Once heard a Planet Money episode that covered how once the big banks took over local banks, in many places black farmers started getting their loan applications rejected or delayed and slowly had to sell their farmland and leave. Farming is a loan heavy activity. You take loans, plant, and pay off after harvest - every year.
This guardian article covers one farmers overall experience. John Boyd Jr. bought his first farm for $51,000 at age 18 in 1984..
"In subsequent visits, the loan officer told Boyd he better learn to talk to him like other black folks did, took naps during meetings, threw Boyd’s applications straight into the trash and spat his chewing tobacco on Boyd’s shirt, claiming to have missed his spittoon."
Year 2019: "To avoid being docked – getting priced down for moisture or debris in the bushels – he will ask his wife, Kara Brewer Boyd, to enlist her white stepfather to sell the beans for him. When the other man takes Boyd’s beans, he’s not docked but complimented."
“The land don’t know color. The land never mistreated me, people do.”
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