Every July, Barbara Norman hosts a family farm day at the height of Michigan’s blueberry season. Fresh blueberries are on offer, along with samplings of blueberry wine. The fun includes a tour of the family farm, speeches by USDA officials, and a picnic lunch organized by volunteers. Barbara Norman’s event is a typical farm field day in Michigan in almost every way except one—the majority of the farmers enjoying the day are African-American and Hispanic.

Barbara Norman’s blueberry farm is on land her family has owned and cultivated for six generations, in the tiny town of Covert near the eastern banks of Lake Michigan.  Covert was settled in the late 1800s by liberal thinkers who supported the abolition of slavery, established completely integrated schools and churches, and shared power and wealth between the races. The community’s culture of tolerance was welcoming toward new arrivals in the decades that followed.

Today, Michigan is the nation’s leading producer of cultivated blueberries because parts of the state, like the farmland around Covert, are endowed with the specific soil conditions that are best for blueberry growth and production. There, Barbara Norman currently farms fifty-three acres of blueberries, which have grown wild on this continent for thousands of years. Some tout the blueberry as the all-American fruit because it starts out white, turns red, and then ripens into a deep blue. Native Americans used the tiny blue fruit for food and medicine and also prized the star-shaped foliage that holds the berry. The highbush berries that farmers grow today are cultured variants of the native wild blues, and Barbara Norman primarily grows two highbush varieties, called Bluecrop and Jersey; Bluecrop is known for its dependable yields and has been the most widely cultivated in Michigan for the past twenty-five years. 

As African-American farmers, Barbara Norman’s family has a strong sense of identity, one that is rooted in the land they have farmed since the 1930s. She remembers her grandfather’s favorite saying: “He who owns the land makes the rules.” On the day of her annual family farm tour, she helps her grandchildren plant rows of new blueberry plants parallel to the rows her grandfather helped her plant when she was a child. Though they can contribute to the work, her grandchildren are still too young to grasp the deeper significance of this ritual to the family’s cultural heritage and generation-spanning legacy.

The number of African-American farmers in the U.S. has declined precipitously over time, from a high of more than 900,000 in 1920 to an estimated 18,000 in 1982.  One study indicated that by the late 1980s there were fewer than 2000 African-American farmers under the age of 25. Farm succession is an issue nationally for family farms, but it is especially challenging for black family farms.  The average African-American farmer is well over 60 years of age.  

Yet there is cause for cautious optimism. The 2007 Census of Agriculture shows that the number of black or African American farmer and ranchers rose over the period from 2002 to 2007.  The same report indicates that that U.S. farmers and ranchers are becoming more diverse in general.  The Michigan Food and Farming Systems (MIFFS) Multicultural Farmers Program works with African-American, Hispanic and immigrant farmers throughout the state to improve their access to resources and provide technical assistance.

Barbara Norman has been a leader of the MIFFS program for many years, promoting opportunities for sustainable family farmers.  If her grandchildren follow in her footsteps, they will become the next generation of blueberry growers steeped in family tradition.  Barbara Norman’s gift to her grandchildren is a symbol of the many strands that weave the American story, and reminds us that racial healing is possible.