Returning African American Farmers to the Land: Recent Trends and a Policy Rationale

Abstract

Today, there are only about 18,000 black farmers in the United States. Declining by 98 percent since 1920, they have suffered losses due to public policy, economic pressures, and racial oppression. All of these factors must be addressed if African American farmers and their communities are to thrive. In this article, we use Census of Agriculture data and a follow-on survey in one Mississippi Delta county to review the current situation of black farmers.2 We introduce the concept of “returning farmers” to suggest that a significant number of black farmers, who are not defined as “farmers” by the Census, still own land and want to farm again.3 The first section of the article provides a brief overview of the historical and current trends in the U.S. The second section discusses Delta County, drawing upon our interviews and the Census of Agriculture. The third section discusses the implications of civil rights violations by the former Farmers Home Administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the resulting class-action lawsuit. Finally, we conclude with a policy recommendation to slow the drastic decline of AfricanAmerican farmers.4