There was a time, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Black farmers and their families were thriving on the land they owned in this country, but that was short-lived. While Black farmers previously owned an estimated 20 million acres of land just after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the number of Black farmers in this country dropped by 98 percent, largely due to systemic racism at the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to Mother Jones magazine.
In an effort to right this wrong, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), joined by fellow Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), introduced a new Senate bill in November: the Justice for Black Farmers Act. If passed, this legislation would provide land grants of up to 160 acres to existing and aspiring Black farmers, among other measures to correct the history of racism in this area.