Black agricultural knowledge did not begin in America. It traveled across oceans, carried by hands that understood irrigation, seed saving, herbal medicine, livestock management, and ecological balance long before modern agricultural science acknowledged their brilliance.

Throughout American history, Black farmers and land stewards have shaped regional food systems, cultivated biodiversity, preserved medicinal plant traditions, and built agricultural economies that nourished entire communities.

Yet, these contributions have often been erased, minimized, or overlooked.

Black Soil: Our Roots Run Deep restores visibility to these histories while highlighting the living continuation of this knowledge through modern farmers, herbalists, educators, and community leaders. This exhibit explores agriculture as more than food production. It is cultural preservation. It is survival. It is liberation work.

Black agriculture is not only history. It is living, evolving, and deeply rooted in community leadership today.

This exhibit highlights farmers, educators, herbalists, and cultural leaders who continue ancestral agricultural traditions while innovating sustainable food systems for future generations.

Founded by Chanowk and Judith Yisrael, Yisrael Farms represents a living continuation of ancestral agricultural stewardship in the Sacramento region and beyond.

Through regenerative farming, herbal medicine education, community food access programs, and land-based cultural storytelling, Yisrael Farms demonstrates how agricultural knowledge remains a tool for empowerment and community resilience.

Our work reflects a commitment to:
• Restoring land through regenerative agriculture
• Teaching ancestral plant knowledge
• Expanding community food sovereignty
• Preserving cultural agricultural traditions
• Creating farm-to-skin herbal body care rooted in plant medicine

Our presence within this exhibit highlights the enduring legacy of Black agricultural stewardship as both heritage and future.

Black agricultural knowledge has always been rooted in education passed from generation to generation. This resource hub provides opportunities for continued learning through historical archives, herbal traditions, agricultural education, and cultural storytelling.

Black Soil extends beyond gallery walls through workshops, lectures, community gatherings, and land-based learning experiences designed to reconnect people to agricultural heritage and food sovereignty.

Programs may include:

Opening Reception

Opening ReceptBlack Soil Farmer’s Market ion

Panel discussions with Black agricultural leaders

Poetry, storytelling, and cultural performance events