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Farming For A Better Future, page vii
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the African American communities' efforts
across North Alabama.
the following decades, by the turn of the 20th century, the monumental task was left largely to individual communities. The remnants of
Whereas successful African American businesses, schools, and politicians may have been the result of internal achievements, many external influences helped to shape the communities of color in North Alabama,
On the other hand, landowners invest in the land, financially and emotionally. These are the members that establish churches, schools, and cemeteries. In turn, these community amenities help to produce landowners. Washington credits the growing number of landowners of color to “the improvement of the colored public schools,” specifically Tuskegee Institute at the turn of the 20th century. Although formal education for African American communities was broadened to
include academic liberal arts, the original focus of many grade schools, high schools, and colleges was on agricultural and domestic services. Institutions such as Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University and high schools such as Trinity (Limestone County), Trenholm and Sheffield (Colbert County), Burrell (Lauderdale County), and Morgan County Training School, were focused on teaching male students farming and animal husbandry and female students domestic tasks such as sewing and canning.
Education was an essential value to communities of color. It provided upcoming community members with the knowledge necessary for successful farming with landownership and community development in mind. Previously, landownership and formal education were a privilege denied people of color. Despite some successful endeavors to provide education to former slaves and their children during Reconstruction and
to provide education and a better future for the next generation can be evidenced Schoolhouses - which often doubled as churches - remain as testament
to the community-driven early education system, the success of which was often dependent on landownership. The building of schools and churches provided a tremendous drive to obtain land and reap the benefits of real property ownership. Landownership in turn could fuel the community and provide opportunity for commerce. The African American community of Athens, in Limestone County, grew around Trinity School and its strong influence on the significance of education. The community of Canaan in Florence, Lauderdale County, provided a base from which to launch dozens of entrepreneurial endeavors. The early political leaders of the African American community in Huntsville, Madison County, were landowners or the children of landowners.
vii - FARMING FOR A BETTER FUTURE - (4511)