Juneteenth is a reminder of how African Americans have not only survived, but thrived, thanks to a connection to the land. Photo: Shutterstock
I come from a family of environmentalists. I never thought I would utter those words. Still, today, on Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the day in 1865 when Union soldiers delivered the news that slavery had been abolished to enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, they particularly resonate.
That’s because after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Black Americans relied on their farming skills to sustain themselves in a cultural and economic climate that treated them as second-class citizens.
Both sides of my family grew up in economic conditions that demanded sustainability and left little room for waste. Carpools, meal shares, recycling, turning the lights off in rooms you’re not in, drying your clothes outside, opening windows, and turning off the AC were all significant parts of my childhood as a Black girl growing up in Baltimore City, Maryland. But it is my grandfather’s work as a farmer, sustaining himself and his family by “eating off the land,” that has really brought my family’s natural bent toward conservation into focus.
It wasn’t until I got older that I came to understand that Black people were rarely viewed as environmentalists. You see, conservative media and even some conservation spaces want you to believe that Black people don’t care about the environment, nor do they vote for the environment. I find that ironic, considering I was raised by farmers and environmentalists on both sides of my family. They cared about taking care of the environment because it was the only thing they had.
Recently, I sat down with my grandfather, the child of two fishermen growing up in segregated Matthews County, Virginia, to discuss his experience as a child farmer. He shared stories of resistance and resilience common to many Black farmers at that time.
Growing Food Enhances Food Security
I started my interview by asking my grandfather what inspired him to start farming at such a young age. It was simple, he said.
“We didn’t have any money to go back and forth to the supermarket. Really, we were in the poverty stage, but we made it work because I always had a big garden. We had hogs. We had chickens. So, we didn’t want for nothing. Very seldom did we have to go to the supermarket for anything, because we just didn’t have that kind of money to do that.”
While the economic inequality that plagued my grandfather’s family may have looked different from what we see today, it still persists. And with the current economic and social policies in place, it is likely to worsen. My grandfather’s family responded to poverty by growing their own food. So did many other families. According to my grandfather, there were folks on every block who farmed in response to a lack of food access.
But in many communities today, especially in urban environments, growing your own food is no longer a viable option. Food insecurity still exists, but the difference today is that the land that my grandfather and other farmers used to solve the problem isn’t readily available. Dense cities may foster community and make it easier to get around, but in the words of my grandfather, “It’s hard to survive off the land because every time you look around, there’s a new building going up.”
Why It’s Harder to Be Food Secure
Perhaps that explains why, in 2024, the leading public health policy research organization KKF found that over 50% of Black women voters and 31% of Black voters overall listed food insecurity as one of the top issues motivating their vote in the 2024 election.
Systemic racism and economic discrimination continue to cause disproportionately high poverty and unemployment rates in Black communities. Historical practices like redlining and chronic disinvestment have left many Black and Brown neighborhoods without access to full-service grocery stores, creating food apartheid zones, where fresh, affordable food is scarce. These conditions severely impact residents’ ability to maintain healthy diets, leading to poorer health outcomes and reinforcing cycles of inequality. These barriers to food access are not incidental—they are the result of deeply rooted structural injustices.
In addition, many consumers have begun to question whether the rising prices they face at grocery stores are due to legitimate supply chain disruptions or are instead a form of price gouging. A 2024 letter from Senator Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers to Ahold Delhaize, the parent company of the supermarket chain Stop & Shop, revealed troubling inconsistencies. An investigation conducted by youth volunteers at the Hyde Square Task Force in Jamaica Plain found that food bought in the predominantly working-class neighborhood largely made up of people of color was, on average, 18% more expensive than food bought at a store in the more affluent suburb of Dedham. This pricing disparity could cost families in Jamaica Plain an additional $2,800 annually, raising serious questions about equity and corporate accountability.
A Step Toward Food Security
So, what is the solution to affordable, abundant food for all given these inequities? I asked my grandfather this question, and his answer was surprising: “You could show them how to take a little wooden box and put seeds in it and start growing stuff.”
What my grandfather refers to is what many of us know as “community gardens.” Rather than depending on state legislatures to build more green space (which we should still do), in the meantime, we can use the space we have on our porches, kitchen windowsills, backyards, or balconies to grow food. Some public spaces also could be set aside for growing food.
While community gardens alone cannot adequately address a larger failure of public policy, encouraging community gardens and urban farms could be a short-term solution to the long-term problem of food insecurity. Boston, for example, has a network of community gardens throughout the city, but so do towns and cities across New England, in New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine. In Connecticut, enterprising residents have launched “community shared agriculture” initiatives to bring fresh and affordable food to areas like Bridgeport. Of course, much more than community gardens are needed to address decades of discriminatory practices, but my grandfather may have a point.
A Model for Today
This Juneteenth, as I think about the farmers, the leaders of the carpools during the Montgomery bus boycott, the organizers of the meal shares and Black Panther breakfast clubs, what is clear is that we were always centering sustainability, not out of hobby but out of necessity.
I asked my grandfather what he wanted us to know about the Black farmers he knew growing up. He responded simply, “We were pure survivors.”
Today, we find ourselves in unparalleled times. But as we wonder what is to come next, we would do well to reflect on the legions of ancestors who have come before us, people like my grandfather, who valued the environment and resources given to them and who made the best use of them. As we celebrate this Juneteenth, may we take hope in the fact that, like the environmentalists before us, we can not only survive but thrive.
