Forty Acres and a Mule

ranchers in America. And you know, for many years, I've often wondered what would America look like if, following the Civil War, right and the emancipation of enslaved black people in the United States, if they had received what they were owed right, if not only had reconstruction and continued for more than twelve years, which saw black men having access to the vote and becoming members of government right at the state, local and city levels, but if also

those that were enslaved, beaten, raped, terrorized, and brutalized for centuries, If those that had survived white supremacist domestic terrorism, if they had received the land right and the resources to build their lives right after having built the economy of

the United States off of their backs. This is something that I think about often, and you know, it actually sometimes brings me back to Jonathan Metzel, our friend and our in house doctor's book, Dying of Whiteness, how much stronger America would be right now if white racist Americans had not then and continue now to levy so many obstacles and issues and policies on top of black Americans, that this country would be a place of bounty right

for everyone. And so come now to the conversation that I'm having this week, and that is with April Simpson, who is a reporter and the person that is leading the season three of the award winning podcast The Heist, which has had two very successful seasons, and The Heist in season three focuses on a heist by the US government of land and wealth from America's black farmers and ranchers.

And April, who I will speak to next, reports on this series and it is anchored around Nate Bradford, who you will hear from tomorrow, who is a black rancher and comes from a family of ranchers and the issues that he has had. And you know, this entire series, this next season is all tied to a recent study

that found this. Folks, listen to this because when I'm talking about the disruption, the purposeful disruption of black wealth, the racial wealth gap has always been discussed as if it is oh We just need to provide these underserved black people with opportunities and then they can thrive. They just need more education. Blah blah blah. No, Actually, what black people in this country has needed is for white people to get the fuck out of their way, right And why do I say that, because I want you

to take in this number right now. Season three of The Heist is tied to a study that found that black farmers lost three hundred and twenty six billion dollars with a b in land in the twentieth century alone. That's more than the entire GDP of Chile and Columbia. That discrimination has largely been at the hands of the US Department of Agriculture, which was established by President Lincoln during the Civil War. Three hundred and twenty six billion dollars.

And I know that you have listened to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buddhadette on this show and others when he spoke about the discrimination that had been done to break up black communities and put highways right through towns and communities through farmland. Go in and just seize land from black owners and give them nothing in return for it. This has been the fundamental practice of this government since Lincoln.

So when we talk about the racial wealth gap, it isn't something that occurred because there was a quote unquote lack of educational opportunity. The reason why black people in this country find themselves making ten twenty times less and having less wealth than their white neighbors and counterparts is largely because of the United States government's theft, lies, deceit, and discrimination that has been interwoven into policies for hundreds

of bucking years. I can tell you, folks that when I began this interview with April and Nate, who you

will hear from tomorrow, I knew a little right. I knew enough to know that the United States government has always been at the front of ensuring the racial wealth gap, of solidifying the racial wealth gap in this country, and taking absolutely no responsibility and continuing along with the narrative that, oh, you know, black folks are just lazy, or they just need more education, or to pick themselves up from them boots straps, understanding that white wealth in this country was

formed around the obstacles that were put in the way for their black counterparts. Why is it that I have some friends that have land and businesses that were passed down in their families from their great great grandparents, and they're like, oh, why don't you have anything right, No land, no business, no nothing. Oh because black people, their families were denied those loans, those mortgages, the land rights, run

off of their land. And so each generation has just been trying to keep their head above water that the United States government has been drowning them in. So in this conversation coming up next with April Simpson, we get into the conversation that The Heist, the award winning podcast is having this season around black farmers and ranchers and government theft. That conversation, dear friends, is coming up next, folks.

I am very happy to welcome to wikate f Daily for the first time April Simpson, who is the reporter who is reporting on an award winning podcast, The Heist, which who season two, The Wealth of Vartax, won the twenty twenty three Excellence and Financial Journalism Award for Best Audio Reporting, and this season, which will come out on October third, focuses on the heist by the US government of land and wealth from America's black farmers and ranchers. April,

please talk to us about I mean your work. One has been at the Center for Public Integrity, you have been a US Fulbright fellow, you have been at the London School of Economics. You have covered this issue and many issues around agriculture and reported on it. Talk to us about the plight of black farmers in the US. That is not mainstream knowledge.

a very long time. Some would argue that it's been going on since the founding of the department, which happened during the Civil War under President Lincoln. And yeah, reports that go through, you know, from the sixties, eighties, and nineties, and all of that ended up with a class action settlement that I'm sure you'll you'll want to talk about in the late nineties that black farmers were successful in settling with the government around So one of the.

