Statement of Clemmons Family Farm's Board of Directors
on the Legacy of Mrs. Lydia Monroe Clemmons, RN, CRNA, JD
We deeply mourn the passing of Mrs. Lydia Monroe Clemmons on August 16, 2024, and cherish the enduring legacy she has left behind. We send our sympathies to her family and to everyone in her expansive community who knew and loved her. The Board of Directors of Clemmons Family Farm, Inc. wishes to reflect on, honor, and celebrate her remarkable life that inspired the founding of our organization and our mission.
Born on a family farm in Ringgold, Louisiana on June 22, 1923, Lydia Monroe and her family were among the millions of Black farmers who lost a combined total of 93% of their land assets in the US due to racial discrimination between the 1920s and present times. When she was 12 years old, she and her family joined the Great Migration of more than six million African-Americans who left their lives in the rural South and moved to the North, Midwest and California to find better opportunities and safe places to raise their children and thrive.
In the 1940s, she received her degree as a registered nurse from Loyola University and an advanced degree as a certified registered nurse anesthetist from Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, which at the time was one of just five schools of nursing in the nation that admitted African American student nurses and physicians for education and training.
She married her husband, Dr. Jackson JW Clemmons, in 1952, and they moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Charlotte, Vermont ten years later. To the surprise of their family, friends, and colleagues, the Clemmonses bought a 148-acre historic farm, where they raised their five children and cared for 13 grandchildren. They invested everything they had in their children's educations and in their farm - which they named the “JLLJN Farm” (using the first initial of the names of each of their children)- hoping that the beautiful land and buildings would remain in their family for generations to come.
While her husband became the second African-American member of faculty at the University of Vermont, and worked as a pediatric pathologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Mrs. Clemmons became the first African-American nurse anesthetist at the University of Vermont Medical Center and served as the president of the New England Association of Nurse Anesthetists. She received an honorary degree in Law (JD) from the University of Vermont in recognition of her service and achievements in Vermont and New England.
In addition to her career in anesthesiology and nursing, Mrs. Clemmons was a Reiki healer and pursued fulfilling vocations as a farmer, an artist, an activist, and a world traveler. As her husband led the family’s farm work in haying and livestock, Mrs. Clemmons managed the family’s large vegetable gardens with green beans, peas, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, corn, watermelon, and more. Joyfully following the instructions in a set of Foxfire books, she canned and preserved all of the farm produce to last the family throughout the fall, winter, and spring. She was an excellent cook and a talented seamstress who sewed most of her own clothes and those of her children.
She and her husband served as co-presidents of the Charlotte Central School PTA in the 1960s. In the 1970s, she co-founded the Charlotte 4H Club and the Charlotte Chapter of the League of Women Voters, co-authoring the Know Your Town booklet based on a study of Charlotte. Mrs. Clemmons also attended and served for several years as a deacon of the Charlotte Congregational Church, and as chairwoman of the Women of UVM.
Beginning in the 1980s, she and her husband traveled to numerous countries in Africa, sometimes with their oldest daughter, Lydia, to work, live, explore, and to buy art. In 1984, after a trip to Tanzania and Kenya, Mrs. Clemmons launched Authentica African Imports, the very first exclusively African art import and mail order business in the United States, right on the family farm in Charlotte. Lyman Wood, of Garden Way, helped her with advice and sent many of his employees her way to provide her with technical assistance in marketing and setting up the mail order system. Her husband Jack, meanwhile, refinished and mounted the African masks and statues they purchased during their many travels on the continent for exhibits, sales, and their private collection. Authentica became a community-building magnet, attracting K-12 students on field trips, Vermont college and university students seeking to borrow textiles for their African fashion shows, shoppers looking for unusual finds, and visitors from near and far desiring to connect with African diapsora cultures and spend a bit of quality time with the delightful and extraordinary Lydia Monroe Clemmons.
Mrs. Clemmons was a gifted storyteller who blended gentle humor and humility with vivid descriptions of the people, places, and events in her long and adventurous life. In the 1990s, with a small grant from Vermont Arts Council to help cover her mileage costs, Mrs. Clemmons put her favorite pieces of African art into the back of her old station wagon and drove all over the state of Vermont to speak in K-12 classrooms and bring her stories of the peoples and cultures of Africa to teachers and students. In collaboration with the Flynn Theater of Burlington, she hosted a very popular annual "dine-around" series of African diaspora dinners at her home on the Clemmons farm. After running Authentica for more than 25 years, Mrs. Clemmons finally closed the business in 2013 when she was 90 years old.
