Reaping a Greater Harvest
African Americans, the Extension Service, and Rural Reform in Jim Crow Texas
978-1-58544-571-4 Cloth
6 x 9 x 0 in
328 pp. 35 b&w photos., 1 line art., 6 maps., 10 tables.
Pub Date: 03/26/2007
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Black farmers were excluded from cooperative demonstration work in Texas until the Smith-Lever Agricultural Extension act in 1914. However, the resulting Negro Division included a complicated bureaucracy of African American agents who reported to white officials, were supervised by black administrators, and served black farmers. The now-measurable successes of these African American farmers exacerbated racial tensions and led to pressure on agents to maintain the status quo. The bureau that was meant to ensure equality instead became another tool for systematic discrimination and maintenance of the white-dominated southern landscape.
Historians of race, gender, and class have joined agricultural historians in roundly praising Reid's work.
Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life, sponsored by Texas A&M University-Commerce
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Published by Texas A&M University Press