In 1937 the U.S. Department of Agriculture Resettlement Administration purchased 10,879 acres of land in Macon County to establish the Flint River Farms Resettlement Community. One of several New Deal projects aimed at helping sharecroppers become independent landowners, Flint River Farms consisted of 106 local African American families with lease-purchase agreements. After a five-year trial, families could purchase forty-year mortgages. While the Flint River Farms Community faced opposition from neighboring white residents, these African American families finally settled near Montezuma. Each farm unit boasted a new four-to-five room house, a bar, two mules, an outhouse, a chicken coop, and a smokehouse. There were educational programs for hands-on farm training, a school, and a medical center in the community. Eventually, due to desegregation, students were bussed to nearby schools, and much of the land was purchased by white landowners. As of 2003 direct descendants of these families owned 3,186 acres of the original 10,879 acres of land.

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