What kind of community is Stamps?

Stamps, Arkansas is the small town where Maya grows up. She loves her neighbors for the comfort they provide and the strength they find in religion and community, but she also hates their sometimes ignorant, self-hating ways. Also, though the town is sharply segregated, Maya has the constant sense that white people could easily invade the black part of town, doing whatever they like to her largely powerless community. She never really feels safe in Stamps, and she often feels too smart for it: it is a cotton field town, and Maya was born with ambition and intelligence in equal measure.