deal Dixon had started. He did, end of story, everyone goes home happy.
Well, not quite. A couple of years later Lorick found himself in another pickle. In the late 80’s, the South was hit with a severe drought that did much more damage to the farmers than the banks could hope to muster. I went to Lorick’s farm to do a follow up story and found this wonderful man beaten near to death by the drought. His wells were dry and his farm animals were all dead rotting in the heat of the day. Mr Lorick had no sons to help him, so it was just him and who he could afford to hire, which was no one. All his crops had failed to boot. My heart just broke as I spoke with this gentle giant. He had a great attitude and said he trusted God no matter what happens. As I shot this portrait he fell asleep twice on me. Since shooting this picture, I have always been haunted by the sadness in his eye’s. James 1:2 “2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds…” 2 Peter 2:9 “if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials…” After Atlanta Magazine picked up my story and published it, others again came to Lorick’s rescue and at 93 he still lives on the 79 acre farm his family purchased after the Civil War in 1866.
the Jesusfreak
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