Black Farmers, Racism and Land Loss

For a recent presentation, I wrote a fictional farmer story that intended to place us in the shoes of a hypothetical Black farmer in the new age, highlighting the realities and intersections of Black farming, legacy, environmental racism, LULU (locally unwanted land use)s, power, discrimination, health implications, etc. Using Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Community Engaged Research in evaluation and assessment could speak to and maybe lean us toward a solution. I would like to share this story with you!

“Real health and real wealth begins with the soil.” (Rashid Nuri, 2020)

Imagine someone sitting on an increasingly sun lit porch just after dawn on a 100 family-owned acres. They are so proud. You can smell the dew in the grass. The night time chill in the breeze hasn’t warmed up yet, thus raising the hairs on the back of their neck.  His grandfather used to start his mornings in this particular spot. Rocking his chair and sipping his coffee. Sure to be fully dressed before the sun arrived. It is time.

There’s been some construction happening a ways out for a while but it’s unclear what it will be yet. It’s going to be big. We hope it helps this community of farmers. Folks are getting old, tired or simply want a new pace for their lives. This young farmer wants nothing more since he was a little kid than to work beside his grandfather and eventually take over the farm. This land has been owned by, tended to, and sustained the livelihoods of the Jones family for generations. It is a heavy load, yet an honor to carry. Unfortunately, this farmer will not get to ride beside his grandfather, but in his place. Papa Jones passed away with honor last year at only 67 years old of a heart attack, right on this land. What an irony to enter, live, and leave the Earth on this particular ground. Papa Jones died too young and he wasn’t sick. Well, he did experience blood pressure spikes, sleep dysfunction, near-failure of the kidney, tension headaches, and had his bouts of depression.. Okay, he was worn but he loved this work. He was one with this land- he didn’t know anything else.

2 Years Later…

It is April 1st and it feels like Mr. Jones is the only fool around. He has been waiting patiently for the farm’s production loan to be disbursed. The application to USDA was thorough, detailed, and submitted early with emphasis on each crop’s timeline. Last year was a mess, and maybe it was because Farmer Jones missed a step. Not this year! Jones is sure to dress presentably and be kind when he drops by the offices to get an update. Young Mr. Jones is affirmed that all is in order and he has no reason to worry, while also subtly being doubtfully questioned about why he even wants to do his life’s work of farming and carrying his family legacy. He always leaves feeling more doubtful than when he went there. He’s late for cabbage, carrots, onions, lettuce, asparagus roots, and more. Though there is still time for a good harvest on cabbage, corn, beets and beans, no promises on anything with no funds. It is impossible not to worry or feel powerless.

After funding FINALLY comes in mid-April, Farmer Jones is able to acquire only some of the necessary seeds. Some older white merchants refused to sell to him, saying they didn’t have what he requested, though he knew that was untrue. It is community knowledge that grandfather/ Papa Jones was a member of the NAACP. Thankfully, a good (white) friend of the Jones family was available the next day to purchase the rest of the seeds and materials for him. Farmer Jones is genuinely thrilled to break ground, but he has a LOT of work to do! Let’s get it!

Beyond having the materials to do what he loves, the only source of relief is that Jones is part of a new local Farmer Cooperative, so he will be able to at least sell what he’s able to grow alongside his peers. The family prays it will be enough to sustain their livelihoods through winter. Again, no promises..

It is now the end of summer. Jones harvested some crops, and things are still coming up and in. It feels as good as it gets to pick, prepare and eat food you grew from seed; pure fulfillment. However, the feeling is short lived, because it’s just been revealed what was built a ways out… you won’t guess it, a disposal site for carcinogenic-compound laced soil. They swear it’s safe, but the Black farmers of this area don’t want cancer causing waste on the soil, so close to their community, to their children, to their food, to their incomes, to their aliveness. Developers didn’t ask for permission, nor get a local petition, no formalities or respect extended on this matter.

3 Years Later…

Farmer Jones has been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. He goes home today. He brings his worry with him everywhere, even from the hospital, although currently in his pocket, rather than on his heart. The debt to USDA-approved lenders, which creeps and increases each year, the fear of foreclosure and bankruptcy, legal battles against the government, and the constant worry about honoring legacy. It has gotten to be an elephant in the room, enthusiastically befriending the dinosaur on the porch, racism and discrimination. Jones couldn’t look himself in the mirror if he loses the farm. He needs help- of all kinds right now. 

