After the Civil War, Congress allotted 45 million acres of land to former slaves, but protest from white supremacists meant that little of it was ever actually distributed. Despite formidable obstacles, some one million African-Americans managed to purchase more than 15,000,000 acres of arable land by 1910. This program explores the history of those black-owned farms, from Reconstruction to the agricultural crises of the early 20th century and on to the era of federal loans and subsidies on which most farmers, black and white both, now depend. Director Charlene Gilbert weaves this history together with a portrait of her own farming family, who obtained their land in the 1930s only after the Farm Security Administration was forced to lend to African Americans. (56 minutes) A streaming videorecording
Notes
Streaming video, subdivided into smaller segments (total time: 56 min.)
