Bobby J. Smith II is associate professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the James Beard–nominated author of Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.

“Smith highlights rural Black agriculturalists’ innovation, persistence, and pride in their effort to sustain their tradition and their relationship to the land, thus offering a much-needed departure from the prevailing narratives of rural Black folks and agriculture.”—Yuki Kato, author of Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City“Smith’s work on the experience of Black farmers during the Jim Crow era joins a vibrant field of scholarship focused on agriculture as a site of independence and self-sufficiency, not only as a site of exploitation.” —Adrienne Monteith Petty, author of Standing Their Ground: Small Farmers in North Carolina Since the Civil War

Bobby J. Smith II is associate professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the James Beard–nominated author of Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.

“Smith highlights rural Black agriculturalists’ innovation, persistence, and pride in their effort to sustain their tradition and their relationship to the land, thus offering a much-needed departure from the prevailing narratives of rural Black folks and agriculture.”—Yuki Kato, author of Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City“Smith’s work on the experience of Black farmers during the Jim Crow era joins a vibrant field of scholarship focused on agriculture as a site of independence and self-sufficiency, not only as a site of exploitation.” —Adrienne Monteith Petty, author of Standing Their Ground: Small Farmers in North Carolina Since the Civil War

Bobby J. Smith II is associate professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the James Beard–nominated author of Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.

“Smith highlights rural Black agriculturalists’ innovation, persistence, and pride in their effort to sustain their tradition and their relationship to the land, thus offering a much-needed departure from the prevailing narratives of rural Black folks and agriculture.”—Yuki Kato, author of Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City“Smith’s work on the experience of Black farmers during the Jim Crow era joins a vibrant field of scholarship focused on agriculture as a site of independence and self-sufficiency, not only as a site of exploitation.” —Adrienne Monteith Petty, author of Standing Their Ground: Small Farmers in North Carolina Since the Civil War