what's the word I'm looking for? Political power of locally, a lot of folks who are landowners are also you know, community community leaders, and so black farmers have been denied all of this over the past century. There's you know, other stats from the Census of Agriculture that shows, you know, black farmers are the only racial group of farmers who have decreased over the last century. Obviously, armland ownership has decreased in a saggering way as well, and so you know,

all of that has been happening black farmers wage. Like I said, a successful class action suit against the Department in the late nineties called Pickford versus Clickman, and that suit acknowledged that black farmers had long been denied loans, delayed loans, just not given access to the benefits and resources that white farmers were given access to from the Department of Agriculture, and oftentimes that led to them losing their land, you know, going into foreclosure, just not being

able to plant on time, being pretty much set up for failure because if you get that loan too late in the season, like you're not going to have a successful crop, You're not going to have a good harvest season. So the settlement in that case, because it didn't actually go to trial, there was a settlement agreement that the parties agreed to, and the settlement in that case had essentially two tracks. They call them Track A and Track B. And for track A. You had to show proof of discrimination.

You had to show that there was a similarly situated white farmer who was given access to the resources that you were denied. You had to show like an economic loss. And after you showed these things, you were given fifty thousand dollars and the opportunity to have some debt forgiven that was tied to specific loans where they found racial discrimination. The other option that farmers had was Track B, and that would have been much more, much more beneficial in

terms of the funding that they were given. But they still had to show substantial proof or preponderance of ever evidence of discrimination. They had to gather a lot more paperwork, they had to present it at what's kind of like a mini trial, and they had to show that their losses were greater than fifty thousand. Ultimately, only I think one percent or less than one percent of farmers actually

went with TRACKB. Some farmers say, such as the one that we interview in the podcast, Eddie Slott, who was a claimant. He says that the lawyers encouraged the farmers to go with Track A because you know, even though the bar was still fairly high, it was lower than Track BE and the opportunity to have their debt forgiven. Those loans forgiven was the real draw, but ultimately most farmers didn't get any loan forgiveness.

way that they show fields in their political campaigns. And not one president you tell me if I'm wrong, has come out and done anything on behalf of black farmers, like, done anything to really push for or provide this kind of debt relief, provide any type of restitution for centuries of pillage over their property and their ability to grow wealth in this country.

was to the plight of black farmers. There was a section second settlement for those who didn't make it to the first pick for two, and that happened under the Obama administration and then now under Biden, which has had you know, this administration has had a big focus on racial equity rights, like the Executive Order from day one had a program in the American Rescue Plan at the COVID Relief Bill that was trying to relieve the debts of farmers of color. Ultimately that faced legal challenges, it

was rescinded. It was replaced with a new program and the Inflation Reduction Act.

as you mentioned, these broader trends in mechanization and farm consolidation. Uh, there's errors property when landowners don't have proper title to their land and are vulnerable to having that land essentially taken from them.

an important historical story to tell. I hope that it is educational for people who are not aware of the apply to black farmers and this very recent history and what's happened under the Abiden administration and the challenges around that, and I just I hope it just complicates the thinking around how we think about, you know, colorblind versus race based remedy.

recent efforts are color blind. But you know, and also we don't actually know, because the data is not being released, how much black farmers or any farmers of color are benefiting from more of the recent programs. But from what we know about loan delinquency and black farmers something like more than fifty percent are delinquent on their loans, we know that they should at least in large part, be benefiting from these programs. So yeah, I think I think

they don't want to get sued. They're trying to avoid that.

people are willing to spend with me on that. And then on the flip side, you know, I've been struck by Nate and his commitment to try to make it as a rancher despite all these odds, despite the history of government discrimination that he kind of walked into right as like a younger farmer. And it's essentially like looming over him and looming over the work that he's tried

to do. That discrimination affected his father, and these, you know, broader changes that are happening with the industry are also affecting him. But he's he's trying to make it regardless.

you did tell it. Please tell people, you know, if they want to find out more information on this topic, on this issue, what they can what they can do.

go to for just a deeper knowledge. There's a wonderful book by Pete Daniel called This Possession that is kind of the textbook I think of as a textbook around the ply the Black farmers. And there's like these academic papers, like the paper you referenced around three hundred and twenty six billion lost in land and wealth that was done by Thomas Mitchell, a researcher at Boston College and another researcher at University of Massachusetts, Boston. Those would be a couple of good places to start.