“THE INFANT MORTALITY RATE
FOR BLACKS IN MISSISSIPPI, ROUGHLY
14 DEATHS PER 1,000 LIVE BIRTHS, IS
CONSIDERABLY HIGHER THAN THE
RATES IN BOTSWANA AND SRI LANKA.”
the physical abuse, or the many
untimely deaths.”
THIS IS NOT
ANCIENT HISTORY.
What land had been acquired by
African Americans in the early part
of the 20th century—more than 15
million acres at its peak—was systematically whittled away through
a variety of post-slavery structural
barriers to only 2 million acres
by the 1990s. Part of this was almost certainly due to a lack of
wills, estate planning and basic
legal representation among African
American landowners—tools that
that would have helped to protect
and foster wealth. As intestate
land accrued to disparate and farflung heirs over generations, state
acquisition and redistribution to
white or corporate interests was
made easier, and common.
But the federal government was
also instrumental in preventing
black landowners from profiting
from their properties. According
to a 2011 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which reviewed the findings
of a 1994 study commissioned by
the USDA, agency loans granted to
black farmers were $4,000 less, on
average, than those given to white
farmers. The study also found that
less than 1 percent of disaster payments went to black farmers.
The largest agency loans went
to corporations and white male
farmers.
In 1997, African-American farmers filed a class action suit against
the USDA, P