Part 1

Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

MISCELLANEOUS CIRCULAR NO. 72

Washington, D. C. October, 1926

A DECADE OF NEGRO EXTENSION WORK 1914-1924

Land ownership and home improvement are vital in developing negro farm life in the South.

CONTENTS

Page

Agricultural status of the negro 1

Development of negro extension work 3

Early history 3

Order of development 6

Value of cooperative association 8

Evolution of plan 10

Growth of personnel and finances 12

Cooperation with other agencies 13

Club work by negro boys and girls 14

The movable school 15

Stories of achievement 16

Demonstration results 21

Farm demonstration work 21

Home demonstration work 24

Agents’ activities 26

Outlook 27

Statistics 28

A DECADE OF NEGRO EXTENSION WORK, 1914-1924

By O. B. MARTIN, in Charge, Southern States, Office of Cooperative Extension Work

AGRICULTURAL STATUS OF THE NEGRO

Home ownership is the largest factor in the solution of the so-called negro problem. Cooperative extension work, especially since the comprehensive organization of negro extension agents, has been one of the greatest influences in encouraging and helping negroes to become landowners and to succeed with land investments. Energetic negroes soon learn thrift and have the ability to become good demonstrators.

In most parts of the Cotton Belt it has been possible during the last few years for farmers to make a good living and to make a profit besides. The migration to the North has perceptibly slackened, and thousands of negroes who have been getting good wages as carpenters, bricklayers, mechanics, and other artisans in near-by and distant cities are saving money to buy land. Many of them left their families at home and are sending them money for their support and for building savings accounts to be used in buying a farm home. (Fig. 1.) Of course, a large percentage will remain in the industrial centers of the North, but the negro’s love for his folks and for the soil will influence many to begin payments on farms at a time when wages are high and when such crops as cotton, tobacco, and peanuts are bringing good prices. Negroes, as a rule, know how to grow the cash crops, and it has been found in many sections that negroes succeed with poultry, truck, dairying, and other diversified interests when they own their own small farms.

Because of the inevitable economic changes resulting from the World War, many large plantations have been cut up and sold at low prices. In some sections of the South, chambers of commerce and other business organizations have been promoting campaigns to encourage negroes to become landowners. In 1920 about 217,500 negroes in the Southern States owned their farms and about 703,500 were tenants. In some States negroes have been buying farms faster than white people, and the rapid increase of ownership during the last five years is most noticeable. It is not surprising that it has taken a backward race a long time to acquire property and develop farms. It takes white agricultural college graduates quite a while to do that. The next 25 years unquestionably will witness a marked contrast to the first quarter of the century in this regard. It is well that the development is taking place along the lines of the negro’s training and disposition. All of this confirms the judgment of Booker T. Washington, the negro educator, who said:

The negro is, in my opinion, naturally a farmer, and he is at his very best when he is in close contact with the soil. (Fig. 2.) There is something in the atmosphere of the farm that develops and strengthens the negro’s natural common sense. As a rule, the negro farmer has a rare gift of getting at the sense of things and of stating in picturesque language what he has learned. The explanation of it is, it seems to me, that the negro farmer studies nature. In his own way he studies the soil, the development of plants and animals, the streams, the birds and the changes of the seasons. He has a chance of getting at first-hand the kind of knowledge that is valuable to him.

During the last few years many persons from different parts of Africa have visited this country to study our methods of industrial and agricultural education. Some of them have been Government officials, some teachers in schools and colleges, and some missionaries. They represented many different nationalities, all of which are interested in the welfare of dark-skinned people. Such visitors are always interested in Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes and usually have a scholastic point of view when they arrive. On their return, however, they are always enthusiastic about the men and women extension agents whose primary responsibility is to reach the farm and home. They see greater significance in demonstrations which proceed from the farm and home to the school than they do in those which go from the school to the farm. They seem to realize that the home is the fundamental unit of civilization and that the agents are the apostles of a better farm and home life, and therefore return to their work with an optimistic determination to encourage demonstration work in their countries.

DEVELOPMENT OF NEGRO EXTENSION WORK

EARLY HISTORY

Farmers’ cooperative demonstration work was begun in 1903. At first, all demonstration agents were white men and women. They enrolled negro demonstrators who followed instructions so faithfully and carefully that they were often more successful than white farmers and home makers. Many instances were reported of negro farmers who got started along the pathway of success because of the stimulation of such demonstrations. County agricultural agents often reported that 25 per cent of their demonstrators were negroes and that many negroes attended the field meetings and public demonstrations.

Booker T. Washington had a prominent part in beginning negro extension work in the South. Tuskegee Institute, which he founded in Alabama, already had carried instruction to negro farmers through its faculty, through farm conferences at Tuskegee and in local communities, and through printed bulletins. Doctor Washington also used a “Jesup wagon,” provided with agricultural equipment to go out among farmers and demonstrate better farming methods. Washington, H. B. Frissell, of Hampton Institute, Va., and Seaman A. Knapp of the United States Department of Agriculture, worked out the relation of Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes with the department and made arrangements for the appointment in 1906 of T. M. Campbell, of Tuskegee Institute, the first negro demonstration agent, and of J. B. Pierce, of Hampton Institute, a few days later.

