History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Colloquium Series

In this talk, Dr. Bobby J. Smith II discusses his new book, Black Farm Boys: The Untold Story of the New Farmers of America, examining the rise, influence, and disappearance of the New Farmers of America (NFA). Founded in 1935, the NFA was the nation’s first national organization for Black farm boys studying vocational agriculture at segregated public high schools across the South—and as far north as New Jersey. For three decades, the NFA grew its annual membership to 55,000, empowering Black boys across 18 states to change the face of American agriculture by becoming farmers and pursuing agricultural careers. By 1965, however, the NFA had vanished, its story forced into quiet obscurity, lingering in the shadows of Black agricultural history. Throughout this talk, Dr. Smith grapples with the haunting paradox: the NFA’s very significant existence and its near-total absence from American memory.