February 15, 2012 - Black History Month (Special Edition)

"Black History Month-Special Edition"

Originally aired on February 15, 2012

 



This is a special Black History Month edition of Farm Bureau's Voices of Agriculture where the relationship between agriculture and African-American history in South Carolina is told by two educators and historians.  Dr. O'Neal Smalls and Dr. Bobby Donaldson describe life for African-Americans after slavery in South Carolina and the role agriculture plays in defining Black culture and heritage in the South.

We visit Freewoods Farm in Horry County, South Carolina along the coast.  It is a 40-acre living farm museum replicating life on small southern family farms owned and/or operated by African-Amercians between 1865-1900.

The Freewoods project has the following primary goals:  (1) to develop a comprehensive, hands-on educational program emphasizing life on small/human-powered farms operated by African-Americans; (2) to provide public eduction on the importance of small family farms to the economic prosperity of the state and nation; (3) to promote tourism and minority economic development. 

We also travel across the state to hear from three African-American farmers in different parts of the state to learn what agriculture means to them in our current culture.  And, we stopped by the SC State University to learn about programs especially geared for minority farmers.

For more information about this episode, see the following:

Freewoods Farm
Dr. O'Neal Smalls, Educator and Historian
9515 Freewoods Road
Myrtle Beach (Burgess), South Carolina 29588
(843) 650-9139
www.freewoodsfarm.com


University of South Carolina
Dr. Bobby Donaldson, Associate Professor of History and African-American Studies
227 Gambrell Hall, University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina 29201
(803) 777-6282
www.sc.edu


SC State University
Dr. G. Dale Wesson, Vice President for Research, Economic Development and Public Service
300 College Street NE
Orangeburg, South Carolina 29117
(803) 516-4989
www.scsu.edu