About Us

Named after Cawthorn Underwood, a lifetime resident of Selma, AL, the Cawthorn Underwood Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to two main initiatives.  One focuses on programs to help prepare at -risk youth to become successful adults and the other assists in the transition of former prisoners into law-abiding members of their communities. 

Programs include afterschool  enrichment activities, mentoring, and leadership development for youth.  The reentry initiative includes pre-release programs, mentoring, vocational training, and work programs. 

About Cawthorn Underwood

Cawthorn Underwood (1926-2006); aka, Joe Jackson, was born Rack Jackson in the rural Alabama town named Orrville to a sharecropper. Cawthorn dropped out of school at age seven to work daily on the crop owner’s farm to earn money to assist his mother Ricy, who was a single mom sharing the home with her mom, Amie, in paying bills.  After dropping out of school and becoming the man of the house, Cawthorn was working long tedious hours on the crop owner's farm, plowing a mule, planting and gathering cotton, corn and other items by hand.

Cawthorn’s mother died when he was a young man living with his grandmother. He and his 2 sisters continued to live with their grandmother Amie until they were all grown and married.  Cawthorn married Geneva Tyus and continued to live with his grandmother who worked as a sharecropper. Being the only male in the household, Cawthorn had to work even harder and endure more to provide for his siblings and grandmother.

Because he was such a hard worker, Cawthorn won favor with the crop owner, who taught him to operate farm machineries and allowed him to run errands. Cawthorn’s  sisters eventually acquired husbands and moved out to other homes on the owner’s property and became sharecroppers.

Cawthorn couldn’t read nor write his name but continued to provide for his family and assist other family members while strategizing ways to prevent his children from becoming sharecroppers and living by someone else rules.  Shortly after the birth of Cawthorn’s fourth child, he acquired property (2 acres parcel) from his father-in-law who owned hundred of acres of land a short distant from the crop owner in rural Dallas County, Alabama. Again with no formal education, Cawthorn was a “thinker” and a provider. He had saved and borrowed money from the crop owner and purchased an old home in the city.  He then tore it down by hand and hauled it little by little to his newly acquired property which was 15 miles away.  After many months and long hours, Cawthorn finally had his family in a “real” home with the security of ownership.  By this time, Cawthorn was working as a laborer at a lumber yard in the city but also remained loyal to the crop owner by working part-time for him.

Cawthorn later decided to become a farmer himself and the same crop owner he worked for as a sharecropper and whose land he once lived on now was leasing hundred of acres to him to farm cotton and corn . .  . "what a turn a-round.”   In addition, none of Cawthorn’s seven children ever had to work as a sharecropper. Cawthorn worked harder, working from the rising and setting of the sun to become a well known prominent farmer. He owned his farm equipment, tractors, trucks for hauling, cars, and pick-ups. Cawthorn became such a “big” farmer that he had hired hands and many “white” farmers sought help from him in production and quality of their crops. He acquired land in each corner of the county for farming. Cawthorn’ s wife, Geneva, never had to work out of the home, only on the farm with him at intervals.

Cawthorn encouraged his children to work hard and get an education because he didn’t have a chance to receive one. Cawthorn never learned to read no more than his name but grew to be a faithful church member, chairman of the deacon board, well respected business owner, and citizen of the community.

Cawthorn was unstoppable when he put his mind and hands to something. He instilled those same values upon his children and grandchildren. Many of his children and grandchildren attended college and some became business owners as a result of his legacy.

Cawthorn retired after years of poor health and later succumbed to prostate cancer at the age of 80. 

e-mail: info@cunderwoodfoundation.org