Black Farmers Pray for Peace at the California State Fair

Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association ask you to pray for peace on Historic Black Culture Day at our California State Fair and Exposition

By Michael Harris, California Director, Black Farmers and Agriculturalist Association

On July 4, 1846, our United States Declaration of Independence was read in California for the first time. Military Governor Captain Montgomery spoke at a small party, in a beautiful garden of the largest home in San Francisco, owned by a Black Farmer and Agriculturalists, William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture, Fairs and Exposition has a dismal record showcasing Black Culture throughout our vast State of California. Agriculture is the engine that drives our economy and feeds our nation yet Black participation continues to be a major challenge and opportunity.

Our crown jewel, the California State Fair and Exposition, has a historical record toward disparaging treatment of Black Farmers and Agriculturalist that mirrors the United States Department of Agriculture, Pigford vs. Veneman Class Action Lawsuit. A casual stroll around the vast majority of events, programs and activities of the Agricultural portion of our State Fair will demonstrate the exclusion of Black Cultural participation in any meaningful way. We share our experience with Black Farmers globally.

Black Culture Day has been celebrated internationally since the 1920’s by the Universal Negro Improvement Association created by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. His Black Star Line, a steam ship company, was created to promote agricultural trade and commerce. On our California State Seal is the first steamship in California, owned by the same Black Farmer and Agriculturalists who built the Port of San Francisco.

A xenophobic mind and the compatible xenophile mind will never embrace the notion of Black Culture Day, week, month, hour or minute. The idea of embracing a unique agricultural experience of African origins is completely unacceptable; we see its affects by experiencing institutional racism and internalized oppression.

Black Culture Day was established to offer a positive example, to all of California, the historical and current opportunities in Agriculture, featuring Bill Cosby, a Black Rodeo and a wonderful ‘Blacks in Agriculture’ Exhibit. After a successful 20-year run at our California State Fair the Black Rodeo was eliminated and because of the lack of community outcry, Black Culture Day followed and replaced with a well intentioned “Cool it Down” marketing campaign.

Public Safety is a real concern and the climate of ongoing violence is not being addressed in progressive systemic way. Personal conversations with California Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura, Cal Expo General Manager, Norbert Bartosick, Cal Expo Board Member Ed Phillips and many other key stakeholders offer a guarded optimistic hope for the future, upcoming meetings with concerned U.S. Congress members, global Black Farmers and USDA officials, on California Admissions Day, will reflect our optimistic vision of the future. US-Africa Agricultural trade and commerce can be mutually beneficial to everyone.

Systemic Agriculture programs that positively engage our youth towards a disciplined and rewarding future in the world most innovative and lucrative Agriculture industry are our goals and objectives. To be taken seriously, good intentions and positive promises of future opportunity must be demonstrated and exhibited.

Our Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, based in Tillery, North Carolina, lead by Gary R. Grant, advocates on behalf of all family farmers and especially the plight of Black Farmers globally. Here in California, Black Farmers represent 1/3 of 1 percent of all farmers and certainly seems too high of a percentage for many people, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic and some mixtures in between.

We pray for peace on historic Black Culture Day at the California State Fair and Exposition.