Thats about 15000000 acres but theyve lost more than 70 percent of that property largely because of racism through loan discrimination or even violence loans are a lifeline for farmers surviving difficult times when banks wouldnt loan money to black farmers many were forced into foreclosure some sued the government claiming systemic racism in 1909 official settled in the pension we paid out nearly 2000000. 00 but many say that doesnt even come close to making up for the 120000000000. 00 lost by black farmers over the past century now farmers are fighting to hold on to the land they have left at the same time many young africanamericans are returning to farming to reconnect with their roots. Land is the basis of freedom dignity and equality and allows people in our community to see more broadly whats possible for them and that they dont have to settle for what society has been told some are the limits of what they can do. Are joining us for todays discussion is wiliness white a retired educator and 3rd generation farmer based in cleveland mississippi now weve just learned that willingness not going to be with us via skype were going to have her by phone today also with us today is Kurt Trina Baxter shes a land and justice activist would soil generation a coalition of growers led by people of color in philadelphia and we have julius tillery a bit generation cotton farmer from North Carolina and owner of black cotton and finally we have professor Carmen Harris shes a professor of history at the university of South Carolina carmen has been researching race policy and agriculture for 20 years comment id like to begin with you as we noted in the beginning of the show there that the the status of black farmers in the u. S. Right now that what 2 percent of farmers are are black in the u. S. Hasnt always been the case can you take us back about 100 years and set us up what it used to be like and then what happened how did we get here. Well about 100 years ago you were at the peak of black farmer ownership around 1920 maybe about 15 percent of farmers were africanamerican its very interesting i was looking at some statistics in the bath of this and and an 870. 00 which is about 5 years after slavery 2 percent of black farmers were farm owners and thats very close to the percentage today most of the blacks who were farmers in the aftermath of the civil war were actually sharecroppers which means they didnt own the land they rented the land and typically paid for it with a share of the crop whether that be cotton or tobacco in most cases. And you know thats how they made their living in most in slave people want land there because they understood as your opening vignette said that land was freedom so how do we get to where we are today what happened like its hard for me to believe that were in a place in the United States that is similar to where we were 5 years after slavery in the terms of the percentage of black americans and on farms. Got there primarily through the battle of policy through taxation sometimes through outright that escalations of land for example on coastal areas where you could those wonderful sea island cotton happened thats why the areas of spaces of recreation so it was a combination of factors but probably the most dominant one would be the role better of policy i want to bring in misc light here can you hear me yes i can hear you ok great i know youre a farmer down in mississippi 3rd generation. Can you tell us your experience down there i think your father raised catholics is that right but i know you have you ran into a bit of racism there as well ok tell us about a bit about that yes my. Grandfather and my father were loquat. And she said that because of the systemic discrimination when he was low on his crops he was often not given enough money to even make a crop they were given just enough to make by to get by on well so many problems that should have been also black that is why i also have access to but they would not all fit the black so with limited the limited resources many blacks lost their land they got out of it because they simply could not make a living because they were not given the support they should have been given the programs that were offered to white. I know theres a point where your little girl and remember your father running down the stairs with a gun he told what was happening then. Well this was when he got into the fish business and they the u. S. D. A. The local office to give him any money to. Begin his fish process and the role in the fish and he went to jackson over to the next level up and they said yes give him the money he qualified for and then a good quality so why not they came back again he needed over 400000 in order to stock is ponce a growth. But they only gave him a little over 100000. 00 so they decided they was going to furnish them they were going to foreclose on and so they came to take his fish out of the pond and i can remember seeing him go down the hall with a gun a modest say and if you cant do that dont do that call to share with my mom did call the sheriff they came out they had no papers and he told them money for the no rides to take the edge so they had to put them back in the pond. And your father was actually one of the original claimants for the pickford right there was a settlement that i mentioned in the opening. The government so the government did eventually admit that it. Treated him wrong way that isnt right and settled with them in 99 and i think lynn who was secretary of agriculture he made a statement and he also went public on television saying that how life had been treated and discriminated against and that u. S. D. A. Had done them wrong and the people also became a Class Action Lawsuit in 1900. And did the pickford do enough to make things right. Did not do neely. The 1st of all my dad and i were very close with the lawyer we travel from state to state trying to get blasted many of them had had bad experiences way back from slavery. They were afraid to say anything against the government and once they were declared class action those people who did not have any paperwork. But historically back and that blacks were not given application they were when it go in and talk to the f. S. A. Agent and he would say go on go and come back and tell you what you can get for this year but as far as a paper application that was a way off of black to get other things by bad. About was the construct of africa. A lot of who would have been excluded to getting in and. Getting a loan. And that something was in the money that. They only got 50000. 