February 12, 2025

American Civil Rights Activist has Farming Roots

Martin Luther King early years on Farm

The American Civil rights leader while living in Connecticut as a teenager, worked on a tobacco farm to help pay for tuition cost. Martin Luther spent the summer of 1944  working in a tobacco field in the Hartford suburb of Simsbury. To know he experienced the rustic soil and dusty fields of a tobacco farm is almost refreshing. It adds to the culture of the man that spoke to millions about equality and civility in America. The former Meadowood tobacco farm in Simsbury, Connecticut is now preserved and open to the public. He worked there two summers as a filed hand. Often writing back to his parents about how humbling the experience was. The property includes 130 acres for public recreation, 120 acres for working farmland, and 24 acres for municipal use.   
King's exposure to the Meadowood Tobacco farm was what shaped him becoming a minister. He initially considered studying law, but after his fellow Morehouse College students at the tobacco farm elected him their religious leader, he decided to become a minister.
His exposure to northern liberalism and equity shaped his drive for the historical civil rights movement he led in the southern United States. Attending church with whites and other races, as well as "big" shows and events where he was not frowned upon for his skin color inspired him. He saw that people could be treated with dignity and respect. Opportunity and circumstances meet for the perfect recipe of hope and dignity for young Martin. He then brought that vision and drive from the roots of a Northern farm to the trenches of the dirty south.
That a farm had all to do with shaping an iconic representation and activist of civil rights makes us at BLACKAG proud. Had King not been assassinated, he would be 96 years old this January 2025. We honor not only the legacy, but the history of his story and the connection that it had on a tobacco farm in the 1940's. As we embark on growing Black Farmers, we will always educate them about his honorable beginnings, and the connection he has to an agricultural experience.
Here's to the young farmer in Martin Luther King Jr., and ensuring the ground under our feet is an inspirational heritage builder for our communities, and America.


Read more about King on the farm

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/politics/2011/01/17/young-martin-luther-king-inspired-by-work-on-farm/61188963007/


Written by - Kesha Cobb - BLACKAG INC