Why Won't They Come? Exploring the Impact of Race & Historical Trauma on Community Gardens in the Deep South

Background & Purpose: Community gardens are promising interventions to address a host of issues – food insecurity, climate change, improve physical and mental health, and build resilient communities. However, little is known about those in the Deep South. Given the history of slavery and racial divides in the South, it is important to understand how race, white privilege, and historical trauma might impact the success of these interventions. A nuanced understanding is necessary to build anti-oppressive practice in the realm of environmental social work. Methods: Using racial capitalism and black geographies as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore race and racial diversity in community gardens in Alabama, US. A list of 27 active and public community gardens was developed using online searches and snowballing. During summer 2024, garden leaders (self-identified) were recruited to participate in hour-long Zoom interviews and provided a $35 incentive. Ten garden leaders were interviewed representing nine community gardens that were mostly urban (67%) and had been established for an average of 10.6 years. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes. Majority of participants were women (90%), white (70%), worked full-time (70%), and highly educated (90%). Average age was 53.6 years and 80% had grown up with gardening. Results: Main findings were that health-focused efforts were white-led while justice-focused efforts were BIPOC-led. Still, all community gardens had difficulty engaging a racially diverse community garden reflective of the neighborhood. Importing racial diversity rather than celebrating BIPOC leadership and knowledge appeared to be the main impediment for white-led efforts. BIPOC-led efforts had differing interpretations of “justice” that affected their views on charity, role of entrepreneurship, and the impact of historical trauma. These differing perceptions may be related to a rural vs urban distinction and age differences. Justice-led efforts that focused on entrepreneurship to build pathways out of poverty struggled with how to provide affordable food while ensuring economic activities provided living wages in the context of a neoliberal capitalist system and historic marginalization. All struggled to engage youth and feared losing food and growing knowledge generationally. Discussion: Racism, slavery, and historical trauma were explicit and implicit barriers to building inclusive community gardens. Celebrating BIPOC agricultural knowledge and contributions appears to be crucial to building trust across race, especially for those with white privilege. BIPOC leaders themselves did not equate gardening with slavery, despite hearing those comments from their own community. This may be because they were older. Ownership of land, food, and farming were key elements to Black agency and liberation during the Civil Rights era. They also grew up with farming in what were then rural areas – it was a way of life to provide self- and community-sufficiency. Future research should explore if there is a “generational” viscosity as suggested by Ramirez (2015) and incorporate theories and histories from other BIPOC groups (e.g., Indigenous, Asian, Hispanic/Latinx) to continue building the knowledge base of anti-oppressive practice in environmental social work.