From Grocery Garden to Fragile Food Desert: A Story About Newville, Alabama
by Mari Johnson
The Dixie Dandy grocery store in 2013. Photo: Rural Indexing Project.
The Dixie Dandy was once a burgeoning pillar in the community of Newville, Alabama supplying its citizens with fresh produce and groceries. Having opened its doors in 1973, the store shifted Newville's economy upwards. For nearly 20 years, the small town surrounded by peanut farms and small, quaint homes thrived with businesses like banks, cafes, a mercantile, and The Dixie Dandy. In 1991, that all changed when the once-flourishing grocery store went out of business and the previous booming town of Newville immediately became a barren food desert. Former owner Mrs. Wanda Hodges Brannon recounted its better days and said that after her store closed, many citizens were affected money wise the most.
“Many of the locals had to hire somebody to take them to the grocery store [in the next town,] to the pharmacy, and to the bank or places like that, you know. So in addition to still having to buy groceries, they also had to pay for gas to take care of their needs.”
Being that Newville has a larger Black population, I tapped Mrs. Pinkie May, one of the oldest Black residents who has seen the town go from an expanding town to a desolate food desert during her 86 years of life. She relayed that Black families in the community rallied together to take the elders who couldn’t drive on their errands.
“They didn’t have no way to go to try to get someone to try to take them to Headland. That was a burden on [us] to try to get them to the store. That was a big burden on us. I would do it one time and then Mae [her sister] would, and we still had our households to take care of too. So yes, that was a big burden I tell you. They didn’t want to go every day, but you know they wanted to go, especially when check day come because there wasn’t no bank or nothing.” She reminisced on when Newville was once fruitful. “Girl, I could write you a book.”
The site of the former Dixie Dandy in 2024. Photo by Mari Johnson.
Now all that stands in the main square of Newville is the post office, the town hall, and the ruins of what once was the pristine Dixie Dandy grocery store. Aggressive Dollar General has pushed its way onto what was once farmland across the highway as a lesser food option for the citizens of Newville, sharing patronage with passers by coming from North and South. It’s a box store filled with junk food and a sliver of not-so-fresh produce.
To paint a picture, if a citizen of Newville did not have the money for a car or to pay someone for a ride, the walk to the nearest grocery store is almost two long hours on foot. So now the much older Black citizens are left to travel for food or settle for Dollar General box foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.