Tyrell Rembert was a blue-collar worker before discovering his true calling: homesteading. Rembert, originally from North Carolina, can remember being fascinated by nature and the synchronicities that exist within it from a young age. Though he always had an interest in nature, he seldom saw any Black people who partook in farming or outdoor activities; he felt as though his main objective had to be keeping up with societal expectations for the Black community.

As a young adult, Rembert was unsure about his life path; he did not want to join what he dubbed “the rat race” of the modern workforce nor did he feel confident enough to immerse himself in nature like he wanted to. He decided to join the military to make himself useful in the best way he knew how at the time. Little did he know, this path would lead him to a life in the outdoors as he took on the homesteading lifestyle, which is dependent on total self-sufficiency. Rembert was inspired after seeing the simple way people lived while stationed in Afghanistan. Rembert said he experienced an abundance of kindness and warmth from each community he visited in Afghanistan. He remembers being called to have tea, dinner and meaningful conversations by people who saw him patrolling outside their homes. Their kindness and affinity to revel in the simple joys of life rebutted the violent, Americanized version of “the enemy” he was trained to hate.

Rembert feeding his ducks on his homestead.

The Historical Significance of Homesteading to the Black Community

A major draw to the homesteading lifestyle for Black people is not only freedom from the daily grind, but also from the oppressive systems that kept the community from immersing itself in nature since the end of slavery.

Native Georgian, William Jeffries IV, achieved this by moving out of the city of Atlanta and owning and operating his own modern homestead. Jeffries says homesteading lets him nurture his love of the environment and a lifestyle of self-sufficiency by growing his own food. Jeffries films vlog-style videos to regularly update friends, family, and fellow Black homesteaders on his progress.

Jeffries harvesting oranges in his garden.

It was important for Jeffries to buy a plot of land as soon as he was able so he could honor the legacy of Black homesteaders who did not get the chance to actualize their dreams during the period of The Homestead Act.

“Given the land that was stolen from us during the late 1800s through now, it's important for Black people to regain a connection to the land and not see the land as something that was a source of bondage for us,” said Jeffries.

According to the National Park Service, “The Homestead Act opened land ownership to male citizens, widows, single women, and immigrants pledging to become citizens. The 1866 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed that African Americans were eligible as well.”

Following the end of the Civil War, Union leaders met with Black ministers in Georgia to discuss restorative actions for newly freed enslaved people, or Freedmen. During this meeting, a policy that would reallocate 400,000 acres of land originally owned and subsequently abandoned by those a part of the Confederacy to formerly enslaved people was proposed. This policy became known as General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order 15.

Section three of the policy states that, “… each family shall have a plot of not more than (40) acres of tillable ground, and when it borders on some water channel, with not more than 800 feet waterfront, in the possession of which land the military authorities will afford them protection, until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their title.”

General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order 15 soon turned into the namesake "40 acres and a mule’ policy in Jan. 1865.

The freedmen used the land they acquired to build their lives on the foundation of self-sufficiency and partial freedom following the Emancipation Act. For the first time, Black people were able to move towards creating their own self-sustaining communities, education systems and pathways towards success. During this time, rumours that land owned by those in the Confederacy would be given to freedmen without prejudice. However, the opportunity for these communities to flourish was quickly taken away after President Abraham Lincoln’s assasination.

According to Blackpast.org, “Less than a year after Sherman’s order, President Andrew Johnson intervened and ordered that the vast majority of confiscated land be returned to its former owners. This included most of the land that the freedmen had settled. The federal government dispossessed tens of thousands of black landholders.”

The seizure of their land left many with few options other than to become sharecroppers. The sharecropping system banked on the need for economic survival within the Black community. Sharecropping allowed former Black homesteaders to grow crops on a small plot of land owned by white landowners. The land was free of cost but required sharecroppers to turn over a portion of their crops. While it was a means of survival, this system robbed many of their ability to live autonomously as they had as homesteaders.

Jeffries believes that, even though slavery ended, Black people were never made truly free. He says that the systems of oppression that keep Black people from their place in nature have shifted.

“Nowadays, Black people are enslaved to this capitalist system. There is a race-based system that makes Black people dependent on systems that have long enslaved us,” said Jeffries.

Jeffries sees the criminal justice system, racial redlining in housing, and government-sanctioned food programs like food stamps as some of the most oppressive forces still facing the Black community. He says reclaiming the land and lifestyles of their ancestors is key to escaping that oppression.

Nurse and health disparities researcher at the College of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Sarian Lofton, studies the benefits of health promotion in the Black community. Lofton that she, “ uses a community-based participatory research approach to identify and leverage community assets while building local capacities.” Recently she has been studying urban agriculturalists and their capacity to build community-based food systems in historically underserved Black communities at risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

Jeffries harvesting oranges in his garden.

“I talk with people about how people find access to food from the community resident perspective and what options are available from community urban farmers and growers,” said Lofton.

