Pedagogies of Black Agrarianism: a Cultural Process of Recovery
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PEDAGOGIES OF BLACK AGRARIANISM: A CULTURAL PROCESS OF RECOVERY By Shakara Tyler A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Community Sustainability – Doctor of Philosophy 2019 ABSTRACT PEDAGOGIES OF BLACK AGRARIANISM: A CULTURAL PROCESS OF RECOVERY By Shakara Tyler Black agrarianism is a pedagogical thought, praxis, and social movement. Black agrarian pedagogies are the processes by which we teach and learn with one another through the exchange of knowledges that range from basic survival necessities on how to feed, shelter, and cloth ourselves to cultural stories that affirm our identities and value as dignified human beings. The abundant literature citing black agrarianism as a form of social, economic and political liberation skims the surface of educational processes in black agrarian spaces. In response, this inquiry explores the historical, contemporary and self- reflective pedagogies of black agrarianism. The historical pedagogies of black agrarianism are interrogated through a two-part historiography: a historiographical essay and an oral history theatrical representation. The historiographical essay illuminates the mothering of black agrarian pedagogies that creatively crafted black agrarian educational environments through the late 19th and 20th centuries in institutions such as Tuskegee University and the Black Panther Party. In the tradition of African storytelling, the oral history theatrical representation performs the life history of Wendell Paris, a black agrarian organizer and educator, in dialogue with historical black agrarians such as Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and Fannie Lou Hamer to portray the importance of culture as the first and most important teacher where every day acts of shelling peas, organizing for black voting rights and learning how to survive were some of the primordial lessons that captured the Black Freedom Movement of the mid-to-late 20th century. Relatedly, the ethnographic case study of D-Town Farm of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) explores the contemporary contours of black agrarian pedagogies. Through participant observation, semi-structured interviews with 12 farm volunteers and 7 D-Town farmers and interns and content analysis via internal documents and social media postings, I interpret D-Town Farm pedagogy as a spiritually- driven praxis that exists in a culturally-representative community village striving toward self-reliance. By bringing everything full circle, the farm facilitates a culture of belonging (hooks, 2009) through African-centered culture as a pedagogical agent. Lastly, the self- reflective pedagogies of Black agrarianism are contextualized via an autoethnography where I reflect on my understandings of how black agrarian pedagogies has impacted me as a researcher. Copyright by SHAKARA TYLER 2019 Dedicated to my family, Robertson Tyler, Deborah Tyler, Stephanie Tyler and Shayla Gardner-Tyler, who has continually held me in unconditional love and support since my emergence into this earthly realm. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Starting with the highest source of truth and peace, I thank the Creator and the cosmos who birthed me, guide my footsteps and entrust me to the knowledges that work through me for worldly knowing. I am the deepest gratitude to my family who has provided endless physical and emotional support. My higher educational journey as a first- generation college student could not have been possible without them. Specifically, Robertson and Deborah Tyler (my grandparents), Shayla Gardner-Tyler (my daughter) and Stephanie Tyler (my mother) have all been invaluable pillars of support as they provided financial assistance, childcare, words of encouragement, warm hugs and kisses, laughter and much more. They all have literally made me into the human being I am and I am forever indebted. I must also thank my advisor, Kyle Whyte, and my committee members – Kim Chung, Laurie Thorp and Wynne Wright of the Department of Community Sustainability – who has also provided momentous support and encouragement throughout my graduate career in the Department of Community Sustainability. Immense gratitude must also be given to the various groups for rooting me and contributing to my evolving development as an organizer, educator, activist, artist and more. Namely, the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), the Black Dirt Farm Collective (BDFC), Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecologica, the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) have all influenced my outlook on the world and how I choose to show up within my intersectional beings. A special thanks to everyone else who believed in me and my work that was so important to me and the communities with whom I stand in solidarity. