Relationship Between Black People & Land
This is part of April’s “Our Public Memory” PIES Intellectual practice on Politicizing Our Experiences. If you missed this newsletter, read it here.
Because of white supremacy and racism the relationship between Black people & the land is incredibly complicated. Whether it's rural farm land or property in a popular beach town, Black people have been discouraged, downtrodden and driven away. Why?
Because land is wealth and wealth is power.
Farming While Black
According to the book “Farming While Black”, in 1910 Black people owned 16 million acres of farmland, 14% of the total. Now that's less than 1%. Instead of growing our own food, Black and brown people are underpaid in food services and lack access to fresh food, compared to white people.
Civil rights activists spoke of this and worked to bring about land reparations, Malcolm X said "Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice & equality.
Organizer and activist Fannie Lou Hamer knew the importance of land as power. She is most known for her work with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party However she was forced into picking cotton as a child and was even responsible for calculating how many bales were picked. She used her knowledge to start a co-op called Freedom Farm Cooperative on 40 acres of land that provided fresh food for over 1500 families.
Land Reparation Efforts
When Black families in the 1920s were hanging out in Manhattan Beach, CA at Bruce’s Beach, they were met with 10-minute parking signs. And the citations that follow.
Except these signs weren’t real. They were created by “concerned citizens,” AKA the Ku Klux Klan, to prevent Black folks from enjoying this area, a haven bought (for an outrageously steep price at the time, $1200) by George and Willa Bruce in 1912) who created the area as a respite for families of all races. It was one spot where Black vacationers could feel free, re-ground themselves and enjoy the beauty of the ocean.
The intimidation and physical threats didn’t work and then the Bruce family turned down a purchase offer from the city council. This forced the council to come up with an “eminent domain” excuse to take the land away from the Bruce family. The council claimed it needed the land for a park, but the land remained unused for years.
Finally in 2020, a Black activist and former lobbyist named Kavon Ward took up their case and was able to get the land back to their rightful owners. Ward said this was a bit of history in the making: the first time a Black family was given their land back by the government. Ward's organization, “Where is My Land” is taking similar cases across the country. Unfortunately many of them aren’t as clear cut as the Bruce case and the fights may be even tougher.
Land repatriation and reparations are fights that must happen in order to make up for the immense racial wealth gap that lack of property ownership due to systemic racism has created.