Today there are just 45,000 African American farmers. One man is fighting to save them
Portions of this article include the original post by Summer Sewell in Baskerville, Virginia, and Shreveport, Louisiana (updated 11/30/2024)
The vision for Futurists Farmers in Agriculture was inspired by several key icons of the past and today, including the likes of Carter G. Woodson, Fannie Lee Hamer, and John Boyd Jr’s, CEO of the National Black Farmers Association, grandfather Thomas, the son of a slave, that purportedly slept with the deed to his farm under his mattress. He worried constantly that his land would be taken from him.
Twenty miles away and three generations later, Boyd lives on his own 210-acre farm, in a big white colonial house with rows of soybeans that go almost up to the front door, like other people have grass. One hundred cattle, a cluster of guinea hogs, three goats and a small herding dog named Fatso, whom Boyd calls his best friend, live there.
He feels more secure on his plot of land than Thomas did. But Boyd is an aberration.
Meanwhile, on the Texas front…growing up in the deep East Texas town of San Augustine, Fred McClure developed an early interest in agriculture. McClure joined Future Farmers of America and became heavily involved throughout high school. His senior year, he was elected president of the Texas FFA — making him the first Black student to hold the position.
Agricultural education has been a valuable part of school instruction since the early twentieth century. In 1917, the National Vocational Education Act, commonly called the SmithHughes Act after the two congressmen who sponsored the bill, established vocational agriculture. That law justified offering agriculture classes in high schools throughout the United States. Students in agriculture classes wanted to participate in activities outside the school setting with others who shared their agricultural interests. In the early 1920s, Future Farmer Clubs were started in Virginia for boys who planned to farm. Henry Groseclose, an agriculture teacher from Blacksburg, started Future Farmers of Virginia in 1928 and would become known as “the Father of FFA.”
During McClure’s time on Texas A&M campus during the mid-seventies, the student population roughly doubled to around 28,000, creating a demand for infrastructure that could keep up with the rapidly growing student body. Administrators were weighing whether to officially recognize fraternities and sororities for the first time, and women were joining the Corps of Cadets. And notably, former president Gen. James Earl Rudder had opened the university’s doors to Black student just a decade prior in 1963.
In 1969, FFA began to allow female students to become FFA members. Today, more than 35 percent of FFA members are female, with 47 percent of state leadership positions being held by young women. In 1988, one of the most significant changes in the history of the organization was made when the official name changed from Future Farmers of America to the National FFA Organization, or FFA.
The areas that he would later hold responsibility for during the Reagan to Bush era flowed out of the civil division, lands and natural resources division, the tax division, civil rights division, and anything that came out of Capitol Hill. He was also a White House liaison.
“It just so happened that I’m also Black… my objective has always just been, ‘I want to do be the guy who does that,’” McClure said. “Somewhere in the interim, and this kind of puts the Justice piece into perspective, President Reagan went to China. And during the time that he was there, I believe he was in China when this took place, he nominated a woman to serve as Deputy Attorney General. That woman had previously served as Assistant Attorney General for Lands and Natural Resources, which was the name of it before they changed that division recently. Her name was Carol Dinkens. William French Smith had been AG [Attorney General] from the beginning of the President’s tenure and Carol had been an Assistant Attorney General. Because of her role in Lands and Natural Resources, she got tied up in all of the Rita Lavelle—I can’t remember that scandal. There was a name for it and it has something to do with the Sites—Superfund Sites and all that kind of stuff. Because Carol was the assistant AG for Lands, they used to say she was the interface with EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and Interior and all those guys.”
The number of black futurists farmers in America peaked in 1920, when there were 949,889. Today, of the country’s 3.4 million total farmers, only 1.3%, or 45,508, are black, according to new figures from the US Department of Agriculture released this month. They own a mere 0.52% of America’s farmland. By comparison, 95% of US farmers are white.
The regulatory consequences of the farm bill and other interventionsAccording to the United States Department of Agriculture, 23 million Americans live in so-called food deserts. A food desert is defined as an urban neighborhood or rural town without access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. The argument goes that lack of access leads to poor dietary choices and a higher incidence of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
The proposed solution is a series of government grants (i.e., subsidies) that will be given to anyone, including residents, businesses, non-profits, colleges and universities, and community development corporations. There are at least 19 programs from three departments (Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture) that offer grants and other resources to combat food deserts. To the rescue!
