Number of Black-owned farms has decreased drastically since 1900

['Sky Chadde', 'Investigate Midwest', 'More Sky Chadde', 'Senior Reporter', 'Erin Jordan', 'For Investigate Midwest', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline'] Investigate Midwest 2025-09-02 00:00:00

But as Jim Crow laws proliferated in the early 19th century, more and more Black farmers were subject to oppressive farming contracts. In the following decades, the number of Black-owned farms nosedived, according to Census of Agriculture data. While the total number of farms has also decreased over the past hundred years, Black farmers have suffered disproportionately. In 1965, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found the department, when providing financial assistance, discriminated against Black farmers. The number of Black operators was not recorded in the 1935 and 1945 censuses, for example.