The African American Legacy in Gardening & Horticulture
By Kavanah Anderson, Director of Learning & Community Engagement
On the Saturday morning of Easter weekend, more than 300 community members of all backgrounds sat ready to listen in the purple velvet cushioned pews of the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, N.C. Colorful flags unfurled, and the North Carolina Federation of Garden Club presidents processed down the aisle to the sound of their gardening anthem, “Oh Beautiful for Garden Green,” while hundreds of viewers joined online via livestream. Everyone was gathered for “The African American Legacy in Gardening and Horticulture” symposium to learn together about the significant contributions of African American plantspeople, horticulturalists, residential gardeners and gardening clubs.
The North Carolina Federation of Garden Club presidents.
Photo by Angela Claveria T’26.
Over the course of the day, nine speakers shared personal narratives, generational gardening practices and diasporic ethno-botanical viewpoints to affirm and uplift the contributions made over centuries by African American gardening innovators. This celebratory and educational event, a collaboration between the Durham County Library, Sarah P. Duke Gardens and the North Carolina Botanical Garden, served as a catalyst for ongoing appreciation, community building and inspiration for future generations of plant lovers.
Speakers shared the ways in which gardening goes beyond being a practical endeavor to a rich cultural tradition that reflects identity and heritage practices that has been passed down through generations, connecting contemporary gardeners with ancestral knowledge and wisdom.
Durham County commissioner Nida Allam delivered a proclamation in honor of Catherine Ferrell, North Carolina’s and Durham’s oldest resident, declaring the start of “Catherine Ferrell Beautification and Garden Week.” At age 111, Ms. Ferrell, an ornamental gardener, sprang spryly from her seat to receive the honor. Ms. Ferrell promotes gardening as a means of healthy living, stress reduction and lifelong fitness, and has shared practical gardening skills through active participation in multiple gardening clubs over her long lifetime.
North Carolina’s oldest resident,
Catherine Ferrell.
Keynote speaker Abra Lee uplifted the names and stories of many plantspeople at risk of being forgotten, sharing her work to memorialize the legacies of people like Margaret Murray Washington, who started the first horticulture curriculum at Tuskeegee Normal and Industrial Institute inspired by her visit to Swanlea Horticulture College in England. And David Augustus Williston, the first African American to graduate with a degree in landscape architecture from Cornell. Participants also heard about Madie Hall Xuma, the first president of the North Carolina Federation of Gardening Clubs; Duke University historian John Hope Franklin and his orchid greenhouse; Eula May Fortenberry and her involvement in a Macomb, Miss., garden club; and J.W.R. Grandy III, who opened the first African-American owned floral shop in Greensboro, N.C., and helped North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) establish the first accredited undergraduate landscape architecture program at an HBCU.
Ms. Lee also shared the legacy of Black flower vendors like Annie Mae Van Reid of Darlington, S.C., who said that “the florist whose beautiful shop you pass is to the soul of man and woman what the restaurant keeper is to the stomach. And the feeding of the soul is as important as any other kind of feeding.” The role of Black flower vendors was directly represented at the symposium by Ms. Bettye Jenkins, one of the original Flower Ladies of Chapel Hill, who shared her experience together with cultural preservationist Justin Robinson and flower farmer Cheryl Gibson on the panel “Afro-Ecologies: Ethno-Botanical Healing, Farm-Foodways and Floriculture in Black Southern Landscapes,” moderated by The Chocolate Botanist, Derek Haynes.
Symposium panelists on stage at the Hayti Heritage Center. Photo by Angela Claveria T’26.
In “Anne Spencer’s Garden: Understanding Black Women’s Gardens as Emancipatory Healing Spaces,” moderated by Leoneda Inge of WUNC’s “Due South,” the audience learned about poet, librarian, activist and gardener Anne Spencer, whose Lynchburg, Va., home and garden served as a sanctuary for Harlem Renaissance luminaries. Spencer’s rich legacy was shared by her granddaughter, Shaun Spencer Hester, who serves as executive director of the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum; Noelle Morrissette, who interpreted Spencer’s expansive life and imagination in her book, “Anne Spencer Between Worlds;” and novelist Zelda Lockhart, who directs Her Story Garden Studios, an inspirational space for Black women to self-define, heal and liberate through stories and nature.
With many more rich legacies to celebrate and more incredible knowledge to share, planning is underway for a 2025 symposium, with an exciting slate of speakers lined up, including novelists, birders, topiary artists, scholars, ecologists and more. The program will include sessions on urban forestry, the ethno-botanical influence of Africans and African Americans on the American landscape and contemporary African American narratives in environmental literature, as well as opportunities for intentional community building among participants. Opportunities for sponsorship are available.
This free symposium is a collaboration between the Durham County Library, Sarah P. Duke Gardens and the North Carolina Botanical Garden. The idea for the event and its highly collaborative framework is the work of Carter Cue, a Durham County adult services librarian. “As the mission of the Durham County Library is to encourage discovery, connect the community and lead in literacy, our partnership and participation in this horticulture symposium further enhanced Durham County Library’s longstanding commitment to nature literature and community education programming focused on the natural world,” Mr. Cue shares. “We look forward to ongoing collaboration with Sarah P. Duke Gardens, the North Carolina Botanical Garden and other Triangle area organizations.”
Planning committee member Joanna Lelekacs, director of learning and community engagement at the North Carolina Botanical Garden, reflects, “The symposium was a beautiful event, both showcasing the African American legacy in gardening and horticulture and also highlighting significant leadership and community connections. I learned so much and made so many wonderful connections and re-connections. I can’t wait for the next event!”
Guests gather at Duke Gardens the evening before the symposium. Photo by Jordan Abdur-Ra’oof.
Questions?
Please contact us at gardens@duke.edu.