These comments discuss the presentations by Christy, Wenner, and Dassie ("A Microenterprise-Centered Economic Development Strategy for the Rural South: Sustaining Growth with Economic Opportunity") and Freshwater ("What Can Social Scientists Contribute to the Challenge of Rural Economic Development?") in three sections. These are (1) a brief overview of the Southern Black Belt and its rural development needs, (2) an assessment of the microenterprise-centered economic development strategy for the rural South, and (3) a quick review of what social scientists can contribute to the challenges of rural economic development. This approach also emphasizes the authors' background at a historically black land-grant university, and the belief that as goes the Black Belt, so goes the rural South.