Jim Coleman owns the same Fayette County, Kentucky, farm his great-grandfather bought 136 years ago after first tilling the same land as a slave. He is the fourth generation of the Coleman family to live and work on the farm.
“From the late 1800s until the end of the 1920s … African Americans in the United States purchased 14 million acres of farmland,” Coleman said inside his newly built home on 13-acre Coleman Crest Farm in a community called Uttingertown east of Lexington. “They went from being slaves to being landowners.”
Uttingertown was established in 1869 when Samuel Uttinger divided his land into lots and sold them to former slaves. At the time, most Black citizens were unable to get loans from banks. Coleman credited Booker T. Washington for creating the Union Benevolent Society, which allowed African Americans to pool their money and issue loans to one another.
“My great-grandparents took out a jumbo mortgage from the Union Benevolent Society of $1,200 (more than $40,000 today), which was a lot of money then, and they purchased the land that I own today” in 1888, Coleman said. “When I think about what they went through and how they accomplished so much … with no political access. I mean, I can text Congressman [Andy] Barr, I can text Jonathan Shell … and they reply! They didn’t have that!”
Jim’s grandparents almost lost the farm during the 1930s when they got behind in their payments.
“[His grandmother] Mollie … saved the farm during a very difficult time during the Great Depression,” Jim said, noting she spoke with the banker on the front porch of the farmhouse. “He said, ‘Y’all need to either pay up this time or y’all need to start packing,’ and my grandmother said, ‘Can we just have a word of prayer before you take it [the farm] from us?’
“She got on her knees … at his feet, and she started talking in tongues, and … she was rolling around on the ground like she was having a seizure,” Jim added. “He said, ‘You all are crazy! Just get caught up!’ And he took off running never came back.”
Jim’s eyes welled up with tears as he recalled his grandmother’s faith in action.
“She just called on her Lord,” Jim said. “She reached Him, and He fixed it.”
The actions of another Coleman woman, Jim’s mother, allowed him to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C., when the Bryan Station High School student’s application was denied.
“My mother always wanted me to go to Howard,” Jim said, pronouncing it “Hi-ud” the way she did. “She said … ‘Everybody who’s an African American, when they come out of there … they’re very successful, like [former Supreme Court Justice] Thurgood Marshall.’
“When I first submitted my application, they turned me down,” Jim remembered. “It was probably one of the saddest days in my life. My mother said, ‘They don’t know what they’ve done. I’m gonna get this changed…. I’m gonna write a letter to the president.’
“All I know is about six days later, I got a new letter from Howard University from the president. He said, ‘Look, we turned you down at first, but in receiving the letter [from] Mrs. Coleman, we have decided to overturn the decision,” Jim continued. “That changed my life. My life is really all about a mother’s letter.”
Jim graduated from Howard in 1983 with a degree in economics. In his first interview, he was hired by Oscar Mayer & Co., who put him in its pre-management training program.
“I graduated with a really great job in a big company making $23,000 [$71,000 today] … and no college debt,” Jim said. “My parents had paid it (tuition) all. They sacrificed it all, and they were so proud…. I was already making more than my parents had ever made.”
Over the next 35 years as a Fortune 500 executive, Jim worked for Pepsi, Philip Morris USA/Altria, and American Express; dabbled in politics with the New York State Senate and local government in Westchester County, New York; and worked in economic development for Prince George’s County in Maryland.
Jim documented his career path in his 2017 book, Cut the Crap and Close the Gap: The Urgency of Delivering Desired Results. He has also written two children’s books about the life lessons he learned while growing up on Coleman Crest Farm.
Jim moved back to Lexington after his longtime wife and college sweetheart, Cathy, died of breast cancer in 2020.
“Losing Cathy was the deepest valley I’ve ever experienced in my life,” he said. “But you have to move on, and the way I was able to do it was to dedicate … the Cathy and James Coleman Scholarship Fund that provides scholarships to students at University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture. The other half will go to Howard University when I pass away.”
Jim ran for state representative last year in Kentucky’s 88th District but lost the election by 37 votes. He also re-established the dormant farm at Coleman Crest, that had once raised mostly livestock, to grow organic vegetables. Okra covers 35 percent of the 1-acre plot, which also consists of potatoes, zucchini, beets, and summer squash.
Jim is proud, Kentucky Proud in fact, that he operates the first African American-owned produce farm in the state that is certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. After making $14,000 last year, it is projected to gross $100,000 this year, thanks to eight new commercial accounts and the Farms to Food Banks program.
“With Feeding Kentucky’s program, we’re going to be able to connect with food pantries, and working with aggregators like Black Soil, we’re able to reach our fellow citizens who are dealing with hunger every day,” Jim said. “It’s a win for those who are in hunger; it’s a win for the farmers; it’s a win for our food pantries; and it’s a win for our taxpayers, because now when I hire more people, I have to pay more in taxes.”
Jim calls Coleman Crest “the most profitable farm per acre in the state of Kentucky.”
“To be able to generate $100,000 at a small farm and to be able to have it going to people who are dealing with hunger, and to have it to be known that Coleman Crest produce is medicine – my ancestors are shouting from heaven!” he said. “It’s unbelievable that this opportunity has happened.
“We’ve just got great leadership,” Jim added, “and I’m proud to say that KDA (Kentucky Department of Agriculture) is a partner here at Coleman Crest Farm.”
This article was written by Chris Aldridge and republished with permission courtesy of Kentucky Ag News, Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
