LIKE THOUSANDS OF OTHER BLACK AMERICANS, Tiffany Hawkins’ grandparents, Earnest and Mattie Lee Johnson, left the Jim Crow South in the 1950s to pick cotton in Arizona’s desert.
Many sought opportunities in cities like Chicago and Detroit, but the Johnsons chose Arizona, where their lives and those of their children — including Hawkins’ mother, Arlene — remained deeply rooted in the rhythms of rural life. Their backyard garden was the heart of their home in Phoenix, with its grapevines curling along the fence, an orange tree heavy with fruit, the rich, loamy soil Earnest turned with practiced hands. Grocery stores were sparse and often refused to serve Black people, so growing food was necessary. The Johnsons’ neighbors had gardens, too, and the family traded fruit for collard greens.
No one called it that then, but Earnest and his neighbors were building critical climate infrastructure. Urban agricultural spaces — neighborhood gardens — can reduce local temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and trees can lower the “real feel” temperature by up to 30 degrees. During the sweltering summers, the Black families leaned on each other…