Dear John,

In Bordelonville, Louisiana, Gwendolyn and Robert Williams lovingly cultivate a piece of land that has been in Gwendolyn’s family for more than one hundred years. The fruits of their labor are not just the vegetables they grow. Farming this land is healing, giving Robert back a legacy that was taken from him due to discrimination and inequity. Read on to learn why Gwendolyn and Robert are our Farmer Heroes.

Black farmland ownership, which peaked in 1910 at 16 to 19 million acres, has decreased to less than 3 million acres today, and Black farmers represent just over 1% of all U.S. farmers. One of the reasons for this sharp decline is the issue with heirs’ property.

Heirs’ property is created when a landowner dies without a will or estate planning that guarantees the transfer of their land. This was very common in the first generation of Black landowners who often did not have access to the legal system. Without a will, the property is informally passed to the heirs of the deceased landowner. Proving landownership becomes increasingly difficult as the deed changes hands in each generation. 

Read on to learn about how Farm Aid partners like the Federation of Southern Cooperatives are working on this issue.

Every year at the Farm Aid Festival, farmers, artists and activists gather on the FarmYard Stage to discuss urgent issues in agriculture. At Farm Aid 2021, farmer Kama Duocore joined Dania Davy of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, artist Allison Russell, and our moderator Tomas Harmon to talk about racial equity in agriculture, Black land loss and the challenges and opportunities for farmers of color.