The Modern Farmer

The Modern Farmer was a national monthly African-American publication published in Chicago, Illinois and Nashville, Tennessee by the National Federation of Colored Farmers (NFCF). It was published between 1929-1949 for African-American farmers. The main editor was James P. Davis, the president of the NFCF, Head Field Officer of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and a member of President Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet.”[1][2]

Front page of the Modern Farmer

History

The National Federation of Colored Farmers (NFCF)

The NFCF was founded by four African American men that attended the Tuskegee Institute.

  • James P. Davis (1876-1962), broker and attorney
  • Leon Ray Harris (1886-1960), stationary engineer on Chicago-Rock Island Railroad - 1930s was the main editor of The Modern Farmer[3]
  • Cornelius R. Richardson (1886-1964), attorney
  • Gilchrist Stewart (1882 -1926), attorney.

The goals of the NFCF were to increase agricultural entrepreneurship profits in Southern African American farmers by creating cooperatives and to increase African American farmer access to urban industrial cities' wholesale markets in the Great Lakes, particularly Chicago.[4] They also desired to ensure members could be viable and profitable farmers that owned their own land.

The federation required membership at a cost of $5.00 for a year. That gave members access to a cooperative that would market produce and purchase farm supplies for resale at reduced rates. There was an additional $1 subscription for the Modern Farmer, which was only available to members of the NFCF. Membership in NFCF was primarily land owning farmers due to these costs.

The NFCF formed local chapters of buying and selling distribution cooperatives. In 1929, the first local NFCF chapter was established in Howard, Mississippi, of about thirty tenant farmers and sharecroppers.[5] The organization’s membership expanded across the South and it began publishing The Modern Farmer. There were initial membership units in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, southeast Missouri and Tennessee. Most chapters were along the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys; in Mississippi river delta counties, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.[6]

James P. Davis worked with government officials and extension offices to try and ensure Black farmers received government loans.[7] He was appointed a special field agent by Cully A. Cobb, administrator of the for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) Cotton Section in the lower South, and travelled the lower South relaying complaints to policy makers in Washington D.C. about Black farmers not receiving loans or information.[8]

The NFCF had annual conventions that over time were attended by political officials. The ninth annual convention was attended by 4 representatives appointed by governors in Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois and Iowa.[9]

NFCF was often written about in the Chicago Defender's Farmers' Column. They formed a credit corporation in 1932 to make loans to members to ensure the could earn a good living.[10]

The Modern Farmer newspaper

The Modern Farmer was the official publication of the NFCF. General topics covered in The Modern Farmer included relevant topics for Black farmers, truck gardeners, livestock and poultry breeders, such as market trends, improving crop yields and agricultural policy. Practices such as owning, managing and directing farms were covered as well as economic interests – short-term financial credit and low rates of interest and standards related to grading and marketing of farm products. The federation worked with the National Baptist Publishing House to produce its newspaper.[4]

The Modern Farmer newspaper, in accordance with the goals of the NFCF, promoted cooperative marketing and purchase schemes of farm supplies, diversified agriculture, and the values of land ownership.[11] Within the pages, similar ideas were mentioned frequently.[12]

The goals published in the first issue of the organization’s newspaper, The Modern Farmer, emphasized self-help and racial separatism, a philosophy that promoted economic initiative, often linking success with physical isolation in all-black communities and race-conscious businesses that catered to black clientele.

Published stories also included success stories of new cooperatives opening[13] and correspondence with editors of the Chicago Defender.

Editorial Perspective and Breadth

Each issue of The Modern Farmer published the NFCF's goals and manifesto which were around collective organizing and strategizing.[2] The newspaper's perspective was that Black farmers should own and control own co-operative associations building capital and independence for themselves.[6]

James P. Davis' Editorial and the 1932 Presidential Election

In the May 16, 1932[14] issue, James P. Davis, wrote an important editorial reflecting the feelings of the agricultural workers his organization represented. The 1932 United States presidential election represented a sea-change. In the years leading up to the election, United States Southern farmers had suffered catastrophic floods, followed by periods of drought. The incumbent, Republican president Hoover, did not provide promised federal relief to farmers and instead told farmers to rely on private help from family, churches and non-profit organizations.

James P. Davis's editorial expressed a deep sense of betrayal, writing that the African-American farmers of the South had received little more than expressions of sympathy and no practical relief. Davis called on his readers to shift their vote to the Democrats.[14]

James P. Davis later became a member of Roosevelt’s, Federal Council of Negro Affairs, also known as the “Black Cabinet”, in part due to his support for Roosevelt during this election. This group included leaders such as Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and political activist, William H. Hastie, an attorney that became the first Black federal judge and Robert C. Weaver, an attorney that later became a United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

References
  1. Cornell University LIbraries (February 27, 2020). "Modern Farmer". Mann Library Tumblr.
  2. "The Modern Farmer".
  3. "Illustrated Feature Section". Richmond Planet. May 24, 1930.
  4. The world of Jim Crow America : a daily life encyclopedia. Reich, Steven A. (Steven Andrew), 1965-. Santa Barbara, California. 24 June 2019. ISBN 978-1-4408-5081-3. OCLC 1081339954.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. Gordon Nembhard, Jessica (March 2018). "African American Cooperatives and Sabotage: The Case for Reparations". The Journal of African American History. 103 (1–2): 65–90. doi:10.1086/696361. ISSN 1548-1867. S2CID 224828547.
  6. Roll, Jarod (2012-06-10), Reid, Debra; Bennett, Evan (eds.), ""The Lazarus of American Farmers": The Politics of Black Agrarianism in the Jim Crow South, 1921–1938", Beyond Forty Acres and a Mule, University Press of Florida, pp. 132–149, doi:10.5744/florida/9780813039862.003.0007, ISBN 978-0-8130-3986-2, retrieved 2020-10-19
  7. "Tell of Methods to get Farm Loans". The Chicago Defender. January 24, 1931.
  8. Jones, Lu Ann (Spring 1998). "In Search of Jennie Booth Moton, Field Agent, AAA". Agricultural History. 72, No 2. (2): 446–458. JSTOR 3744392 – via JSTOR.
  9. The Chicago Defender (October 29, 1938). "10 GOVERNORS ENDORSE FARM GROUP CONFAB: 4 NAME REPRESENTATIVES TO ATTEND MEETING AT FORSYTH, GA". Chicago Defender.
  10. "The Farmers' Column". The Chicago Defender. September 19, 1931.
  11. National Federation of Colored Farmers (Feb 15, 1933). The Modern farmer. Cornell University Library. Nashville, Tenn., and Chicago, Ill., National federation of colored farmers, inc. p. 1.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  12. National Federation of Colored Farmers (June 15, 1933). The Modern farmer. Cornell University Library. Nashville, Tenn., and Chicago, Ill., National federation of colored farmers, inc. p. 3.
  13. Franklin, John Hope (1940). "Rochdale Cooperation among Negroes". Phylon. 1 (1): 39–52. doi:10.2307/271171. JSTOR 271171.
  14. National Federation of Colored Farmers (May 16, 1932). The Modern farmer. Cornell University Library. Nashville, Tenn., and Chicago, Ill., National Federation of Colored Farmers, inc. pp. 4–5.
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