Ownership of land represents wealth, potential, community, sustainability and economic opportunity for the next generation. Yet, across our country, Black and Indigenous landowners have lost land at rates much higher than their white counterparts. In 1910, there were 218,000 Black farmers, and they owned roughly 15 million acres of land. After the turn of the century, there were only 18,000 Black farmers with a little over 2 million acres of land.
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Family land, farming and race in Virginia
February 10, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Betty Kilby Baldwin with her father on their family farm in Warren County.
This enormous loss of land and opportunity for Black farmers and their descendants wasn’t just a chance happening. Rather, it is an important, yet mostly overlooked, part of our history of racial injustice all across America.
This webinar will explore the topics of family land, farming and race. We’ll also hear about Virginia’s recent efforts to slow the loss of family-owned farmland and explore next steps to ensure that Black families and other historically underrepresented groups can continue to farm in the Valley and across Virginia.
Speakers
Ebonie Alexander, Executive Director of the Black Family Land Trust
Betty Kilby Baldwin and Phoebe Kilby, authors of Cousins, to be released in April. Betty Kilby Baldwin also authored Wit, Will and Walls.
The Honorable Bettina Ring, Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry
Tom Wilkins, Incoming Co-chair of the Northern Shenandoah Valley Chapter of Coming to the Table
Sponsored by Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley with support from Valley Conservation Council.