For African Americans, agricultural labor and knowledge has been critical to providing paths toward freedom, innovation, and prosperity.
As the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the creators of Black History Month, examines “African Americans and Labor” for its 2025 theme, The Washington Informer is diving deep into the contributions of Black agriculturists, whose work furthered the nation.
Historically, agricultural labor has not just been about working farms or fields. Instead, it’s offered opportunities for discovery, addressed challenges, and improved life, not only for Black people but all Americans.
In a 1938 speech, groundbreaking botanist and inventor George Washington Carver drew the correlation between agriculture and society.
“Whenever the soil is rich the people flourish, physically and economically. Wherever the soil is wasted the people are wasted,” Carver said. “A poor soil produces only a poor people—poor economically, poor spiritually and intellectually, poor physically.”
Carver, like other Black agriculturists, such as Booker T. Washington, viewed agricultural work as a way to not only uplift African Americans, but the entire nation.
“The primary idea in all of my work was to help the farmer and fill the poor man’s empty dinner pail,” Carver once said. “My idea is to help the ‘man farthest down.’ This is why I have made every process just as simply as I could to put it within his reach.”
Similarly, Washington—the first president of Tuskegee Institute (now University) who hired Carver to teach and eventually lead the college’s agricultural department— placed incredible value on one’s work helping others.
“There are two ways of exerting one’s strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up,” Washington said.
From the labor of enslaved Africans working in the fields and picking crops, to barrier-breakers like Washington and Carver, to African American farmers of today, Black agriculturalists’ contributions have been critical in shaping the United States as an economic global power.
“Black people have been and are an integral driver in the success of U.S. agriculture. From farming and cultivation to scientific research, the agriculture narrative is fortified by the many roles played by Black leaders,” according to the 2021 USDA article “Agriculture in America: Deeply Rooted in Black Culture.” “USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the premier food research agency in the world, and it wouldn’t be nearly as successful or impactful if not for its rich, diverse history of scientists.”
The African American Agricultural Journey
This edition dives into the nuances of agricultural work for African Americans, which for many started as forced labor on plantations, shifted to sharecropping, and has evolved over time.
Barrier-breaking Black agriculturalists have revolutionized farming, such as Marylander Henry Blair, a free man who, during slavery, patented two mechanical inventions for sowing seeds, and Booker T. Whatley, who inspired modern-day Community Supported Agriculture.
In addition, many influential African American agriculturalists understood the importance of educating people on: tending to land, using crops for multiple purposes and creating opportunities for others through agricultural resources.
With historically Black institutions such as Tuskegee and Hampton Institute (now University) founded in the late 19th century, African American agriculturalists were highly trained and prepared to do groundbreaking, innovative work throughout the nation.
While the number of African American agriculturalists have decreased over the years, lessening the demand for the need for collegiate training programs and departments, some historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) continue to promote the power of studying and working with land and crops. For instance, in November 2024, University of the District of Columbia, a land-grant HBCU, unveiled a new farm for agricultural study and training in Beltsville, Maryland.
Further, current Black farmers promote the power of agricultural labor as a way to be self-sufficient and help others.
People such as John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association, and Opal Lee, the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” are working to uplift the next generation of Black agriculturalists, while also addressing challenges in the nation that particularly affect African Americans, such as food insecurity.
In continuing the legacies of Black agricultural laborers of the past, African American agriculturalists today are not only tending to and examining crops. They are emphasizing the importance of using natural resources to address health, create careers, and further agriculture in the nation and globe.
As Carver noted, working in agriculture can open a gateway for discovery and a world of opportunities.
“I love to think of nature,” Carver once said, “as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune in.”