Black Land Ownership Peaks at 15 Million Acres in 1910, Then Declines Under Sustained Theft

Black land ownership in the South peaked at approximately 15 million acres in 1910, representing an extraordinary achievement of post-Reconstruction self-help against enormous obstacles. Beginning in the 1910s and accelerating over the following decades, Black land was stripped through a combination of: tax sales in which landowners were not notified; heirs' property laws that fragmented ownership and enabled partition sales; racially exclusionary USDA loan programs; intimidation and violence; deed fraud; and the use of 'white riders' who filed false claims. By 1997, Black landowners held less than 2 million acres.