The receipts: Documented discrimination against Black farmers
The history of the support the U.S. government has provided to white farmers and denied Black farmers is well documented. Our project Uneven Ground tells the stories of today's Southern Black farmers. This timeline shows how the deck has been stacked against them and their families as they've worked American soil to feed themselves and the nation.
1865
General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15, issued Jan. 16, promised formerly enslaved people 40 acres. Before President Andrew Johnson rescinded the order later that year after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 400,000 acres were distributed.
The Homestead Act had passed a few years earlier and gave citizens 160-acre plots. Almost all the recipients were white. By the time that program ended in 1934, 207 million acres had been given away.
1910
Black farmers owned as much as 16 million acres. By the late 1990s, they had lost 90% of that land. In that same period, white farmers lost only 2% of the land they owned. 1910 also marked the peak acreage owned by nonwhite farmers in the South.
1920
The USDA recorded 925,708 Black farm operators, making up 14% of all U.S. farmers. 1920 marked the peak year for the number of nonwhite farmers in the South.
1933
The Great Depression triggered a plunge in crop prices, with cotton retaining less than half of its value. New Deal legislation attempted to address low crop prices by restricting acreage. But that measure also displaced many Black and white tenants and sharecroppers.
1964
The share of Black farm operators fell to 184,004, or 5.8% of 3,157,857 total farm operators.
1965
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found the Department of Agriculture had discriminated against Black farmers when providing loans and conservation payments.
1982
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights documented the discrimination that led to the decline of Black farmers and predicted America would have no Black farmers by 2000. The share of Black farm operators fell to 2%.
1983
The Reagan administration dismantled the USDA Office of Civil Rights. It does not reopen until 1996 during the Clinton administration.
1990
A House Committee on Government Operations report found rampant discrimination in USDA loans.
1997
Black farmers filed a class action lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman, against the USDA.
The share of Black farm operators fell to 0.9%.
1999
Pigford v. Glickman was settled for approximately $1 billion. Most farmers received about $50,000. Accounting for inflation, that's about $89,000, or enough to buy two heavy-duty pickup trucks.
2010
More than a decade after the original Pigford v. Glickman settlement, the Obama administration issued a second $1.25 billion payment, known as Pigford II, for Black farmers who signed up too late for the initial settlement.
2017
The share of Black farm operators was 1.4%.
2021
Biden’s American Rescue Plan included $5 billion to cancel the debt of Black farmers. Activists hailed the plan as a landmark. A group of white farmers, however, challenged the debt relief in court and the plan was dropped.
2022
A smaller $3.1 billion debt relief program was included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, but it was for “underserved farmers and ranchers,” not just Black farmers. A group of Black farmers sued the USDA in October to ask the courts to enforce the debt relief promised in the American Rescue Plan.
More in this series
Uneven Ground: The exceptional stories of the South’s Black farmers
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The receipts: Documented discrimination against Black farmers