00 which they could not have done anything to get back into. And then there was no Training Provided what you can do if. You were from slavery to being run off your land and. What can you do with that about. Were you going to say their farm i was going to say that you know shes describing exactly what my Research Shows i had examples of black Extension Agents reporting in 1929 for example these Extension Agents work with farmers that they would take them to the white Agents Office to get seed loans in the white man boats in the home of the black farmers downstairs d given all the white men applications and then when they came back they. Be told there werent any so this was a practice once the u. S. D. A. Began providing services to farmers there was this privilege father essentially now white and even you know the more land you had the better off you were and because africanamericans historically who had the good fortune to get land didnt own that much they were always the most disadvantaged in any federal program they were lucky to get any aid but i think its notable that they did great things some of them with with what they were able to get julius i want to bring you into the conversation here im going to im going to start you off a little bit of credit all right if we can go to my laptop i have this tweet you posted a video of your grandfather looks like hes parallel parking a tractor and then im going to 3 years old thats right thats living right there no they would all be so lucky now did your family your 3rd generation farmer North Carolina their addicted your family faced this kind of systemic racism in this Business Operations well im actually a generation farmer and i understand this type of. Segregation and discrimination and whats really happening is that farmers do not have enough funding to be able to compete in the marketplace and were not out to get the thing type of fan and the farmers are you know we talking about 50000. 00 doesnt does not enough to be out of combat to be able to make enough money to be probable on the margins with a crop so so its just enough just to be able to say shut some people up but it definitely wasnt enough to be able to encourage farming put it next generations almost. Just to be able to get out of the business and it was really hurtful and look at it like Farming Technology i know has changed the time do you need to know more about this kind of tractor or more about computers and todays farming. Really if you could. Be at a get that type of strategy you would know about the equipment i mean talking about a quarter 1000000. 00 half a 1000000. 00 a 1000000. 00 so i feel like theres plenty of people of this generation understand the technology has no accessibility to it and when i heard you trying to get in there what were trying d to say d d d. I think we lost with alina. Thats all right country no one to turn to you know the changes are afoot here do you see what changes do you see when it comes to black farmers in america at this moment yeah well you know we talked earlier about their day more young black farmers and coming into the field entering into the field right so we know that theres a lot of interest i think is there a lot of urban programs that are training up and getting young people interested. In farming but i think mostly what really i think happening is that black people im in this country are remembering that their roots come from the soil so they want to reconnect to the land they want to reconnect to their ancestors and farming is a way to help them do that and carmen im looking at the u. S. D. A. Page here and for our International Audience the u. S. D. A. Is the department of agriculture and it has a special page set up for minority and Women Farmers and ranchers looks like these are special programs form is the u. S. D. A. Doing enough to correct the situation. I dont know that there can ever be enough to rectify it because so much damage has already been done as julia said youve had people who are i miss scott like people whove lost their land people who are out of the business who could never be made whole and even now if you look at the recent tariff payments that have been made because of the of the of the trade with china a lot of that is going to corporate agriculture its not reaching down to main street to the average farmers up is not reaching white farmers and theyre going bankrupt out of that and if they cant pace then its certainly not going to be reaching africanamerican farmers at this moment when you talk about. We kind of damage that can be done it reminds me i peer across this story i think originally by reading in the atlantic an article called the great land robbery the shameful story of how a 1000000 black families have been ripped from their farms and the author of that is van newkirk we try to have him on today but he wasnt available however we do have this sound bite from him we can play it mississippi alabama South Carolina these were states that were if they werent majority black going into the Great Depression to be on or close to being about half black and what prompted the great migration quote unquote that saw millions of black people leave the south was a fact that a lot of them had their land so that if they hold on to that land if theyre able to make money in the south and in vote in the south that have some type of stake in the future of their kids living in the south perhaps those 3 states at least stay majority black what happens into the Electoral College if we have 3 majority black states what happens to the senate. I mean one mans talking about there is literally reshaping american politics like this effects all of us have so many levels when the light to go to you how was it that your family was able to stay and survive for so many generations down there in mississippi. We did not stay and survive my their land was taken back in 1904 and he had this struggle they had his land in government in but or for 29 years and when he wanted his case and the people also they even follow the amount that he was awarded saying he had gotten this of this and he told this for this but the arbitrator gave him enough money to purchase a land back and there was 6 of us it was by then it was mighty years ago plus at the time and we disavow that we would stick together and get back into farming because that was my there during the week i saw the back garden in 2040 my boss on the farm now and right now is you know every day we hold our breath because we barely get by. What do they raise and now lena right now we are raising starving. But theres so much work that needs to be done on rice be in that goes like i say everything had been in government inventory so many years they literally had to clear this lay in this like it had never been false authority years almost something to bring this back to julius im showing your instagram right now julius blood clot farmers on my laptop some really great pictures here you have a hash tag you have a hash tag that is a 1000000 to get this right trauma free for is that what is trauma free how do you ok how do you reconcile that when you hear the trauma the wiliness family went through. Well garcia was happenin to taste our production across the world in regards to how close this produce what i like to say is that people who work on my family farm make a living wage and the people who work on it the people who work on my family farm see the benefits of working in 1st before their own or the owners or the stakeholders of the company like you know we look at retailers and by Tommy Hilfiger ralph lauren how close are they to cotton you know like what we want to emphasize is that people who work in the speeches can make a living will respect because the area where we come from where majority are caught in North Carolina comes from under persistent