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………………...………………………………………viii KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………...…….….............................................xi ARTICLE 1: A HISTROPGRAPHICAL ESSAY OF MOTHERING IN HISTORICAL BLACK AGRARIAN PEDAGOGIES…………………………………………………………………………................1 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….29 ARTICLE 2: “THE LESSONS OF LIFE WERE LEARNED SHELLING PEAS:” A BLACK AGRARIAN ORAL HISTORY OF THE BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENT………………………………..33 APPENDIX ..………………………………………………………….......……………………………………………...…113 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..117 ARTICLE 3: “LET THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN:” THE BLACK AGRARIAN PEDAGOGIES OF D-TOWN FARM…………………………………………………………………………………125 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..179 ARTICLE 4: SANKOFA-NIZING THE SELF THROUGH “LAND AS PEDAGOGY”………..…..…....187 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..213 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Bese Saka: The figure shows the Adinkra symbol meaning “abundance” in the Ghanian symbology system ………………………………………………………………………………………..154 viii KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS AANCL Association for the Advancement of Negro Country Life BPP Black Panther Party BUGS Black Farmer Urban Gardeners CJA Climate Justice Alliance DBCFSN Detroit Black Community Food Security Network FFC Freedom Farm Cooperative FQB Freedom Quilting Bee FSC Federation of Southern Cooperatives FST Freedom Southern Theater HEW Health, Education and Welfare LVC La Via Campesina LCFO Lowndes County Freedom Organization MAC Mississippi Association of Cooperatives MST Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terras – Landless Rural Workers Movement NCNW National Council of Negro Women NNHW National Negro Health Week OCS Oakland Community School SAAFON Southeast African-American Organic Farmers Network SNCC Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee TAL Tuskegee Advancement League UNI Urban Nutrition Initiative ix USDA United States Department of Agriculture x ARTICLE 1: A HISTROPGRAPHICAL ESSAY OF MOTHERING IN HISTORICAL BLACK AGRARIAN PEDAGOGIES Abstract Black agrarianism is a pedagogical thought, praxis, and social movement. Black agrarian pedagogies are the processes by which we teach and learn with one another through the exchange of knowledges that range from basic survival necessities on how to feed, shelter, and cloth ourselves to cultural stories that affirm our identities and value as dignified human beings. Mothering, as a nurturance process, guides the interdependent wellness of the mind, body and spirit to ensure the survival of the people – the cultural continuance. The mothering of Black agrarian pedagogies illuminates the cultural labor of women, specifically “community othermothers” who creatively crafted Black agrarian educational environments based on responding to felt community needs to convivially promote political and academic education under Black women’s leadership. These pedagogical processes are chronologically outlined within the framing of five Black agrarian institutions – the Tuskegee State Normal School, the “Negro” Farm Home Demonstration in Florida, Freedom Farm Cooperative, the Freedom Quilting Bee and the Black Panther Party – who all pursued the ultimate goal of racial upliftment, self-reliance and freedom through land and food matrices throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries. Black Agrarianism Black agrarianism is a pedagogical thought, praxis, and social movement. Black agrarian pedagogies are the processes by which we teach and learn with one another through the exchange of knowledges that range from basic survival necessities on how to feed, shelter, 1 and cloth ourselves to cultural stories that affirm our identities and value as dignified human beings. Mothering, as a nurturance process, guides the interdependent wellness of the mind, body (Collins, 2002) and spirit to ensure the survival of the people – the cultural continuance (Reagon, 1987). The mothering of Black agrarian pedagogies illuminates the cultural labor of women, specifically “community othermothers” who creatively crafted Black agrarian educational environments based on responding to felt community needs to convivially promote political and academic education under Black women’s leadership. These were the pedagogical processes by which a group of people organized institutions and organizations by teaching and learning with the ultimate goal of pursuing “Negro uplift” (Rickford, 2017) and self-reliance through land and food matrices. As not fully captured in the historical scholarship, Black agrarian histories extend far beyond the periods of 19th century enslavement, de jure Emancipation and Reconstruction through 20th century Jim Crow, Civil Rights and Black