City, Mo. That’s when 33 ….

City, Mo. That’s when 33 young students from 18 states gathered at the Hotel Baltimore to establish the Future Farmers of America. The group elected Leslie Applegate of Freehold, N.J., as its first president and adopted the national emblem – a mark similar to that of the original Virginia emblem – during the new organization’s first convention.

In 1929, national blue and corn gold became the offi- cial colors of FFA. A year later, delegates adopted the offi cial FFA Creed and by 1933 the familiar Official Dress of blue corduroy jackets was adopted after convention delegates were enthralled by the jackets worn to Kansas City by members of the Fredericktown, Ohio, FFA chapter.

The New Farmers of America

Less than a decade after the formation of the Future Farmers of America in 1928, a national organization for African-American boys interested in agriculture formed in Tuskegee, Ala. The New Farmers of America (NFA) was modeled after another Virginia organization – the New Farmers of Virginia – and began in 1935. The New Farmers of Virginia was instrumentally started by G.W. Owens and J.R. Thomas, teacher-educators in agricultural education at Virginia State College, and Dr. H.O. Sargent, a federal agricultural education official who later proposed NFA.

The NFA and FFA shared common beliefs. The NFA Creed had six paragraphs, each beginning with “I believe,” and its emblem featured only one stylistic difference: an outline in the shape of a cotton boll instead of an ear of corn. A total of 13 states received NFA charters, and by 1965 the NFA and FFA consolidated in recognition of shared missions for agricultural education.

In 1974, Texas’ Fred McClure became the first African-American national FFA officer, and in 1994 Chicago’s Corey Flournoy became the first African-American national FFA president.

Female members gain official standing

Girls were restricted from the earliest forms of FFA membership by delegate vote at the 1930 national convention. The decision to deny female members for many years denied recognition of the key role women have played on farms and in agriculture since the days of the American pioneers.

It wasn’t until 1969 that females gained full FFA membership privileges by vote of the national convention delegates, despite many state associations permitting female members long before. New York’s Anita Decker and New Jersey’s Patricia Krowicki became the first two female delegates to the national convention in 1970.

Today, females represent more than 45% of FFA members and roughly half of all state leadership positions. In 1976, Washington’s Julie Smiley became the first female national FFA officer. California’s Jan Eberly became the first female national FFA president in 1982.