Helen Dubose, First Black Woman to Get Ag Degree, Recognized for Pioneering Career

The state’s organic agriculture community gathered this weekend to recognize the pioneering career of Henry County resident and longtime farmer, Helen Dubose for the trails she has blazed for over nine decades.

Dubose, the first female African American in the nation to graduate with an agriculture degree (and two subsequent Master’s degrees in agriculture and agriculture economics), has  lived for 32 years on her 12 acre blueberry farm in McDonough,  known as Healing Acres, which has more than 250 blueberry bushes. Healing Acres, and Dubose herself, has served as the epicenter of African American agriculture.

Georgia Organics, the state’s leading advocate for land stewardship, healthy food, and healthy farmers, honored Dubose with the 2013 Barbara Petit Pollinator Award.

“With 80 years of agricultural experience, both farming and teaching, Helen DuBose is a living legend, but so humble, that she is unknown to most of us,” says Georgia Organics Executive Director Alice Rolls. “So this year, Georgia Organics recognizes Helen Dubose for her incredible life of contributions to agricultural and as an inspiration to so many, particularly young, African-American farmers interested in farming.” 

The Barbara Petit Pollinator Award honors an individual or organization for outstanding community leadership in Georgia’s sustainable farming and food movement. The award acknowledges exceptional success in advancing Georgia Organics’ mission by spreading—pollinating—the movement throughout community life, such as the food industry, faith communities, public agencies, schools, and institutions. The award is named after Barbara Petit, a committed leader, culinary professional, and organizer who served as President of Georgia Organics from 2003-2009. During her term as president, the organization evolved from a non-staffed, member, and program-driven nonprofit to a professional group with expanded outreach, programs, and communications. 

Known as the first lady of black agriculture, Dubose has an inspiration to generations of farmers from all ethic and financial backgrounds because she broke agricultural, gender and racial barriers with a steely resolve.

A granddaughter of a farmer, Helen was not only the first to graduate from college in her family, she was the first in her family since slavery to finish the 6th grade.   Determined to get an agricultural degree, she received a bachelor’s degree in 1941 from Florida A&M.  This made her the first black woman in the country to receive an Agricultural degree.

After college, Mrs. Dubose returned home to farm 40 acres she bought from her grandfather and later became a teacher.  

Besides farming, her resume over the decades included:

• Teaching high school English and biology near Thomasville, Georgia;
• Working with agricultural migrant workers in the Everglades for the USDA;
• And, during World War II, teaching a wartime program called “Increasing Farm Production to Meet Special War Needs.”

The award was presented to Dubose’s grandson Feb. 23 at the 16th Annual Georgia Organics Conference, which had a record-breaking 1,300 attendees.

The good food movement in the South has unprecedented momentum, and from Feb. 22-23 conference attendees visited local farms, sat in on panel discussions, and made connections with farmers, medical professionals, school nutrition staff, gardeners, teachers, and community groups. They attended workshops on topics ranging from mushroom cultivation to young farmer advocacy.

The conference culminated with a keynote from CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who recognized the important unity of good food and good farms: “We’ve eaten our way into a problem. We can eat our way out of it.”