Curious and dangerous times

Our African American farmers are living in perilous times, and they have been for a long time. When their African ancestors arrived on the shores of America in the early 17th century, subject to degradations beyond our abilities to comprehend, they came, “physically and materially naked, but bearing rich cultural baggage,” says Hinson and Robinson in a to be published document. That heritage included a love for the land and a connection with God and nature. In the years that followed came enslavement on plantations to the enslavement of the peonage system, and then for some, land ownership. At the turn of the century, there were approximately 218,000 Black-owned farms with almost 16,000,000 acres. By 1997, the total number of farmers dropped by 67%, but Black farmers dropped by 98% while White farmers dropped by 63% (USDA, 2002). Blacks were losing their land at a rate 2 ½ times that of the White farmer (US Commission on Civil Rights, 1982). In 1997, Whites owned 98% of the acreage and 97% of the value of private agricultural land (USDA, 1999). It is estimated that Black farmers are losing 1,000 acres per day.

So, despite the enormous odds posed by Jim Crow, African Americans came to be landowners. Now, facing enormous odds, they are losing their lands at enormously high rates. Workers on the land owned by someone else......Working the land they owned......Losing the land they once owned......

Why?