Young Ladies of F.I.S.C.

Farmers Improvement Society — a boarding school that taught vocational agriculture, as well as regular school subjects to African American kids.

The Farmers' Improvement Society (also known as the Farmers' Home Improvement Society) was founded in 1890 by Robert Lloyd Smith (b.1861 - d.1942), of Oakland, Colorado County, as a farmers' association for African Americans. The purposes of the society were to abolish the share-cropping and credit system that ensnared poor farmers, encourage self-sufficiency, promote home and farm ownership, promote crop diversification and use of improved farming methods, foster cooperative buying and selling, provide sickness and health benefits, and encourage the social and moral elevation of members.

By 1898 the society claimed 1,800 members; by 1900 it had grown to eighty-six branches and 2,340 members; and by 1909 it had 21,000 members spread over Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. In 1909 its cooperative business was estimated at $50,000 a year. In 1912 the membership owned 75,000 acres of land valued at considerably over $1 million. The society sponsored agricultural fairs to demonstrate the effectiveness of its programs. In addition to the cooperative business, it established the Farmers' Improvement Agricultural College at Wolfe City in 1906 and, to implement the overall program, the Farmers' Bank at Waco in 1911. During the late teens and early 1920s the society gradually declined, but for more than twenty years it contributed more than any other organization to elevating the status of blacks in Texas.

Info: Texas State Historical Association
Photo: Baylor African American Archives