USDA Extension Services Systematically Exclude Black Farmers from Agricultural Assistance

The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 created the Cooperative Extension Service, providing federal agricultural assistance through land-grant universities. In Southern states, the service was administered through racially segregated networks: white county agents served white farmers with access to credit, improved seeds, and farming techniques, while Black farmers were assigned separate, underfunded 'Negro agents' with far fewer resources. Black farmers were systematically denied access to USDA crop loans, price support programs, and technical assistance that were available to white farmers, entrenching the economic gap between Black and white agricultural producers.