According to a 2018 study about urban foodscape trends by the University of Chicago, African-American and other marginalized Chicagoans had the lowest access to healthy food in areas dubbed “food deserts” or places where supermarkets let alone fresh produce are hard to come by. Chicago is not a monolith as many urban farms have been erected in the name of self-sufficiency with Black communities that experience low food access and health disparities.

While the term “urban farming” may be used instead of homesteading, urban farmers often share the same desire for self-sufficiency in situations where outside support is often seen as less than helpful.

Lofton hopes to lessen the impact of health issues like diabetes and hypertension that plague her community due to low food access. She believes urban farming is an example of what can happen when the Black community embraces their roots.

“We have the ability to do it. There’s no reason why we can’t take this head on. If we were able to reconnect ancestrally to agriculture, I think it could contribute to a sense of pride,” said Lofton.

The Legacy and Longevity of Black Homesteaders

Author, historian, and Black homesteader, Jocyceann Gray, started connecting to her ancestral roots and the homesteading lifestyle while researching her great grandfather, William Walker, who was a part of a successful Black homestead during the time of The Homestead Act.

Gray is like many people of her generation; seeking answers and family connections through historical and genealogical research. After retiring from the military in 2008 after over 20 years of active service in her native Brooklyn, New York, Gray wanted to spend her time doing something meaningful. Gray is a lifelong student of Black history and enjoyed researching how she and her family were interwoven within major historical moments. Gray’s interest in homesteading began when she discovered the National Park Service devoted a section of its website to stories of the original Black homesteaders as told by their descendants.

It both fascinated and inspired Gray that this resource was readily available with the stories of those who had sacrificed so much in the name of creating a fruitful life for themselves and their families.

“When I read the stories of my people. it means that I am the sum total of strength, perseverance, intelligence, and kindness,” said Gray.

Homesteading Narratives

Reading the stories of other people’s family lineage and their connection to The Homestead Act inspired her to research her own family. Gray’s interest soon turned into a passion as she dove into her research; she spent much of her free time making phone calls to family members, thumbing through old photos and documents and scouring The National Library of Congress website to find connecting clues. She soon had one of the names of her ancestors, William Walker, who had moved with his small family from Canada to Overton Nebraska to take advantage of the land distribution due to The Homestead Act.

“He had to put his wife up with some neighbors, and he slept on the ground on his land every day until he was able to build a house and a barn and put acres and acres of crops in. It took him a year to do that. That speaks volumes as to what homesteading means to me as his great-granddaughter,” said Gray.

What started as a hobby turned into an entire research project as she spent countless hours dedicated to finding out more about how William Walker and other extended family members. Eventually, Gray had enough material to fill a book, so she wrote one entitled Yes We Remember. In this book, Gray recounts her family’s movements throughout their homesteading journey between the 18th and the 20th century. Gray wrote a second book entitled Our DeWitty which focuses on the women within her family who are amongst the voices that are seldom heard in many homesteading accounts. Gray said her goal was to bring the stories of her ancestor’s achievements and legacies to life for the present and future generations.

Gray began chronicling all of her research and writings on her personal blog, J. Gray Researching . On her blog, Gray says that the theme of her work follows the sentiment that, “You cannot know where you are going until you know who you are, you cannot know who you are until you know who came before…It is only then you will find your true direction and reason for being.”

Since starting her blog, Gray’s family tree has expanded beyond the Walker family; she found that she is related to four other families who were also homesteaders. Gray shares details about where each family lived, names, surnames and even accomplishments. After setting up his family homestead, William Walker became the Superintendent of the Sunday School in his small homesteading community in Nebraska.

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Jocyceann Gray's Great Grandfather-William Walker

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William Walker

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William Walker and his wife

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William Walker Superintendent paperwork

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Jocyceann Gray while in the military

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Jocyceann's Homestead

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As Gray continues to share updates about her research and findings within her family tree, her blog has taken on the form of a social media platform as her followers express their appreciation for her work and their own desire to research their own family’s history of homesteading.

Gray’s social network has expanded to Facebook as well where she is a part of the Descendants of African American Homesteaders page. In this group, members share their personal research, try to make familial connections and aid each other in trying to get their work published to the National Parks Service website.

“Having conversations with people and having a social network turns to be a way for us researchers to communicate, share and get answers,” Gray said.

Since starting her research, Gray embarked on her own homesteading journey with her husband. Once Gray’s husband retired, she convinced him it was time for them to move towards the homesteading lifestyle. While it took some time to find a plot of land to build one, they settled on one in South Carolina. Gray and her husband value the sense of freedom and self-sustainability they feel while on their small homestead in South Carolina. However, one of Gray’s main motivators to move onto a homestead of their own was to honor the legacy of her ancestors who lead her to live out her life purpose in more ways than one.

The motivations of many Black homesteaders are just as much rooted in the past as they are in the future of the Black homesteading community. While Rembert was discouraged by the fact that he only had two Black families visit his homestead, he knows through listening to the experiences of fellow members of the community and sharing his own, more are to come.

“I want people to look into homesteading, especially Black people,” Rembert said.