She co-founded the 501c3 charitable nonprofit organization Clemmons Family Farm, Inc. with her oldest daughter and a group of family friends and advisers in 2019. The travels in Africa and the many initiatives she and her husband led over the decades on their family farm and throughout the country became foundational to the work of the nonprofit organization. After 61 years of never selling a single acre, at the age of 100, Mrs. Clemmons and her husband Jackson Clemmons sold their beloved farm in 2023 to the nonprofit named in their honor. Their farm thus remains intact and continues its legacy of being a place to learn about and celebrate African-American history; foster appreciation of the arts and cultural heritage of the African diaspora; encourage the love of the land through farming, conservation, and stewardship; and build a multicultural community.
Mrs. Clemmons' deep pride in her cultural heritage, her love for her community, her joy in her family farm and the arts, her continuous learning, and her quiet and determined activism for a just society have all served as major inspirations for Clemmons Family Farm’s work and organizational mission today.
“I think our eyes are all open now to the kind of world we live in. It seems to have just jumped ahead to a different kind (of world) all of a sudden. So now it’s very important that all people of all races are recognized and respected. And the only way you’re going to get some recognition and respect is to have done something positive. So I think from that standpoint it’s very important that we have this (the Clemmons farm) in Vermont and in the United States.”
Mrs. Lydia M. Clemmons, 2/22/18 televised interview with Vermont Historical Society.
Although she is no longer with us in body, Mrs. Clemmons' words and essence continue to guide us. We remain inspired by the unique ways in which she gently touched people’s spirit with her kindness and openness; the way she thoughtfully and intentionally contributed to her local community; and the way she embraced her global citizenship, bridging worlds between the African continent and Vermont.
A large part of the living legacy of Lydia Monroe Clemmons- and that of her husband Jack-is embracing the richness offered through multiculturalism and the joy in spending quality time with people from a variety of cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. Clemmons Family Farm, Inc. aims to carry forward this legacy through arts and cultural events and experiences, in K-12 schools, with artists, and at community-wide events both on the beloved Clemmons Farm and throughout the state of Vermont.
As the members of the Board of Directors of Clemmons Family Farm, Inc. -an African American women-led nonprofit organization – we are reflecting at this moment on Mrs. Clemmons’ philosophy of how our work builds on the struggles and triumphs of those who came before us – especially in the examples of strong women–and focuses on empowering those who will come after us:
"When we see ourselves, we are not just ourselves. We are a composite, a part of all of the generations before us. If you just think about it, and reflect on it a little bit, you can feel the energy of those past generations– especially those past women, if you’re a woman– that influenced you. And so, our lives are just not our own doing. It’s because of some guiding spirit that helped us, and all of the influences of our mothers and grandmothers and aunts. We’re just not self-made, we’re a part of all of that. So we have a big responsibility to continue to give the best we can to the generation coming. We want to push them ahead so that they can be everything they want to be. And then they’ll be a happy person.”
Mrs. Lydia M. Clemmons, 2016 family storytelling session with daughter Lydia Clemmons
We are grateful for Mrs. Clemmons' loving and inspiring spirit. In her honor, we recommit ourselves to giving our very best to the generation coming.
Margaret Bass, Director
James Bentil, Director and Secretary
Rev. Co'Relous Bryant, Director
Lydia Clemmons, President and Executive Director
Kay Johnson, Director and Treasurer
Robin Anthony Kouyate, Director
Catharine Noel, Director
Donna Sherard, Director
Leslie McCrorey Wells, Director
Born on a family farm in Ringgold, Louisiana on June 22, 1923, Lydia Monroe and her family were among the millions of Black farmers who lost a combined total of 93% of their land assets in the US due to racial discrimination between the 1920s and present times. When she was 12 years old, she and her family joined the Great Migration of more than six million African-Americans who left their lives in the rural South and moved to the North, Midwest and California to find better opportunities and safe places to raise their children and thrive.
In the 1940s, she received her degree as a registered nurse from Loyola University and an advanced degree as a certified registered nurse anesthetist from Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, which at the time was one of just five schools of nursing in the nation that admitted African American student nurses and physicians for education and training.
