
          As We Have Sown: At current rates, blacks will own no land by
the end of this century
          By Pennick, EdwardEdward Pennick
          Vol. 9, No. 5, 1987, 5-7
          
          For black Americans the rural crisis is not limited to any region,
profession or economic class. It touches us all though probably
nowhere is the farm crisis more acute than in the rural South.
          The decline in black land ownership over the past twenty years is
alarming and unabated. The problem is so severe that a different
approach is now needed, one that appeals to survival instincts of both
white as well as black individuals.
          Like their counterparts in the Midwest and other parts of the
country white farmers are facing a serious economic problem. Many will
not survive. That will have adverse effects on entire rural Southern
communities and economies. Unlike their Midwestern counterparts most
Southern white farmers are reluctant and even refuse to organize
against those institutions and politicians responsible for putting
them in this crisis situation.
          White farmers for the most part are hesitant when it comes to
joining with other groups whom they consider outsiders or
anti-establishment although we at the Federation of Southern
Cooperatives have noticed a significant increase in the numbers of
white farmers seeking assistance from us. Still, white farmers' need
for assistance and our positive response does not translate in most
cases into those white farmers' willingness to join forces with us to
deal with the common problem-the unfair agricultural system in this
country. So the small white farmers for the most part continue to
suffer mostly alone while still believing that the present system will
rescue them. They refuse to believe that the key to their survival may
mean joining forces with black farmers and landowners. Unfortunately 

these beliefs are encouraged by many of our private, public and
religious institutions that are either too scared to rock the boat or
they recognize the almost unlimited potential of a black and white
Southern rural movement, a movement that would totally destroy the
age-old Southern strategy of divide-and-conquer.
          The Southern rural crisis is unique and complex. Yet for Southern
white farmers there is a glimmer of hope because whether they organize
or not they will benefit from a successful conclusion to the current
crisis. I believe that in the end the family farmer will prevail. This
does not, however, mean that the black family farmer will
prevail. Theirs is a different plight that requires constant
struggle. When there was no rural crisis black farmers were out of
sight and out of mind. Only recently has their situation been viewed
by some as worthy of inclusion in the future of American
agriculture.
          More than 90 percent of black-owned land is located in the
South. The problem is that blacks average nearly 30 percent of the
Southern farm population while they receive only a small fraction of
the state and federal government agricultural services.
          In fact, less than 25 percent of all black farmers have received
assistance from the Farmers Home Administration. Given the current
problems we are having with the FmHA some might consider that a
blessing. Still, the point is that blacks as a whole have been denied
equal opportunity to participate in programs mandated by Congress as a
resource to farmers. This is true even though statistics show that
blacks are more dependent on their farm operations for survival than
are their white counterparts. In Mississippi, for example, 43 percent
of all farmers are black yet they receive only 7.7 percent of FmHA
loans. The same pattern exists in other Southern states. Not only do
they not receive timely and adequate financial assistance, black
farmers also under-utilize other government-sponsored agricultural
programs. Their lack of knowledge of the number and range of available
rural development programs causes them to miss many needed and
beneficial services. When blacks do attempt to utilize these programs
their efforts are often hindered by under-staffed, poorly qualified,
even prejudiced personnel within the various county agricultural
offices. The bottom line is that even with the often heroic efforts of
FSC and other concerned organizations and individuals, blacks are
still losing land at a rate of a half million acres annually, over
twice as fast as white land owners and farmers.
          Depending on whose statistics you believe, blacks own between three
and one-half million and six million acres of land. No matter which
numbers you use, at the current rate of decline blacks will own no
land by the end of this century.
          LET YOUR IMAGINATION take you to the year 1998. It is an election
year and the major black political, social and religious leaders have
called a national press conference in Atlanta to bring to the public's
attention the fact that black Americans who once owned nearly fifteen
million acres of land are now a landless people. They are forming a
select committee to determine what led to this tragedy and to develop
strategies to force the candidates to make black land acquisition a
part of their overall platforms. Meanwhile, rural America has become a
hub of America's economy and farming is once again a family
affair. There are very few blacks in rural America except for the farm
laborers and the elderly who are physically and economically unable to
leave. The overwhelming majority of blacks are concentrated in a few
urban areas that are all but ignored by the government even though
they are controlled by black politicians. These areas are quickly
deteriorating and their occupants have all but lost hope for a better
way of life.
          Unless something dramatic is done today this imaginary scene will
come true. The responsibility for preventing it falls first on those
holding our imaginary press conference for it is they who should be
dealing with the struggle for blacks to maintain, even increase their
land holdings in this country. One can ask where they are today. Land
ownership affects all blacks. Some estimate that nearly half of the
blacks who hold ownership interest in rural land are living in urban
areas. It baffles me how some of our political leaders can speak of
economic development and independence and ignore the land issue.
          Too many black political and economic leaders still consider black
economic independence to be synonymous with more jobs. By jobs they
mean working for the typical 

