D2_Agraria_Journal_21_OPT

FROM ACTIVIST TO ADVOCATE How I Became a Voice for Black Agriculture BY CHERYL WOOD SMITH My story begins in Dayton, Ohio in the early 1950s. Although I am a native of Newark, New Jersey, my earliest memories of “the land” started in Dayton. One of my most enduring memories is going to “market” with my grandparents. Standing on the corner of Third and Summit Streets, I watched as a caravan of trucks lined up along the block. Each truck was loaded with all kinds of food and almost every truck driver was Black. My grandparents, who lived nearby, carried home produce, herbs, and poultry. A crate of chickens would soon be released in our backyard, their necks would be wrung, their heads chopped off, and shortly my grandmother’s freezer and cupboard would be brimming with food to sustain us through the winter. Even then, as a little girl, I knew the abundance of sustenance in my community was a barrier to the kind of racist violence we saw weekly in the Jet magazine my parents brought home. The west side was a safe place of Black-owned homes with backyard gardens and fruit trees, and Black- owned businesses where we were welcomed and treated well. We were a real community. When I joined the Black Panther Party a decade and a half later, one of the cardinal principles that was constantly emphasized to us was the role of the vanguard party in meeting the needs of the people. It was our duty to see that the people were well fed, clothed, educated and healthy. Our social programs were the real legacy of our movement, not picking up the gun. Our programs were meant to provide for our people while we helped them prepare for revolutionary change. Returning to Dayton after a short absence, I experienced what I called “culture shock.” Three major events had completely changed the landscape of my childhood. The first was when affluent and upper-middle-class Blacks traipsed behind the “white flight” crowd to other areas of town; it was a major economic blow to our neighborhoods. Following that, the exodus of industry and commerce for cheaper labor fields left Black people without viable opportunities for employment. And finally, the crack epidemic sealed the deal. Our community was abandoned and dying. As I continued to work for the liberation and survival of Black people, I recognized the white power system would forever create poverty by making civic and urban policy that left us out, while they encouraged outside entities to rob us of our land and our resources under the dubious auspices of a hostile city government. I saw one neighborhood after another 28 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 Cheryl Wood Smith MARIANNE MACQUEEN