Agriculture FertilizerAgriculture Fertilizer
  • Home
  • News
  • Management
  • Business
  • Insights
  • Crops & Livestock
  • Machinery
  • Technology
  • Weather
  • Trending
  • More
    • Web Stories
    • Press Release

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest agriculture news and updates directly to your inbox.

What's On

Bank of North Dakota Planning Debt Refinancing Program to Help Ag Producers

October 30, 2025

Kansas Ag Leaders Tell Congress to Get Back to Work

October 29, 2025

Here’s Where Corn Harvest Typically Stands in Late October: A State-by-State Look

October 29, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Agriculture FertilizerAgriculture Fertilizer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • News
  • Management
  • Business
  • Insights
  • Crops & Livestock
  • Machinery
  • Technology
  • Weather
  • Trending
  • More
    • Web Stories
    • Press Release
Agriculture FertilizerAgriculture Fertilizer
Home » A Look at Decline in Number of Black-Owned Farms Since 1900

A Look at Decline in Number of Black-Owned Farms Since 1900

September 15, 20253 Mins Read Insights
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest WhatsApp Email

After peaking in 1920, Black-owned farms have dwindled. It hit a low of less than 20,000 in the late 1990s.


After the Civil War, the U.S. government promised 40 acres, either from abandoned plantations or unused land, to formerly enslaved Black people. But then President Andrew Johnson intervened. He pardoned Confederates, returning their land.

It became a common theme. In the following decades, some Black farmers gained land through deals with white landowners: After being tenant operators, they could buy acreage, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. But as Jim Crow laws proliferated in the early 19th century, more and more Black farmers were subject to oppressive farming contracts.

In 1920, there were more than 900,000 Black-owned farms in the U.S., many in the South. It wouldn’t last. In the following decades, the number of Black-owned farms nosedived, according to Census of Agriculture data. As of 2022, only about 28,000 farms were owned by Black operators.

While the total number of farms has also decreased over the past hundred years, Black farmers have suffered disproportionately. In 1920, Black-owned farms made up about 15 percent of all operations. In 2022, the figure was 1.5 percent.

Much of the decline has been attributed to the USDA, which used to have the nickname “The Last Plantation.” One Black farmer told Mother Jones the USDA was a “machine that eats up Black farmland.”

Image by Joshua Resnick, Shutterstock

The National Black Farmers Association has documented the important events. In 1965, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found the department, when providing financial assistance, discriminated against Black farmers. Twenty-five years later, a Congressional committee had similar conclusions. In 1997, the landmark Pigford lawsuit was filed, resulting in $1 billion in restitution payments two years later to Black farmers.

But Johnson’s decision to return land to whites that the government had provided to Black farmers has had long-lasting consequences, according to reporting by Mother Jones, Reveal and The Center for Public Integrity. For instance, about 1,000 freed people received tracts of land on Skidaway Island, just off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. Now, it’s a tony white enclave.

Cut off from resources such as land, Black farmers have struggled to obtain funding from the USDA to this day. According to data obtained by NPR, Black farmers are much more likely to be denied loans than their white counterparts.

Notes on the data: Census of Agriculture data can be difficult to compare across time. The USDA has added different categories over the decades to more accurately reflect the make-up of America’s farmers. For instance, the USDA used to only record one operator per farm, which could mask the role of women, according to the study, How the USDA Changed the Way Women Farmers are Counted in the Census of Agriculture. Now, multiple operators can be counted.

The recording of farmers’ race was also inconsistent. The number of Black operators was not recorded in the 1935 and 1945 censuses, for example. Until relatively recently, farmers who were not white or Black were lumped together as “other.” This makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the presence of farmers of different backgrounds.


Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public interest by exposing dangerous and costly practices of influential agricultural corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism. Visit us online at www.investigatemidwest.org.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

What USDA’s Race- and Gender-Rule Change Means for Ag’s Future

October 23, 2025 Insights

Strong Trade Policy Critical for American Agriculture

October 21, 2025 Insights

Why is Agriculture Always the Scapegoat on Climate Issues?

October 17, 2025 Insights

Notable Similarities Between Drug and Food Additions

October 10, 2025 Insights

This Research Undercuts the ‘Emotional’ Argument on GMOs

October 9, 2025 Insights

Agriculture Can’t Forget About the People Side of Sustainability

October 8, 2025 Insights

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Don't Miss
News

Kansas Ag Leaders Tell Congress to Get Back to Work

By staffOctober 29, 20250

By Morgan Chilson TOPEKA — Kansas farm leaders are pushing Congress to get back to…

Here’s Where Corn Harvest Typically Stands in Late October: A State-by-State Look

October 29, 2025

Photos from the 2025 National FFA Convention

October 29, 2025

The Impact of Recent EPA Decisions on 2023-2027 RVOs for Biomass-Based Diesel

October 29, 2025

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest agriculture news and updates directly to your inbox.

Our Picks

How Two Companies Laid the Tracks for Caterpillar

October 29, 2025

U.S. Senate in Bipartisan Vote Rejects Trump Tariffs on Brazil as Coffee Prices Spike

October 29, 2025

China Buys U.S. Soybean Cargoes Ahead of Trump-Xi Meet, Sources Say

October 29, 2025

Individual U.S. Crop Inputs Post 2014 Farm Bill

October 29, 2025
Agriculture Fertilizer
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
© 2025 All rights reserved. Agriculture Fertilizer.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.