Submitted by
UF/IFAS Jefferson County Extension Office
While we at UF/IFAS strive to strengthen our commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA), Black History Month reminds us to reflect on – or learn about – how we got here. We do this through stories and celebrating great pioneers in agriculture like Miles Edward Groover.
Born on a Jefferson County plantation in 1887, Groover grew up on his grandparents' 60-acre tenant farm, where they planted vegetables, grew fruit and raised hogs, cows and chickens.
Groover's grandfather died when he was 14 years old, leaving him to care for his grandmother, and he later purchased the 60 acres, an additional 90 acres on that plantation.
Groover was self-educated. At the turn of the 20th century, Blacks had little access to high-quality education; he became a high school agriculture teacher at age 15, later receiving a high-school certificate from Florida Memorial College and studying at various black colleges in the south during the summer. He was an educator for more than 30 years.
In 1914, the Smith-Lever Act formalized Extension as the U.S. headed into World War I and a recession. It established the USDA's partnership with land-grant universities to apply research and provide education in agriculture. Congress created Extension to address exclusively rural agricultural issues magnified by war and disenfranchisement. More than 50 percent of the U.S. population lived in rural areas at that point in history, and 30 percent engaged in farming.
Initially registering for the World War I Civilian Draft as the Wartime Farm Production Agent, Groover became the first black extension agent in Jefferson County from 1917 to 1957. He founded the Jefferson County Farmers Union in 1929 and organized 4-H Clubs for young men throughout Jefferson County. He also was a successful farmer, educator and store owner.
In 1945, he and 30 black friends worked together without compensation to save an ailing white neighbor's farm by plowing and cultivating 30 acres of corn.
Groover had expertise in many things and a set of Florida Statutes in his home, making it the Black community's hub in Jefferson County for decades. People sought his expertise in agriculture, law and various aspects of segregated life in the African American community reluctant to bring it to Jefferson County officials.
To maintain Jim Crow, white landowners would not sell land to Blacks. Utilizing diplomacy, Groover amassed more than 400 acres. He sold and sometimes even gave parcels to disenfranchised black farmers.
FAMU and UF/IFAS are co-authors of a century-old story of Extension, and to this day, FAMU helps Extension reach what one UF/IFAS unit's new IDEA plan called "hidden figures."
John Lilly recognizes the shared nature of this story. He compares Groover's intellect and impacts in rural Florida to that of George Washington Carver in Alabama. As director of UF/IFAS Extension Jefferson County, Lilly has kept Groover's memory alive by sharing newspaper clippings and keeping in touch with one of Groover's granddaughters, Ann Herring.
Herring still lives on the land her grandfather plowed with a mule named Maud on Groover Road in the Dills Community outside of Monticello. She is cooperating with FAMU Extension faculty member Sandra Thompson to seek grant funding to restore the abandoned school for African American children as a historic site for which Groover donated the land.
Sonja Vaughn, another granddaughter of Groover's, recalls going to the State Fair in Tampa with him every year to set up a display of pecans, cotton and other crops in a segregated exhibit hall. They drove to Plant City each night to stay with a relative as hotels did not serve black patrons.
Groover and his wife, the late Maratha Daisy Black, had one daughter, Doris. Groover died at their home on Dec. 25, 1966, at the age of 79.
Few agents esteem to the Hall of Fame, the agricultural community's highest honor. In 1998, Vaughn and Herring returned to the State Fairgrounds to celebrate their grandfather's legacy as he was posthumously inducted into the Agricultural Hall of Fame. His grandson, Nicholas Miles Vaughn, accepted the award for his grandfather. Other relatives who attended the ceremony honoring Groover were his daughter, Dories Herring; granddaughter Sonja Herring Vaughn; nephew, Willie Milling, and his wife, Nadean; nieces, Annie Sneed and Emma Mitchell and their families.
Groover's honors include:
• Achievement Award for Meritorious Service, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University
• Founder and President's Awards
for Outstanding Contribution
from the Jefferson County Farmer's Union
• The Florida Board of Education appointed Advisor to Suwannee River Junior College
• Certificate of Appreciation 26 years of Meritorious Service, University of Florida
He was also:
• Vice President of the National Association
of County Agents
• Committee Chairman of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Administration
• War Selective Service System
Registrants Advisor
• A member of the Price Administration
Rationing Board No. 401and the Air Raid Protection Committee
Groover's accolades were significant enough to warrant a mention in the Chicago Defender. The Chicago Defender was the first black newspaper to have a circulation of more than 100,000, the first to have a health column and the first to have an entire comic strips page.
Sharing our collective history will make us a better organization. It does not negate the rich history we traditionally celebrate. It expands our view exponentially of how we arrived here and what guides our path forward.
A huge thank you to Chris Moran, UF/ IFAS Special Assistant to the Vice President, who wrote the initial article posted on the IFAS website.
Special thanks to Ann Herring and John Nelson for searching the archive to obtain this vital piece of history.
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