In speaking of extension work a few years afterwards, Washington said:

It would be impossible to describe here all the ramifications or all the various forms which this extension work has taken in recent years. The thing that I wish to emphasize, however, is that we are seeking in this work less to teach (according to the old-fashioned notion of teaching) than to improve conditions.

His was a spirit of service. In the same connection he expressed in the following excerpt an unusual and unique opinion of the pedagogy of extension work. His experience and his observations constitute a great inspiration for negro extension agents and educators generally.

I have sometimes regarded it as a fortunate circumstance that I never studied pedagogy. If I had done so, every time I attempted to do anything in a new way I should have felt compelled to reckon with all the past, and in my case that would have taken so much time that I should never have got anywhere. As it was, I was perfectly free to go ahead and do whatever seemed necessary at the time, without reference to whether that same thing had ever been done by anyone else at any previous time or not.

General Armstrong, who founded Hampton Institute in Virginia for Negroes and Indians in the reconstruction days immediately following the Civil War, expressed somewhat the same idea when he said:

Many teachers seem to me to have disproportionate ideas of the forces that make up man. * * * There is plenty of study of methods and not enough study of men or of the problems of life.

Negro home demonstration work was also developed through the interest and aid of white agents. White supervisory agents still take sympathetic interest in negro extension activities. In view of the fact that negro women and girls had always done much of the domestic labor in southern homes and because negro schools and colleges had given courses in home economics, home demonstration work for negroes was started in the best possible environment and atmosphere. Many white home demonstration agents and demonstrators took pleasure in giving instruction in gardening, canning, and preserving to negro women and girls whom they knew. But, as the work developed, it soon became apparent that negro women agents could get access to negro homes better than anybody else, so negro home demonstration agents began to be appointed. Annie Peters, of Boley, Okla., was appointed on January 23, 1912, as the first negro home demonstration agent, and Mattie Holmes, of Hampton Institute, Va., on May 24, 1912, as the second. Other appointments followed rapidly.

It has been possible to build up an extension organization in the South for negro people, because of such institutions as Hampton and Tuskegee. In fact, the influence of these two major institutions has affected all the schools and colleges where negro agents have been educated. Many smaller similar institutions have also contributed much to extension work. Table 1 gives the percentage of negro men and women extension agents who were graduated from Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes and from the State agricultural colleges.

TABLE 1.—_Percentage of negro extension agents who are college graduates_

—————————————————————————————————————+——————————————+——————————— Institution | Men | Women —————————————————————————————————————+——————————————+——————————— | _Percentage_ | _Percentage_ Hampton Institute | 7.50 | 5.40 Tuskegee Institute | 10.16 | 5.40 State agricultural college | 9.09 | 2.70 +——————————————+——————————— Graduates of the three combined | 26.75 | 13.50 —————————————————————————————————————+——————————————+———————————

In beginning farm and home demonstration work for negroes in 1906, the cooperation of the General Education Board of New York was most valuable and effective. The board was liberal in its appropriations and generous in the arrangements for the expenditure of them. The money was turned over to the authorities of the United States Department of Agriculture to be used as they thought best in starting and promoting the work. It was because of the demonstrated success of this plan of education that the National, State, and county authorities were more disposed to support it.

When it is realized that various Southern States are gradually increasing the appropriations to the State agricultural colleges, and also that a $9,000,000 endowment fund for Hampton and Tuskegee is being completed, it is possible to look forward to better-trained negro agents. Progress can be faster now because the way is clear. Every Southern State now has a group of efficient negro agents, whose numbers are increasing. (Fig. 3.)

In view of the facts that Booker T. Washington gave the credit for his own success to the influence General Armstrong had over his life and that Tuskegee Institute is an extension and modified enlargement of Hampton Institute, it is well to trace a further development of such teaching and also to get the observation of the recognized leaders. Long before the World War and before the migration of negroes to the North, Booker T. Washington saw the South as the permanent home of his people and he urged them to develop the resources of climate, soil, forests, and folks. He saw conditions clearly and urged his people to train for skill, to practice thrift, and to grow better by doing better. This was the best of preparation for the negro agency force now in the field.

In the first farmers’ conference at Tuskegee in February, 1892, which, by the way, was the forerunner of farm congresses at agricultural colleges for white people in various parts of the country, the following resolution, among other important deliverances, was adopted:

In view of our general condition, we would suggest the following remedies: (1) That as far as possible we aim to raise at home our own meat and bread; (2) that as fast as possible we buy land, even though a very few acres at a time; (3) that a larger number of our young people be taught trades, and that they be urged to prepare themselves to enter as largely as possible all the various vocations of life; (4) that we especially try to broaden the field of labor for our women; (5) that we make every sacrifice and practice every form of economy that we may purchase land and free ourselves from our burdensome habit of living in debt; (6) that we urge our ministers and teachers to give more attention to the material condition and home life of the people; (7) that we urge our people not to depend entirely upon the State to provide schoolhouses and lengthen the time of the schools, but to take hold of the matter themselves where the State leaves off, and by supplementing the public funds from their own pockets and by building schoolhouses, bring about the desired results; (8) that we urge patrons to give earnest attention to the mental and moral fitness of those who teach their schools; (9) that we urge the doing away with all sectarian prejudice in the management of the schools.

ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT

It has been extension experience that negroes are especially responsive to the demonstration method, because of their faith, confidence, and optimism. Demonstrations have reached the most ignorant and most needy better than any form of academic instruction, because demonstrators must be doers before they become teachers. The effect and power of a demonstration are measured by the success of the enterprise and the standing and influence of the demonstrator. The demonstration method has proved to be not only the best for the ignorant, but also for the intelligent. Certainly the more intelligent farmers can carry object lessons further than the ignorant ones. Furthermore, it is safe to assume a fair amount of good farm and home development in an intelligent, prosperous community. Perhaps one reason why farmers tire of institutes and lectures is because they feel that they have reached a stage of knowledge where they can do things fairly well and have thus become teachers and leaders themselves. They do not care to accumulate a lot of information upon diverse subjects just for the purpose of acquiring information. They want usable knowledge upon specific things. (Fig. 4.) The negro has made sufficient progress for extension agents to find men, women, boys, and girls in every community who can demonstrate better farming and home making.

The history of extension work for negroes has not been exactly parallel to that of the whites in the Southern States. The white agents started work with men demonstrators, followed in succession by boys, girls, and women. Negro work started with men and women first. The agents tried to meet the most urgent needs of the farms and homes. At the time when the Department of Agriculture and State agricultural colleges first began to appoint negro agents, the club work of white boys and girls had drifted somewhat away from the demonstration feature and was emphasizing the club feature. When the negro agents began later to enroll boys and girls they did so because they felt that these young folks should have an influence in farming and in home making in their communities. It was not so much a matter of teaching and telling as it was of doing and growing. One agent expressed it by saying, “We are emphasizing work rather than clubs.” Of course, in the natural process of evolution, agents came to pay more attention to meetings, organization, recreation, and group activities in general, but the central theme is the demonstration.

Negro club members have manifested a disposition for the boy to do the farming and the girl the home making. That tendency is general in all extension work, of course, but the line of differentiation has not been so clear in adult activities. Because of the limited funds available, few counties have been able to afford both negro men and women agents. Thus it comes about that the men agents do more home work and the women agents more farm work than in counties employing both county agricultural and home demonstration agents. As time goes on and more agents are appointed, this matter will adjust itself.

During the present period of readjustment and reconstruction it is becoming more and more apparent to students of extension work that the greatest ultimate reform will take place where the most successful demonstration of content and size are conducted and where such demonstrations are multiplied in the greatest numbers. Many negro agents seem to have the ability to encourage their demonstrators and magnify the influence of their work. They have caught the philosophy of the founder of demonstration work, Seaman A. Knapp, when he said, “Your value lies not in what you can do but in what you can get other people to do.” Negro agents seem to appreciate the standing in the community of a man or woman who has done better work than anybody else. They enter into the thought and life of the demonstrator who estimated that more than 50 men in his neighborhood had been influenced by his success with 10 acres of cotton along the roadside. They know that the boy who said, “My club acre has been noticed by many people in this section and I am sure it will cause some of my boy friends to join the club next year,” had developed in himself the real spirit of service. They appreciate the feeling of pride and satisfaction that came to the girl club member who raised a dairy calf, built a good house for it, and then saw more than a dozen like it built within a radius of 5 miles of her home. (Fig. 5.) The result has been to make each person carrying on a demonstration feel that he has a responsibility as a leader and teacher in his community.

The culminating evidence of these efforts toward improvement through the object-lesson method is found in the results obtained in home and lawn beautification. Particularly in recent years negro extension agents have brought about marked progress in the renovation, painting, and whitewashing of houses and outbuildings, and in the growing of flowers, grass, and shrubbery in the front yards.

VALUE OF COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS

Negro farmers have manifested considerable interest in cooperative marketing. They belong to cotton, tobacco, peanut, potato, and similar associations. They usually follow carefully instructions in grading and standardization. They appreciate the opportunity of purchasing fertilizers and other supplies through the farm bureau and other organizations engaged in such enterprises. In some counties where associations have given special attention to marketing carloads of hogs, chickens, potatoes, pecans, and other products produced in surplus quantities, the negroes do their share. It has come about that most marketing plans which have been developed include negroes in their operations better than any other form of productive and educational enterprise. In cooperative-marketing associations the commodity is considered rather than the person or the community. Clarendon County, S. C., is a very good example of such development. The market bureau, which was established at the suggestion of the county agricultural agent and which is conducted largely under his direction and guidance, has the names of more than 700 negroes on its mailing list. These negroes have cooperated not only by shipping potatoes, hogs, peanuts, chickens, and other commodities, but by procuring better seed and stock in order to grow products of better quality for shipment. As this work develops in any community it gradually brings about a general improvement. It begins with individuals but always influences the entire community. (Fig. 6.)