Cultivating History Pt. 2: ‘Potato King’ Thrives Amid Racism

By | February 19, 2025
Junius Groves (center) grew more than just potatoes; he and his wife Matilda raised other vegetables and also tended orchards that produced apples, peaches and pears. (Photo courtesy, the Wyandotte County Historical Museum.)

While Kansas would prove friendly to potato growers like Junius Groves, it would not be quite the “free state” envisioned by Exodusters, the African Americans who, following the end of Reconstruction, considered their prospects more promising in the North. “It was about the same time when the Exodusters arrived in Kansas that the state Legislature…

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Cultivating History Pt. 1: ‘Potato King’ Earning New Renown

By | February 18, 2025
The Groves family lived in this large home; “The Country Gentleman,” a national agricultural publication, described it as a “22-room palace.” (Contributed)

Junius G. Groves is having a moment. Community knowledge of the African American potato farmer, who died 100 years ago this August, is growing after largely having vanished from the collective memory of Kansas, where he arrived carrying 90 cents in 1879. A new documentary, “The Potato King,” directed by filmmaker Jacob Handy, premiers Thursday…

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