5 Decades Later, New Communities Land Trust Still Helps Black Farmers

Although African-Americans had amassed 15 million acres of land in the South between 1865 and 1919, today 97% of those land assets have been lost. Enter the Black Family Land Trust, Inc., which works with black landowners and farmers to preserve their land assets.

The Black Family Land Trust provides resources to African-Americans and other historically underserved landowners to protect and preserve their land.

Our “Closing the Deal with Rural Landowners” workshops help land trusts, conservation districts and other partners be more successful in working with landowners on voluntary conservation.

In 1910, rural African American farm families held between 16 million and 19 million acres of farmland, but the latest Census of Agriculture shows the amount of land held by African American farmers with active farms has dropped to just over 2.5 million acres.

The intersection between affordable housing and land conservation is an important and rapidly emerging topic. The purpose of this report is to provide a strong foundation for land trusts to gain literacy in the world of affordable housing, while encouraging cross-movement collaboration.

The study focused on heir property and analyzing African American farmers continuing in farming and dealing with clouded title. It also surveyed a sample of African American farmers on heir property and related issues.

Local farmers like Nella Pearl Frierson and Cynthia Capers bring the traditions of agriculture to their communities.

Article published in The Guardian, April 29, 2019. Today there are just 45,000 African American farmers. One man is fighting to save them.

For almost a century, the number of Black farmers and Black-owned land steadily declined. One of the primary reasons for that decline was and continues to be heirs’ property. More than 60 percent of Black farmers currently operate on heirs’ property.

Black-American culture has been tied to the land and agriculture for over 300 years. Research conducted in the Black Belt Region of Alabama is used to examine the importance of land, particularly the multigenerational ownership of land, on current farm participation and landholdings.