Free The Land

Black agrarian framework self determination land autonomy socialism

[black-agrarian]

A discord for Black people who like to grow food/plants. We talk about gardening, farming, herbalism, environmental and earth science, agrarianism and more! If you don’t grow anything but have an interest in the topic or want to grow in the future you can still join.

Click the link and join the Freedom Farm community : https://discord.gg/vYwwNQ

Join the Freedom farmers Discord Server!

Check out the Freedom farmers community on Discord - hang out with 2 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

[taankhsrealhoodoo]

Mississippi, 1936

[black-agrarian]

The Young Black Farmers defying a legacy of discrimination

[black-agrarian]

‘Freedom Farmers’ Tells the History of Black Farmers Uniting Against Racism

In her new book, Monica M. White details the cooperative practices of Black farmers in the Deep South and Detroit who played a key role in the Civil Rights movement.

‘Freedom Farmers’ Tells the History of Black Farmers Uniting Against Racism | Civil Eats

In her new book, Monica M. White details the cooperative practices of Black farmers in the Deep South and Detroit who played a key role in t

“ Freedom Farmers tells the story of how Black farmers in the Deep South and Detroit—independent farmers who owned their property, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and urban gardeners alike—banded together to counter white racism, fight economic deprivation in an age of increasing mechanization and commercial agriculture, and articulate a different vision of the future.

Many of these groups were founded in remote places that were hotbeds for grassroots labor agitation. Take Mississippi’s North Bolivar County Farm Collective (NBCFC). It was formed in 1965 when a group of Black farmers, many of whom were tractor drivers on a white-owned plantation, turned off their engines to demand a better hourly wage. After they were fired and evicted from their homes, they built a temporary tent settlement, Strike City, close to the plantation.

Two years later, the NBCFC was up and running, with its members loaning land, tools, and divvying up the resources and work. The collective fed farmers and their families, provided children with clothing so they could attend school, and launched conversations about the need to disrupt the entire food system—from decisions about what to plant to how to keep the power to process food out of factories.

Freedom Farmers is not your conventional Civil Rights narrative, couched in terms of campaigns for voting rights, school desegregation, and lunch counter seats, though there are familiar historical figures: W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Fannie Lou Hamer, whose Freedom Farm Cooperative gave the book its title. It’s a timely, connective, and expansive book; one that reframes the whiteness of agricultural history and calls us to remember the fact that the Black freedom struggle is an ongoing labor movement in places far and wide.

It also locates Black farmers in a Civil Rights narrative that goes beyond their historic and continuing legal struggles against USDA discrimination. Freedom Farmers moves beyond stories of subsistence and survival; it centers Black farmers as unsung food justice advocates and organic intellectuals who imagined better communities, food systems, and politics. And then, depending on one another, they started building.” - Read more from the article

[solarpunkwitchcraft]

There were nearly a million black farmers in 1920. Why have they disappeared?

Today there are just 45,000 African American farmers. One man is fighting to save them

The successful investigation on Boyd’s behalf prompted other black farmers to come forward with their stories, and in 1995 Boyd founded the National Black Farmers Association after meeting with many black farmers and hearing similar USDA experiences.

“All these farmers were coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘You think what happened to you is bad? You should hear my story!’” he says. “I was just trying to save my farm. But then I saw this was a huge national issue.”

In 1997, Boyd and 400 other black farmers sued the USDA in the landmark lawsuit Pigford v Glickman, which alleged that from 1981 to 1997, USDA officials ignored complaints brought to them by black farmers and that they were denied loans and other support because of rampant discrimination. In 1999, the government settled the case for $1bn, and more than 16,000 black farmers received $50,000 each.

But Boyd didn’t know his work was just beginning.