The 2023 theme for #BlackHistoryMonth, set by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), is Black Resistance. CEFS wants to celebrate Black Resistance in connection to food and agriculture by sharing some key resources compiled by the Committee on Racial Equity in the Food System (CORE). These materials are an important testament to the legacy of Black Americans and a source of inspiration to look at our shared history through the lens of race equity.
Fannie Lou Hamer is known for her leadership with SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). However, one of her greatest passions was her cooperative farming effort, the Freedom Farm Cooperative. The cooperative, under the leadership of Black women like Hamer and many others, brought meaningful income to thousands of folks, over 600 acres of land access to Black rural people, and inspired a movement for economic justice.
The Honorable Eva Clayton made history in November 1992 when she became the first woman elected to Congress from the State of North Carolina, and the first African American since 1901. As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, Clayton advanced the interests of her rural district in the northeastern part of the state and called attention to economic inequalities affecting Black Americans nationally. Clayton has also been a CEFS Board member since 2010.
Learn more: cefs.ncsu.edu/board-member-spotlight-the-honorable-eva-clayton
Dr. Monica M. White is the Distinguished Chair of Integrated Environmental Studies (2021-25) and associate professor of Environmental Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research investigates communities of color and grassroots organizations that are engaged in the development of sustainable, community food systems as a strategy to respond to issues of hunger and food inaccessibility.
“Freedom Farmers – Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement” By Monica M. White
Booker T. Whatley was a horticulturist, educator, and author, and an early proponent of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) models. As an advocate for “smaller and smarter farming,” his aim was to create farming practices that made it easier for farmers with fewer resources to create financial stability. Whatley developed a business model that could financially support farming communities at a time when Black farmers were being pushed out of agricultural markets and disenfranchised domestically.
“You Can Thank Black Horticulturist Booker T. Whatley for Your CSA” by Shelby Vittek, Modern Farmer
George Washington Carver was an inventor, scientist, educator, and artist who dedicated his life to the betterment of Southern Black farmers in numerous ways. Carver researched various vegetables and their benefits, with a specific focus on peanut production. After completing his Masters degree, he led the Tuskegee University Agricultural Department, researching farming and agriculture in the United States.
“George Washington Carver” Biography by the Science History Institute
No matter by horse or bike, John W. Mitchell was an NC State Extension Agent and educator committed to advancing the programs, resources, and growth of rural Black farmers and their communities. Graduating from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with a B.S. in Agriculture and then receiving a Masters degree in Sociology – Mitchell was not only known for his agricultural work, but also his efforts to advance inter-racial cooperation.
“Life of An Extension Agent: John W. Mitchell,” Special Collections News, NCSU Libraries
The Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance tracks old or rare seed varieties and supports communities of color in growing culturally relevant foods. Within a year of the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance starting, Adeeb’s students had installed 50 gardens in their communities.
The alliance has partnered with farmers across the US – from Oregon and Washington to Kentucky and North Carolina. Some of them are growing seeds mailed directly from Adeeb or her students, while others have been growing plants for years that they are now contributing to Ujamaa’s seed library.
Ira Wallace is a seed saver, an educator, and the leader behind Southern Exposure Seed Exchange—one of the country’s most respected sources for heirloom and open-pollinated seeds.
“Ira Wallace: Writer, Seed Saver, Educator” by Sara Camp Milam
The first Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard University, W.E.B. Du Bois published widely before becoming Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans.
The “Behold the Land” speech was one of his last major orations and it remains timely today with its calls to unite Black and working-class white people.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s most strident calls were for economic justice. Three weeks before the end of his life, he spoke of how in the 1860s Americans were given land if they moved west to build their economic future in agriculture, even as Black people remained slaves. He was killed on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, where he had gone to lead a strike of sanitation workers, and his next destination was to be Washington D.C. where he was mobilizing a Poor People’s Campaign.
“At the very same time that America refused to give the Negro any land, through an act of Congress our government was giving away millions of acres of land in the West and the Midwest, which meant it was willing to undergird its white peasants from Europe with an economic floor. But not only did they give them land, they built land grant colleges with government money to teach them how to farm. Not only that, they provided county agents to further their expertise in farming. Not only that, they provided low interest rates in order that they could mechanize their farms. Not only that, today many of these people are receiving millions of dollars in federal subsidies not to farm, and they are the very people telling the Black man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. And this is what we are faced with, and this is the reality. Now, when we come to Washington in this campaign, we are coming to get our check.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.