As the Fall approaches, Black Justice Fellow Xavier Brown has one thing on his mind. Getting back to the land.
“I’m excited to get out there and get my hands dirty,” Brown shares.
Brown is part of a growing movement of Black agriculturalists who are working to reconnect Black people to their roots – literally.
Farming and agriculture is something that is deeply ingrained in the history of the Black community. Many African-Americans today only have to go back a few generations to find a relative who worked the land.
Yet, today Black people make up less than 2% of farm producers – a result stemming both from decades of discriminatory land-ownership policies that denied land ownership to Black Farmers, as well as an effort by some to distance themselves from a lifestyle that holds painful memories of slavery and racial oppression.
But for Brown and his fellow Black Agriculturalists, the future is far brighter than the past.
“I want to help my people reconnect to the land,” Brown says. “When you’re out in nature, together with other agriculturalists, you get this feeling of peace that you can’t find anywhere else. It’s an amazing thing.”
Brown first got into gardening – or gardening got into him (as he likes to say), while living with his parents in DC. After taking a master gardening class at UDC in 2011, Brown developed an interest in Urban Agriculture. He soon joined the newly formed Black Dirt Farm Collective – a collective of Black agriculturalists from across the Mid-Atlantic region. Inspired by this community and his new-found love of farming, Brown founded Soilful City in 2014 to bring farming to DC.
“I enjoy the process of working with the land, nature and the people,” Brown says. “It’s easy to start a garden, but it’s harder to work with the community to sustain that garden. It’s a whole process of organizing people, having discussions, building and connecting with folks to get the garden going. I enjoy that process.”
Brown has partnered with organizations across DC to help promote and strengthen urban agriculture in Black communities. Together with groups like Project E.D.E.N, Hustlaz 2 Harvesters, and Green Scheme, Brown has helped set up neighborhood gardens throughout Wards 7 & 8.
“The purpose of the gardens is to create a healthy green space in the community,” Brown shares. “It may not be able to feed everybody, but what it allows is for each neighborhood to come together and organize based on their needs.”
Last year, Brown was selected as one of The Greater Washington Community Foundation’s Black Voices for Black Justice Fellows – an initiative to invest in local Black leaders in the Greater Washington Region. The grant allowed Brown to invest in a new food cooperative, South Eats – an initiative that is improving access to healthy, affordable prepared meals for families East of the River in Washington DC.
“As we were helping communities set-up gardens, we realized just how many families didn’t have access to healthy meals,” Brown explains. “We recognized an opportunity to fill a need, while also creating a new local-based business.”
But perhaps most impactful was that Brown was able to contribute to the longevity and future legacy of the Black Dirt Farm Collective.
In 2021, together with other members of the Collective, Brown purchased a 24-acre plot in Prince George’s County, MD. For the first time in the organization’s history, the Collective has land that it can call its own – a home, where members can farm, host workshops, and continue to build the Black agriculturalist Community.
“This land will be such an important healing space for the Black community,” Brown says. “By creating this space for Black women, Black males, and Black youth to exist and connect to the land, we can help create a brighter future for everybody.”
Xavier Brown was one of our Black Voices for Black Justice Fellows. Launched in Fall of 2020 in partnership with Bridge Alliance Education Fund and the DC-based GOODProjects, the Black Voices for Black Justice fund supported activists, organizers, and leaders who are on the front lines of advancing social justice and racial equity.
For more information about this initiative, visit https://www.thecommunityfoundation.org/news/introducing-the-black-voices-for-black-justice-dmv-fellows