On the backs of great shoulders!
The Tuskegee Model in the Inner City inspires Mo’ Better Food
During my years at Morehouse College, I was given an assignment by then Director of the Business Department Dr. William Sheftal to find economic solutions for the African -American community.
My research led me to The Tuskegee Model in Tuskegee Alabama, founded by Booker T. Washington. If you are not familiar with Booker T. Washington, I highly recommend reading his autobiography “Up From Slavery.” In short, he was born in slavery, later educated and founded Tuskegee in 1881.
During my research, I concluded “The Tuskegee Model” – A team similar to Booker T. Washington, Dr. George W. Carver and Thomas Campbell today, with those similar roles could improve our economy today.
In so many ways, aspects of ‘The Tuskegee Model” are being implemented across the country. Most universities and many high schools have some sort of farm to school, 4-h program, or whatever you want to call them. Schools where youth are growing things, selling things, attending conferences, learning pathways in various industries, etc. However, rarely are these programs happening in disenfranchised neighborhoods.
Yet, The Tuskegee Model, demonstrated right out of slavery used to pull African-Americans out of bondage, is now being used all over the world except by the African-American community itself.
For example, the Jessup Wagon, later called The Moveable School, was drawn by Dr. George W.Carver, the Director of Agriculture at Tuskegee.
The Jessup Wagon would drive into poor rural neighborhoods and demonstrate ways to increase production on the farm. Later a nurse joined to teach hygiene, food preparation, etc.
Basically, they attempted to take the school of Tuskegee, what was being taught, on wheels.
As I mentioned above, Dr. George Washington Carver was the Director of Agriculture at Tuskegee. Booker T. Washington read about the famous Dr. George W. Carver, who was recognized in a journal that described Dr. Carver as the first African -American to receive a masters in agriculture. Booker T. wrote a letter to Dr. Carver requesting Dr. Carver to join him at Tuskegee to left lift “his people out of degradation…into manhood.” . When Dr. Carver agreed to this task, he planted peanuts to rebuild the depleted soil and later grew other crops, a growing strategy called crop rotation. Other farmers in the South followed Dr. Carvers strategy of crop rotation which helped increase agricultural production in the South.
He grew such an abundance of peanuts, to bring the nitrogen fixing bacteria to the soil (rebuild the soil depleted mainly from the years of growing cotton in Alabama), he had peanuts rotting. They say, he stayed in his laboratory for a week straight and came out with over 300 inventions from the peanut including Peanut Better.
I am only going into detail here a little to give the reader an idea of what the environment was like “on Tuskegee’s campus. With this kind of success, many would be content. Not Booker T. Washington. He said, “we are only reaching those able to attend Tuskegee, we must take what we teach beyond our gates.”
Thomas Campbell, a student of Dr. Carver, drove The Moveable School into surrounding areas. In his book, “The Movable School Goes To The Negro Farmer.” He states, ” The idea of carrying education to the very doors of rural people seems to have so completely met the needs of farm folk that visitors from Africa, India, China, Japan, Poland, Russia and many other countries have journeyed to Alabama to make first study of it. Educators, social workers, Red Cross and public workers see in it wonderful possibilities for developing backward peoples. Many have taken the idea back to their countries and are putting it into practice with such modifications and changes as will adapt it to their needs”
Inspired by all the above, I graduated from Morehouse College and returned to the Bay Area and begin substituting teaching in East Palo Alto.
I continued to research the relationship Tuskegee had with the world.
For example, leaders such as Marcus Garvey wrote Booker T. Washington and asked support creating a Tuskegee version in Jamaica. Mohandas Gandhi, in his autobiography “My Experiments” says “brick by brick” in the construction of their economic agenda. Brick by Brick, was also said in “Up From Slavery” and Dr. Carver and Gandhi wee in correspondence. Dr. Carver, would send on occasion vegetarian diets to Gandhi.
In short, models for overcoming injustices were being sought and shared. Gandhi’s paper “The Little Indian,” Booker T’s, The Tuskegee Messenger, Dr. Carver’s Agricultural Bulletins, later Marcus Garvey’s “Negro World” and W.E.B Dubois’s Editor of NAACP’s The Crisis were platforms and voices for social change during the Reconstruction period.
Inspired by the above, my last year at Morehouse College, I took a desktop publishing class at Clark University and later self published a magazine called Lunda- The Idea of Familyhood, while substitute teaching in the day.
During my research at Morehouse College, I discovered organizations like The Federation of Southern Cooperatives, The Black Farmers Agricultural Association and others who were working to support African-American farmers. Part of the mission of Lunda -the Idea of Familyhood was to spread the news about the African- American Farmers. I used the word “Lunda” to emphasize kinship ties. They were known in Central Africa as creating one of largest empires in Central Africa by utilizing their kinship ties. Lunda- The Idea of Familyhood would also promote family reunions, roots/lineage, research, etc.
Upon returning to the Bay Area, I begin researching the presence of African -American farmers in California. After discovering the organizations in the South, mentioned above, I wondered if there were organizations like this here. I could not find one, so we created one.
I co-founded, The Familyhood Connection Inc. A 501 C-3 corporation in the State of California. Our mission is to promote programs that bring the generations together to improve communities.
Our first program- The George W. Carver Youth Scientist Program basically was an exhibit about Dr. George Carver, I gathered from my research. I.e. bulletins he wrote, books about him, pictures of his artwork, descriptions of his inventions, etc.
Our second program, Mo’ Better Food started as a conference in San Francisco. In search of African-American- farmers in the Bay Area, by definition: #Familyhood defines schools as the center for community development. and attempts to create an inter-generational network that expands the development within the school into its surrounding community.
#Familyhood is driven by two motto’s. 1) Mo’Better Food- which states; “every school shall have a garden, a farmers market and grocery”
(The above should give you some insight on how I came to this conclusion).
2) Friends of School, which states: “every school shall have a functioning Student Government Association, Parent Teacher Association and Alumni Association.”
Above, I shared how FAM (Friends and Alumni of McClymonds) worked to build McClymond’s Alumni Association.
In addition to the Alumni Association, Motto 2: Friends of School should also build the schools Student Government Association and Parent Teacher Association. That’s what friends do!
With some knowledge of our past (Tuskegee, Gandhi, etc) our approach has been to create a model that can be used by others.
This approach or Model is what we call Familyhood.