From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with botanist and author Beronda Montgomery.
When plant biologist Beronda Montgomery sat down to write what became a personal memoir mixed with a botanical history of African Americans, she found her research as a Ph.D. lab scientist had brought her squarely into the world of social science as well.
Her studies of how plants respond to light during photosynthesis led to shining a light on the history of extensive plant cultivation by African Americans, including those who endured forced labor.
Montgomery is the author of “When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy.”
This interview has been edited for length; the full conversation is available in the player above the story.
