Henry A. Hunt
He was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as the Harmon Prize.
[3] He was born on "Hunt Hill", by the small town of Sparta, in Hancock County, Georgia, part of the Black Belt.
[8] Throughout his time as a college student, including vacations from school, Hunt worked as a carpenter to earn money.
[9] Hunt graduated from Atlanta University with a Bachelors of Arts degree and completion of coursework in the Industrial Department in 1890.
In the year 1900, Hunt established an annual African-American farmer's conference including the counties surrounding Charlotte, North Carolina.
[9] George Foster Peabody, one of Fort Valley's Northern philantrhopists who was on the Board of Trustees, suggested Hunt because of his work at Biddle University.
In the beginning and throughout Hunt's career the area surrounding the school was dominated by a population of African Americans who worked in agriculture.
Hunt often stated his goal as empowering the African Americans attending Fort Valley, as well as the surrounding African-American community, to become effective in their trade.
[9] With Negroes cultivating millions of acres of land, surely no argument is needed to prove the wisdom and the justice of giving them every possible opportunity to learn how to do that work more intelligently and with greater skill.
Du Bois asked for Hunt's help with a research project focused on the study of Negro Common Schools in Georgia.
In a response letter to Du Bois, Hunt expressed interest but ultimately declined the offer because he was busy overseeing the building of a boy's dormitory on the Fort Valley campus.
[8] In 1931 Hunt received the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, which came with $1,400 and the purpose of travelling to Scandinavian countries to study agriculture and cooperatives.
Even so, soon after his appointment, Hunt had already been writing letters to various institutions and administrations across the nation involved in the improvement of African-American farmers' lives.
[14] On February 7, 1934, Hunt was called to attend the Interdepartmental Group Concerned with Special Problems of Negroes, colloquially known as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Black Cabinet.
[15] He was one of a total of 45 African Americans who created federal policy on education, jobs and housing at major cabinet-level agencies in the executive branch.
In 1935, a sub-committee of this Interdepartmental Group Concerned with Special Problems of Negroes, specifically dedicated to agriculture was formed of Hunt and four other men.
[4] Hunt has also been credited as largely responsible for the creation of Flint River Farms, which was established in Macon County, Georgia, in 1937.
