African American farmers lost about $326 billion worth of land in the U.S. due to discrimination during the 20th century, a study found.
From 1922 to 1997, Black farmers in 17 American states saw a precipitous decline in their acreage caused by state-sanctioned violence and intimidation, according to the paper. The study, which analyzed U.S. Department of Agriculture census data, will be published in the American Economic Association’s Papers and Proceedings journal. Reuters reported on the study earlier.
Land and home ownership provide crucial opportunities to build wealth in the U.S. and “the current racial wealth gap represents the intergenerational compounding of discrimination,” said Dania Francis, economist at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and lead author of the study.