The future seemed to be certain death by a thousand bureaucratic hurdles, racism, stress, and overwork.

Okay, so let’s talk about land loss for a moment. When you think about land loss/stolen land, Native American or Indigenous genocide coming to mind would make sense. However, I want to challenge us to think about this idea more widely: West African people were ripped by the millions from their homeland, the Motherland, and sold into slavery. Forcibly transported by ship and those ships arrived and settled in the American colonies concurrently with the genocide of millions of Native peoples. This exploitation and sabotage echoes and informs the consistent decline in Black farming and land ownership within North America post-slavery.

Specifically, in 1900, there were 746,717 Black farm operators (13%). In 2012, there were 46,582 (1.5%) Black farm operators, which is a steady rise from 1997 at 1% with 18,451 Black farm operators (Taylor, 2018). Black people owned 18 million acres of land in 1910. In 2020, less than 2 million acres of land is owned by Black people. Why? What’s up with that? Is farming not cool anymore? Has the ancestral knowledge of tending to the land left us? Are farmers being pushed out of this industry? What is going on? I will tell you.. *drumroll*... environmental, structural, and discriminatory racism! I will outline several contributing factors to this erasure of Black farming legacy. 

Environmental racism is the intentional siting of polluting and waste facilities in communities primarily populated by African Americans, Latines, Indigenous People, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, migrant farmworkers, and low-income workers. The term was coined and defined by civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. The concept crystallized in 1982 when a carcinogenic disposal site was set on top of a rural Black North Carolina community. This community’s pushback led to national attention, marches and demonstrations, though the disposal site was implemented anyway and later leached harmful compounds in the community’s drinking water. Studies continue to reveal that marginalized communities are systematically over-exposed to fumes, ash, soot and other hazardous materials resulting in longer-term respiratory and cancer health risks. Current examples include the Dakota Access Pipeline, Flint’s water crisis, and Cancer Alley in Louisiana. 

The Great Migration is one of the greatest redistributions of populations in American history. Throughout the 20th century, there were push and pull factors for Black folks to leave the South to more Northern and/or Westward industrialized and urban places. 

Push factors included economic and labor market structure (low wages, sharecropping and debt peonage, confinement to the secondary labor market, and constrained job opportunities), escalating racial violence under Jim Crow laws (executions, lynchings, imprisonment, convict leasing, assault, threats, and intimidation), environmental disasters (the boll weevil, devastating rains and floods that ravaged cotton crops in 1915 and 1916 in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida), as well as race riots (Tulsa Oklahoma; Thibodaux Massacre in Louisiana; Elaine Massacre of Arkansas). These things pushed folks away from their land and lifestyles in the South.

Pull factors, which attracted Black folks to the urban North, included economic and education opportunity, and a less hostile racial environment. Interestingly enough, though more Black people live in urbanized areas, are getting higher education, securing advanced degrees and corporate jobs than ever, the wealth gap is still increasing, coinciding with Black land loss.

The current largest civil rights settlement in US history is against the United States Department of Agriculture. USDA was found liable for a pattern of extensive discrimination in the 20th Century, and in 2010, agreed to pay out more than $1.25 billion to Black farmers.  Still today, Black farmers face unique, race-based stressors and challenges. The USDA is the economic backbone agency for most American farmers as they finance, provide insurance, conduct research, and offer education in the agricultural sector. Type in Pigford Cases in google and just see what comes out, y’all. This was and IS a big deal! 

To add a cherry on top, it persists! An NPR analysis of USDA data uncovered that Black farmers who applied for USDA direct loans in the 2022 fiscal year were approved at lower rates (36% vs. 72% for white applicants) and rejected at higher rates (16% vs. 4% for white farmers) than any other racial demographic.

I hope you’ve learned something from this blog, maybe even got upset at what you learned. Our country has not made the racial progress it thinks it has. It is important to have this understanding in detail, if there is any chance at addressing and rectifying the damage. In conclusion, I shared all that to make y’all mad enough to learn more about how insidious racism and white supremacy are (and have been) in this country’s history and maybe learn how to grow food! Happy Friday!

Koren Dennison’s grandfather, Phil Griffin, native to Mississippi, alongside his personal urban farm in Milwaukee, WI on land he owns and lives on.

Sources:

Koren Dennison