Northampton County man looking to use his small business to overcome the stigma of cotton and race

Now a new generation of farmers, including a young man in Northampton County, is bringing its own story to the crop.

Julius Tillery is very aware of his unique position.

"I'm an African-American farmer, and Black cotton farmer, as I know, [we] are dwindling in existence."

But that doesn't bother him one bit.

"I love it because it's something my family has been into for a long time," Tillery said. "Grew up raising it."

Tillery went to UNC-Chapel Hill and earned a degree in economics. But afterward, he came home again to the family farm.

And in 2016, he decided to give cotton a new twist.

"What I want to do is make a unique spin to this business that can add to this community," Tillery said.

Tillery founded Black Cotton, which now employs about 15 people. They make cotton wreaths, cotton bouquets, cotton ornaments and cotton vase arrangements.

The slogan: "Cotton is our Culture."

For all the livelihoods it's yielded in North Carolina, cotton carries some cultural baggage, woven as it is into the lyrics of "Dixie."

"It's a pretty crop, it feels good," Tillery said. "However, I know it has a bad name, a bad reputation, and I hope with this Black Cotton business, we can change that. On the internet, they call me the Puff Daddy of cotton, so I'm trying to give it a hip look."

Tillery's family farms about 400 acres in Northampton County. He even named his newborn son 'Acre.' Now, people from the Carolinas to California have cottoned to Tillery's new south approach to this old crop.

"I know this is something that my father and grandfather never could have imagined," Tillery said.

His operations manager, Jamaal Garner, is a marine veteran -- also raised on a local farm.

"When you grow up knowing something and the trauma behind it, and then you have this bright idea from it, it just makes me feel very special about it," Garner said.