She married her husband, Dr. Jackson JW Clemmons, in 1952, and they moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Charlotte, Vermont ten years later. To the surprise of their family, friends, and colleagues, the Clemmonses bought a 148-acre historic farm, where they raised their five children and cared for 13 grandchildren. They invested everything they had in their children's educations and in their farm - which they named the “JLLJN Farm” (using the first initial of the names of each of their children)- hoping that the beautiful land and buildings would remain in their family for generations to come.
While her husband became the second African-American member of faculty at the University of Vermont, and worked as a pediatric pathologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Mrs. Clemmons became the first African-American nurse anesthetist at the University of Vermont Medical Center and served as the president of the New England Association of Nurse Anesthetists. She received an honorary degree in Law (JD) from the University of Vermont in recognition of her service and achievements in Vermont and New England.
In addition to her career in anesthesiology and nursing, Mrs. Clemmons was a Reiki healer and pursued fulfilling vocations as a farmer, an artist, an activist, and a world traveler. As her husband led the family’s farm work in haying and livestock, Mrs. Clemmons managed the family’s large vegetable gardens with green beans, peas, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, corn, watermelon, and more. Joyfully following the instructions in a set of Foxfire books, she canned and preserved all of the farm produce to last the family throughout the fall, winter, and spring. She was an excellent cook and a talented seamstress who sewed most of her own clothes and those of her children.
She and her husband served as co-presidents of the Charlotte Central School PTA in the 1960s. In the 1970s, she co-founded the Charlotte 4H Club and the Charlotte Chapter of the League of Women Voters, co-authoring the Know Your Town booklet based on a study of Charlotte. Mrs. Clemmons also attended and served for several years as a deacon of the Charlotte Congregational Church, and as chairwoman of the Women of UVM.
Beginning in the 1980s, she and her husband traveled to numerous countries in Africa, sometimes with their oldest daughter, Lydia, to work, live, explore, and to buy art. In 1984, after a trip to Tanzania and Kenya, Mrs. Clemmons launched Authentica African Imports, the very first exclusively African art import and mail order business in the United States, right on the family farm in Charlotte. Lyman Wood, of Garden Way, helped her with advice and sent many of his employees her way to provide her with technical assistance in marketing and setting up the mail order system. Her husband Jack, meanwhile, refinished and mounted the African masks and statues they purchased during their many travels on the continent for exhibits, sales, and their private collection. Authentica became a community-building magnet, attracting K-12 students on field trips, Vermont college and university students seeking to borrow textiles for their African fashion shows, shoppers looking for unusual finds, and visitors from near and far desiring to connect with African diapsora cultures and spend a bit of quality time with the delightful and extraordinary Lydia Monroe Clemmons.
Mrs. Clemmons was a gifted storyteller who blended gentle humor and humility with vivid descriptions of the people, places, and events in her long and adventurous life. In the 1990s, with a small grant from Vermont Arts Council to help cover her mileage costs, Mrs. Clemmons put her favorite pieces of African art into the back of her old station wagon and drove all over the state of Vermont to speak in K-12 classrooms and bring her stories of the peoples and cultures of Africa to teachers and students. In collaboration with the Flynn Theater of Burlington, she hosted a very popular annual "dine-around" series of African diaspora dinners at her home on the Clemmons farm. After running Authentica for more than 25 years, Mrs. Clemmons finally closed the business in 2013 when she was 90 years old.
She co-founded the 501c3 charitable nonprofit organization Clemmons Family Farm, Inc. with her oldest daughter and a group of family friends and advisers in 2019. The travels in Africa and the many initiatives she and her husband led over the decades on their family farm and throughout the country became foundational to the work of the nonprofit organization. After 61 years of never selling a single acre, at the age of 100, Mrs. Clemmons and her husband Jackson Clemmons sold their beloved farm in 2023 to the nonprofit named in their honor. Their farm thus remains intact and continues its legacy of being a place to learn about and celebrate African-American history; foster appreciation of the arts and cultural heritage of the African diaspora; encourage the love of the land through farming, conservation, and stewardship; and build a multicultural community.
Mrs. Clemmons' deep pride in her cultural heritage, her love for her community, her joy in her family farm and the arts, her continuous learning, and her quiet and determined activism for a just society have all served as major inspirations for Clemmons Family Farm’s work and organizational mission today.
