BY STU SINGER
WASHINGTON, DC - Black farmers are organizing a Black Land Loss conference in Enfield, North Carolina March 20-22. Enfield is about 60 miles northeast of Raleigh. The stated goals of the conference are to "Stop the trend of African- American land loss and the disappearance of family farms.... Establish a regional network in support of the sustainable economic development of rural resources.... Investigate the reality of a national conference in Tillery to develop and implement broader, more global solutions.... Communicate the rural voice of Americans effectively across all cultural, racial and geographic boundaries.... Serve as a clearinghouse to disseminate ideas and alternatives in response to poverty and injustice in North Carolina and the world."

The initiative for the conference comes from the Concerned Citizens of Tillery, a nearby area in North Carolina where Black farmers have been fighting to hold onto land their families got in the 1930s and '40s.

The brochure for the conference explains, "In the United States, African-Americans are losing land at a rate of 9,000 acres per week." In 1920, the statement continued, "1 in every 7 farmers was African-American. By 1982 only 1 in every 67 farmers was still working the land. In 1950, African-Americans owned 1.2 million acres of land in North Carolina. By the late 1980s, African-American owned farmland in North Carolina had declined to less than 400,000 acres. Additionally, many rural southern communities have endured environmental degradation, health risks and loss of economic vitality as part of a nationwide trend of environmental racism."

Gary Grant, one of the organizers of the conference, is from a Black farm family in Tillery. He told the Militant their goal is to bring together Black farmers from a number of states. He expects 100-200 people including farmers from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. With the focus of the conference on Black land loss, other farmers, union members, environmental activists, and others are welcome, he said.

Grant and others involved in the conference were part of the demonstration organized by the National Black Farmers Association outside the White House in Washington December 12 that exposed blatant racist practices by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Secretary of Agriculture was forced to declare a moratorium on farm foreclosures while a task force studies the extent of racist discrimination, particularly in farm loans to Black farmers, but also in discrimination against Black employees of the USDA itself. Grant hopes new chapters of the Black Farmers Association can be set up through the conference. National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd will participate in it.

For more information on the conference, registration and housing, contact Gary Grant at 919-826-3017 or write to The Land Loss Fund, PO Box 61, Tillery, NC 27887.

Stu Singer is a member of United Transportation Union Local 454.  
 
 
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