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Sojourner Truth Farm School & Center for Human growth was founded in 1993 by Dr. Dorothy Blake Fardan as the fulfillment of a long-lived dream to enable youth to experience the peace and beauty of being in a rural area and living close to the natural order, as she had experienced in growing up on a farm in Kentucky. Starting out with the support of her husband, Donald Fardan, on the small parcel of land on which he grew up in Maryland and which now is their home, and a few loyal supporters, we began to bring young relatives and their friends from a suburban housing projects for frequent visits which included some gardening instruction, history walks to a nearby community cemetary, lunch, and human development guidance.

We are based in the rural preserve of upper western Montgomery County, MD, about 3 miles west of Poolesville, in the historical Black community known as Martinsburg. Most of the old family homesteads are now gone and their descendants have moved away, but the Black church, community house (which was at one time the Black school) and the Love and Charity Hall still stand. This is now a designated historical site. Sojourner Truth Farm School used the community house for some of its first instructional sessions and community events before it became an historical site. We envision our school as a way to both share an already beautiful and historic region with young people, while also preserving and revitalizing a community hard hit by loss of land, homes, economic hardship and relocation.