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POLITICO
Black farmers look to next Congress, Biden to dismantle ‘culture of discrimination’
Black farmers say they see a glimmer of hope after decades of pushing for measures to address systemic racism.
Some have balked at Biden’s pick for Agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, who oversaw the USDA during the Obama administration, because of his record on civil rights | AP Photo/Susan Walsh
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Black farmers are hoping for a major boost in their decadeslong struggle for racial and economic equity next year, anticipating that aggressive measures by the incoming Biden administration and Congress could expand their access to credit and address their discrimination complaints.
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.