While Part One of The Lehman Trilogy tracks the rise of an exceptionally successful Jewish business family from their arrival in Montgomery, Alabama, through their relocation to New York City, thousands of other southern Jewish stories mirror aspects of the Lehmans’ experiences. This talk combines the history of cotton production in the U.S. South with southern Jewish histories to explore how Jewish migrants found their way to emerging market hubs, became active in various aspects of cotton production and processing, and (in many cases) came to occupy prominent positions in social and civic life. Along the way, we will consider how this history illuminates Jewish relationships to race and racism in the United States, and we will observe how changes in cotton production (and fluctuations in its profitability) have shaped and reshaped Jewish communities in much of the rural South.