40 Acres and a Mule – Black Farmer Debt

African American farmer standing in a cornfield,
Alachua County, FL, Source Flickr,
Author Florida Memory (State Library and Archives of Florida/Local call no. Rc13671)
No known copyright restrictions

Slavery in the United States denied multiple generations of enslaved people the opportunity to own land [1].

40 Acres and a Mule

During the final months of the Civil War, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15 which provided for the confiscation of 40,000 acres along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida [2].

This was to be divided into parcels of not more than 40 acres each, for the settlement of 18,000 black refugees who had sought the protection of Sherman.   It is the source for the expression “forty acres and a mule”.

Most recipients assumed the grant of land was permanent.  Pres. Andrew Johnson, however, issued a proclamation returning confiscated land to any Southern owners who took a loyalty oath.

Congress eventually succeeded in enacting legislation which allowed at least some former slaves to retain their land.

Unfortunately, Reconstruction did not emphasize minority land ownership.  After Reconstruction ended, nearly all land allocated during the conflict was restored to its pre-war owners.

American Rescue Plan

The US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) was to begin paying off the loans of minority farmers a year ago [3A].  That, at least, was the intention.

Under Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan – an act Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack classified as one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation in decades – some 11,000-13,000 black, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Asian American, and Pacific Islander farmers who had faced systemic bias were to receive debt relief commencing in June 2021 [3B][4A].

Minority farmers over the past century lost as much as 16 million acres (fully 85%-90% of their land, worth up to $350 billion) due, in large measure, to discriminatory government and business policies making it difficult for them to obtains loans and purchase costly agricultural machinery [4B][7A].

In recognition of this, the USDA was authorized to pay up to 120% of outstanding loan balances for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.  Recipients were to receive 20% of the loan as a cash payment directly to them, to cover the tax burden accompanying such large scale debt relief [4C].

This would have freed up $4 billion in loan payments instead for seed and much needed equipment [3C][4D].

Opposition

Preliminary injunctions in federal district court cases were the first warning that debt relief payments would be delayed, if not halted entirely [5].

White farmers, bankers, and legislators argued that the promised relief was a prohibited form of reverse discrimination with the potential to harm lenders [4E].

Minority farmers were encouraged to continue making payments while the matter was resolved in the courts.

Significantly, the 98% of American farmers who are white have received some $35 billion in pandemic relief and direct payments [4F][6].  By contrast, black farmers have received 0.1% of pandemic relief.

The Struggle Continues

“In its 1965 report on Black farmers, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights…documented how the USDA’s Cooperative Extension Service, Farmers Home Administration, Soil Conservation Service and Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service denied thousands of Black farmers access to services provided to white farmers to help them diversify their crops, increase production, achieve adequate farming operations or train for off-farm employment [7B].”

Similar findings were reported in 1982 and 1997 [7C].

A Texas court has now ruled that there is a time limit on how far back Congress can go to remediate intentional discrimination by the government [7D].

So the struggle for equality continues.

—

[1]  Wikipedia, “40 acres and a mules”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_acres_and_a_mule.

[2]  Wikipedia, “Special Field Orders No. 15”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Field_Orders_No._15.

[3A, 3B, and 3C]  US News, “USDA to Begin Paying off Loans of Minority Farmers in June” by Associated Press, 5/21/21, https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-05-21/usda-to-begin-paying-off-loans-of-minority-farmers-in-june.

[4A through 4F]  Washington Post, “USDA to start debt forgiveness and payouts to some 13,000 Black, Hispanic and other minority farmers in June” by Laura Reiley, 5/21/21, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/21/usda-black-farmer-debt-relief/.

[5]  US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), “American Rescue Plan Section 1005 Litigation FAQ”, https://www.farmers.gov/loans/american-rescue-plan/litigation-update#section-1005.

[6]  US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), “US Agricultural Sector Received an Estimated $35 Billion in Covid-19-Related Assistance in 2020” by Anil Giri et al, 9/7/21, https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2021/september/u-s-agriculture-sector-received-an-estimated-35-billion-in-covid-19-related-assistance-in-2020/.

[7A through 7D]  Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), “Fighting to Grow:  Black farmers continue to battle systemic discrimination” by Dwayne Fatherree, 2/18/22, https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/02/18/fighting-grow-black-farmers-continue-battle-systemic-discrimination.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse  https://www.avoicereclaimed.com