California Black Farmers host Allensworth Celebration in Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. ~ We are pleased to invite you to participate at our Black Farmers Breakfast Forum, Friday September 26, 2008, 8:30 a.m. ~ 11:00 a.m. during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 38th Annual Legislative Conference. Our Annual event will take place in the heart of our Nation’s Capitol at the Acadiana Restaurant, Bayou Room, 901 New York Avenue, N.W. directly across from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

We celebrate a year of unprecedented political inroads, joining together under the theme Embracing the Promise, Realizing the Vision. Congresswomen Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus shares with us, “what was once thought to be beyond our grasp is now at our fingertips. For the first time in years, we have a renewed energy and sense of purpose. We must harness this wave of possibility. We have breached the plateau of complacency.”

The Annual Legislative Conference is a time for our broader Agriculture community to gather from around the country, present our shared issues, brainstorm resolutions and establish an action plan for the coming year.

We look forward to your increased contribution toward restoring Agriculture as the foundation of Black culture. We cannot continue to ignore the negative impacts upon our communities by an unnatural limited participation in the broader Agriculture industry, producing our food, fuel, forestry, fiber and finance.

Congressional Black Caucus leadership is essential to providing over site toward implementation of unprecedented gains in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. Together, we represent a strong coalition to address the health and safety concerns of all American consumers and begin to close gaps by increasing local access and production of fresh fruits and vegetables in a healthy, affordable, sustainable manner.

This year our Black Farmers Breakfast Forum features “Allensworth: 100 Years of the California Dream,” The town of Allensworth, located in Tulare County, was a visionary settlement established and operated by African Americans in 1908. It was founded by Colonel Allen Allensworth, formerly enslaved in Kentucky, and developed as a showplace for civic engagement, culture and ideas.

The agricultural settlement thrived economically based on retail trade, its level farmlands, county roads, and the Union Pacific rail line. Community life was vibrant with churches, schools, a library, general store, theater, symphony orchestra and numerous civic organizations. Despite its slow decline over the decades of the 20th century, Allensworth became “the town that refused to die,” centerpiece of the Col. Allensworth State Historic Park.

“The vision for Allensworth was a thriving municipality where African Americans
functioned independently from, yet cooperatively with, the wider society to achieve self-respect, self-sufficiency, self-determination and prosperity,” said Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, (D-Los Angeles) Chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. “We still share much of his vision today as we work toward a greater realization of the California Dream.

“Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Allensworth represents a significant moment in time and the California Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association is honored to have had the opportunity to share past, present and future opportunity in our nations capitol” said Khubaka, Michael Harris, California Director, Black Farmers and agriculturalists Association, “together we will bring a renaissance of Black Agriculture in California and all across the nation that will not forget the bridges that have brought us thus far along our journey.”