industries located primarily in urban
areas. The fact is, these jobs are actually increasing black economic
dependence. This becomes apparent when one looks at the present
unemployment picture for blacks in these urban areas, many of whom had
left the rural South in search of the American dream. So to push for
jobs alone is not the answer. We must pressure the black leadership to
accord the land issue the same attention and respect it does the more
glamorous issues such as voting rights, integration, and stopping
Bork. This is not to say that Bork is not important, but you can have
nine Supreme Court justices, all of them black, and if you cannot feed
yourself it does no good. The leadership must recognize that.
          Land ownership-development is just as important and may well make
it easier for us to accomplish our objectives in these other areas
because we can then operate from a position of economic strength, not
just as consumers. In short, economic independence through the control
of natural resources-in this case, land-enhances political and social
independence. During the coming months when the black vote will be a
valuable commodity, we must make black land retention and development
an integral part of the test by which we will judge political
candidates and those individuals and organizations that support
them.
          Also key participants in our imaginary press conference are our
black religious leaders. The church has always been the source of
inspiration for blacks, especially during periods of intense struggle
and suppression. We must have the black church's support during this
crisis; it is their membership that will suffer most if the trend of
black land loss is not stopped. Many black ministers do not see black
land ownership as important to their agenda. I cannot argue with the
fact that there are other important issues, however, being the good
Christian that I am, I believe that it is a sin not to be good
stewards of the land.
          Our foreparents have a history of good land stewardship. It was
through recently freed slaves-freed, uneducated and deeply religious
slaves-that we were able to amass that fifteen million acres of land
in the early 1900s. They recognized the importance of nourishing and
being nourished by the land. It was obvious that land stewardship was
deeply ingrained in their religious faith. Modern-day black Christians
have somehow lost the connection between the land and God. Like the
politician, the church too must be judged and held accountable by how
it stands and participates on the land issue.
          FINALLY I WANT TO SAY to our white brethren in the religious,
political and grassroots arenas that the so-called rural crisis can
never be over unless blacks are full participants in its solution. You
cannot advocate agricultural legislation or programs that do not
contain remedies for the black land-loss problem. For you, too, must
share in the blame for the current state of blacks in
agriculture. Prior to the current crisis blacks were fighting the
battle virtually alone. Yet in too many cases it was the white and his
friends at the courthouses and the county FmHA offices that were
causing blacks to lose their land-land that was used to increase white
operations. We have been and continue to be more than willing to
welcome you to the struggle and even fight for issues that may not
have a direct bearing on the small black farmer. We do this because we
believe that a policy detrimental to any family farmer is wrong and
should be fought. But one of my fears is that once the current crisis
is over blacks again will be left to fight alone.
          I see encouraging signs in the joint efforts of black and white
farm organizations like the Federation of Southern Cooperatives,
Prairiefire, Family Farm Coalition, and others. I think we are on the
verge of creating a movement unparalleled in American history. We must
take advantage of the opportunity for it will not present itself
again. If we do miss this opportunity then it is possible that
grassroots and progressive white leaders will also be participants in
our imaginary press conference, because the farms will be owned by a
few corporations that will give us all a lesson on what it means to
control the land. 
          
            Edward Pennick is director of the Emergency Land
Fund. Mark Ritchie, a native Georgian, is an agricultural policy
analyst with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
            The articles by Pennick and Ritchie are based on remarks they made
recently in Atlanta at the conference, "Urban Connections to the
Rural Crisis," sponsored by the Federation of Southern
Cooperatives and the National Council of Churches.
          
        