“I think our eyes are all open now to the kind of world we live in. It seems to have just jumped ahead to a different kind (of world) all of a sudden. So now it’s very important that all people of all races are recognized and respected. And the only way you’re going to get some recognition and respect is to have done something positive. So I think from that standpoint it’s very important that we have this (the Clemmons farm) in Vermont and in the United States.”
Mrs. Lydia M. Clemmons, 2/22/18 televised interview with Vermont Historical Society.
Although she is no longer with us in body, Mrs. Clemmons' words and essence continue to guide us. We remain inspired by the unique ways in which she gently touched people’s spirit with her kindness and openness; the way she thoughtfully and intentionally contributed to her local community; and the way she embraced her global citizenship, bridging worlds between the African continent and Vermont.
A large part of the living legacy of Lydia Monroe Clemmons- and that of her husband Jack-is embracing the richness offered through multiculturalism and the joy in spending quality time with people from a variety of cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. Clemmons Family Farm, Inc. aims to carry forward this legacy through arts and cultural events and experiences, in K-12 schools, with artists, and at community-wide events both on the beloved Clemmons Farm and throughout the state of Vermont.
As the members of the Board of Directors of Clemmons Family Farm, Inc. -an African American women-led nonprofit organization – we are reflecting at this moment on Mrs. Clemmons’ philosophy of how our work builds on the struggles and triumphs of those who came before us – especially in the examples of strong women–and focuses on empowering those who will come after us:
"When we see ourselves, we are not just ourselves. We are a composite, a part of all of the generations before us. If you just think about it, and reflect on it a little bit, you can feel the energy of those past generations– especially those past women, if you’re a woman– that influenced you. And so, our lives are just not our own doing. It’s because of some guiding spirit that helped us, and all of the influences of our mothers and grandmothers and aunts. We’re just not self-made, we’re a part of all of that. So we have a big responsibility to continue to give the best we can to the generation coming. We want to push them ahead so that they can be everything they want to be. And then they’ll be a happy person.”
Mrs. Lydia M. Clemmons, 2016 family storytelling session with daughter Lydia Clemmons
We are grateful for Mrs. Clemmons' loving and inspiring spirit. In her honor, we recommit ourselves to giving our very best to the generation coming.
Margaret Bass, Director
James Bentil, Director and Secretary
Rev. Co'Relous Bryant, Director
Lydia Clemmons, President and Executive Director
Kay Johnson, Director and Treasurer
Robin Anthony Kouyate, Director
Catharine Noel, Director
Donna Sherard, Director
Leslie McCrorey Wells, Director
Please read Mrs. Clemmons' obituary prepared by her family and leave condolences for the family at:
Obituary information for Lydia Beatrice (Monroe) Clemmons (readyfuneral.com)
Obituary information for Lydia Beatrice (Monroe) Clemmons (readyfuneral.com)
Learn more about some of Mrs. Clemmons’ ideas for her family farm and its role at:
"How Blacks Fare in the Whitest State, Ebony Magazine, 1987
"This Place in History" Interview, Vermont Historical Society, 2018
Authentica African Imports Family Storytelling Videos, 2018
Tribute to the Clemmons Family, Senator Bernie Sanders, Assembly of the US Congress, 2021
Read more reflections and remembrances from the Clemmons Family Farm Board members: click here.
"How Blacks Fare in the Whitest State, Ebony Magazine, 1987
"This Place in History" Interview, Vermont Historical Society, 2018
Authentica African Imports Family Storytelling Videos, 2018
Tribute to the Clemmons Family, Senator Bernie Sanders, Assembly of the US Congress, 2021
Read more reflections and remembrances from the Clemmons Family Farm Board members: click here.
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE IN HONOR OF MRS. CLEMMONS
If you would like to take action in remembrance of Mrs. Lydia M. Clemmons, here are three suggestions from the Clemmons Family Farm board members:
- Learn more about the arts and cultures of the peoples of the African diaspora, including African Americans.
- Participate in multicultural arts activities in which you can connect and make art with someone of a different race, ethnicity, or culture than your own.
- Purchase, at an equitable price, the creative work of a Vermont artist with special expertise in a culture of the African diaspora.
1972 Charlotte News article, with photo of Mrs. Lydia M. Clemmons, discussing the League of Women Voters "Know Your Town" booklet she co-authored with Mrs. Linda Smith.