poverty and i want to change this story and i want to positive things they can come from crops like cotton because positive living has occurred for many people from his crop it just hasnt been a lot of people is closest to and i want to show i want to change that narrative so before i before for going to israel i want you to plug black cotton can you tell people where they can find. Yes you could buy a black car no instagram a black car and us a website just got today just morning i dont know what it is about it but. Debbie Debbie Debbie black us maybe somebody here and i will be on the last train. Its a competition to if theyre scared of you. You know moral why dont the stream and i think are truly important that we talk about the fact that the u. S. D. A. Still is not servicing black farmers in the way they should be for servicing black farmers and pennsylvania we barely have any black farmers i would say less than 15 in the state of pennsylvania so getting access to land isnt also getting access to just having services the extension Extension Services and folks who could help who could help black farmers apply for for loans are not acceptable to black farmers and a lot of different places in the countries and the rural places weve seen that black. Agents who work for the u. S. D. A. Have discriminate against consistently discriminate against black farmers and continue to do so so just 2 years ago we had eddie in the wise who are black farmers and a lot of the hog farmers in North Carolina actually who were woken up in the in the morning really early in the morning and does the wise is actually a diabetic who was in a wheelchair folks who came on their land the sheriff who came on their land with a bunch of guns in their faces and they were ushered off their land forcibly and a year later he was alive passed away and he was still in a hotel room like these are folks who have been on their land for 20 years this is just this happened 2 years ago so the discrimination against black farmers didnt just happen you know years ago and its currently still happening we still have a very hard time accepting loans from the u. S. D. A. You know theres still a lot of fighting happening on the ground for folks to get access to land specifically black people to be able to stay on their land so once we even get on the land being able to hold the land. Its an issue as well carol and thats the only thing i want i left the lady in our government and like so that they they you know theyre not just talking about it then but at one time to actually making that to work helping black women get access to the ground is really important for us to move forward the country away as u. S. D. A. Her statement and they dipper vied one is too weighty to put up on the screen here so were actually going to post that on the a. J. Stream account but the body wants to see what the u. S. D. A. Has to say about this carmen the u. S. D. A. Says they have these programs that they call them 890 programs in the Southern States because when you had this Extension Service where you had these agents go out and help farmers the black agents were out of the black land grant colleges which were called 890 colleges because they were created under the 890 moral act its being equivalent to having an integrated institution but those 2 are kind of like little poverty type programs so the history from my research with the u. S. D. A. Is that theyve never tried to encourage black farmers to be entrepreneurial theyve always wanted them to be subsistence stance and subsistence isnt going to make it in todays agricultural market unless you you know have a family gart i say everyone not in their heads along now looking at are you to page here and theres a comment from someone under the name omega pain that says farming is that 80 hour work week and at the end of the year you owe more money than you started would why would anyone want to be involved in this and i want to go to we got a video comment from one of our community may. Kofi he is down in georgia hes a farmer and heres what he has attacked greetings and rescue for the farmer farmer in Atlanta Georgia from the village of books in guyana absolutely theres a returning generation of black farmers for many Different Reasons the primary in my experience my personal experience is really a spiritual. To a greater. Calling to the land realizing that land is the b. C. S. Of our freedom as malcolm x. Once reminded is portraying us as i speak to yeah absolutely you know im part of a collective a black farmers called the black art farm collective and we organize in black farmers across the mid atlantic and the southeast the southern part of the state and what we more than anything are really interested as being back on the land together connecting to and its just ancestral roots we identify as we turn into ration farmers because it recognizes that that part of our ancestry of our farm in an agrarian lifestyle are what a lot of us young folks are really interested in and doing again to connect us right back to our roots and then also as a form in a way to liberation right understanding that we grow our own food and the ability to go out. And have some ways is really important for us to recognize to have an sovereignty in this country to isnt going to be the last word 30 seconds why would someone become a farmer. Well right now we have more opportunities than our ancestors hey and because the air in control in a cell of our own products with the internet im able to be able to connect to Customer Base across the country this is something that my grandfather killed couldnt have dreamed you know nice so i thought it is way more opportunities now the average farmer is going to be more educated and more important to how to communicate their products and goods and services across the nation so i think theres way more opportunities now then ever i want to thank all of our guests will ian on the phone thank you for being with us julius check everyone check out black cotton on Instagram Carmen and kurt trina thank you for being with us today but for you the conversation could continue you want twitter. Stream and on you to see you next time. This. Is peak needs in libya but staging car and bike presence here comes with its own particular risks our club could take part in the 26th rally because we were fighting a war tyson says ill just see the world travels to the movies just to see how school till 4 we. Do the song you know war torn country give you a release a hug. Al jazeera. Where after you. Talk to aljazeera let me talk about 2 of the biggest problems facing and they all the endemic corruption together we listen so if you reprint place china as an enemy of the with and thats really that yours we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter just 0. Examining the impact of todays headlines you use the misinformation ive used which by setting the agenda for tomorrows discussions how unique a load is this in terms of modern American History when it comes to racism you have the makings of a neo fascist mold International Filmmakers and world class journalists bringing programs to inspire you. 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