10-Year-Old Farmer Makes History With Full-Ride HBCU Scholarship
In some much-needed good news, 10-year-old Kendall Rae Johnson made history after receiving a full-ride scholarship to HBCU South Carolina State University for agriculture.
According to 11 Alive News, Kendall Rae Johnson’s full-ride scholarship is traditionally reserved for athletes. Johnson caught the attention of South Carolina State University President Alexander Conyers after becoming the youngest certified farmer in the United States at the age of 6. Conyers told Johnson’s family that if he’s able to award scholarships to athletes, he should be able to do so for “an ag scholar.” Johnson’s scholarship will cover her tuition, fees, room, and board.
“I’m the first 10-year-old to get a full-ride scholarship!” Kendall Rae Johnson told 11 Alive. Johnson’s ultimate goal is to have a 100-acre farm with cattle, chickens, and various other farm animals. Kendall Rae Johnson currently lives in South Fulton, Georgia, with her parents. She’s taken the lead on her family’s farm, helping her parents tend to their livestock and crops. “It’s living with the ceiling open,” Johnson’s mom, Ursula, said. “We have no idea where we’re going, but we’re just following.”
Agriculture is the number one industry in Georgia, so Kendall Rae Johnson already has a strong handle on a skill set that will prove lucrative as she grows older. “She just wanted to grow,” Johnson’s mom, Ursula, told 11 Alive. “Once she found her love of growing, that blossomed into what you see today.”
As a USDA National Urban Agriculture Youth Ambassador, Johnson also encourages children across the country to experience the joy of farming. “I want to tell them to keep growing. Keep going. Keep being amazing. You do you!” Kendall Rae said. She also encourages any young farmers to apply for USDA youth farming scholarships, which is how she received her full-ride scholarship to South Carolina State University.
The topic of Black farmers has been bizarrely controversial in recent years. While there were nearly a million Black farmers in the 1920s, a century later, that number has been whittled down to only 45,508. This depreciation came as a result of land theft, loan denials, and old-fashioned American racism.
A program to cancel debt for Black farmers was met with legal pushback from white farmers because they felt it was racist against them. Under the Biden administration, the USDA established a grant intended to address historical disparities faced by Black farmers, though the grant only came after a long, hard-fought battle by Black farmers to get the USDA to acknowledge their concerns.
Unfortunately, those gains have quickly been reversed under the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the USDA quickly walked back several programs intended to address those disparities and reversed a 35-year-old policy intended to help Black farmers. Those reversals, combined with the historical disparities, have made Black farmers particularly vulnerable to the impact the Trump administration’s tariffs have had on agriculture.
With that context, it’s even more heartening to see Kendall Rae Johnson continue the proud legacy of Black farmers. Hopefully, her example inspires more young Black farmers to let their green thumbs shine.
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