Leah Penniman is a farmer and food sovereignty activist who cofounded Soul Fire Farm near Grafton, New York, in 2010. Penniman was born in 1980 to Adele Smith, an African American woman and a White father in Central Massachusetts. Penniman’s parents divorced at an early … Read MoreLeah Penniman (1980- )
Louis Allen, an American farmer and logger, was murdered on January 31, 1964, because of his efforts to vote in Amite County, Mississippi. Allen was born on April 25, 1919, to unnamed parents in Amite County, Mississippi. He served in the United States Army during … Read MoreLouis Allen (1919-1964)
Benjamin F. Hicks is a 19th-century African inventor in Virginia who was born into slavery to Lottie Ricks and an unidentified man in May 1846 in Courtland, Berlin-Ivor District, Southampton County, Commonwealth of Virginia. Three years following his birth in 1849, the state passed a law … Read MoreBenjamin F. Hicks (1846-1925)
Isadore Banks was a 59-year-old African American landowner who disappeared on June 4, 1954. Banks was born on July 15, 1895, in Arkansas. Much of Banks’ early life is unknown, but he joined the United States Army when he was 22 years old during World … Read MoreIsadore Banks (1895 – 1954)
Born into slavery about January 1830, John Brown was owned by a leading Southampton County, Virginia planter named Robert Ridley. When Ridley died in 1852, Brown’s wife (whose name is unknown), two daughters and one brother were sold and taken to Mississippi. He remarried about … Read MoreJohn Brown (1830-1900)
Henry Blair was an African-American inventor who, in 1834, became only the second black man to receive a United States patent for his mechanical corn planter. For years Blair was believed to be the first African American to receive a patent, but it was later discovered that Thomas … Read MoreHenry Blair (1807-1860)
Benjamin Banneker, a free Black farmer, mathematician, and astronomer, was born on November 9, 1731, the son of freed slaves Robert and Mary Banneky, probably near the Patapsco River southeast of Baltimore, Maryland, where his father owned a small farm. For some years, Banneker seems … Read MoreBenjamin Banneker (1731-1806)
Elected to the state House of Representatives in 1888, Alfred Fairfax was the first African American to serve in the Kansas legislature. A farmer and pastor, Fairfax represented the 58th District. During his single term in office (1889-1890), he served as chairman of the House Committee on Immigration. Fairfax … Read MoreAlfred Fairfax (c.1843– c.1916)
Born a slave under the name “Toney” in 1791, Anthony Weston eventually became the patriarch of Charleston, South Carolina’s elite free black family, the Westons. Weston began his life as a biracial enslaved person who worked as a millwright. Eventually, however, he supervised the construction … Read MoreAnthony Weston (1791-?)
Will Allen, son of a sharecropper, former professional basketball player, ex-corporate sales leader, and now farmer, is recognized as one of the preeminent thinkers of our time on agriculture and food policy. Allen is the founder and CEO of Growing Power, Inc., a farm and … Read MoreWill Allen (1948- )
