By Demetrius Dillard
In the shadows of this nation’s dark and troubled past lies the ongoing misfortune of would-be Black land owners.
Not only was the prominence of the United States established upon its unmatched military dominance, but massive genocide also played a major role in this nation’s rise as an international superpower.
As it relates to genocide, the perpetration of massacres have largely influenced the country’s unique – but problematic – legacy.
Take the Boston Massacre for instance.
Crispus Attucks, a Black New Englander who was a sailor in the 18th century, was the first casualty of the Boston Massacre. This was one of the events that led to the start of the American Revolution.
After the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, massacres seemed to become more prevalent, particularly toward (or against) Black communities.
Of the many Black massacres that unfolded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, perhaps the most recognizable is the Black Wall Street Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921. This vicious, inhumane, spiteful White supremacist attack was done out of sheer hatred and jealousy.
Furthermore, the Black Wall Street tragedy was only a microcosm of the various other racially charged massacres that transpired – all of which led to the continual fortune of White America while contributing to the demise of Black America.
The tragedy resulted in a mass erasure of Black wealth and land ownership. This trend is seen in many other cities where race massacres, also referred to as “race riots,” occurred.
The Elaine Massacre in Arkansas was among the most horrific tragedies in Red Summer of 1919. Historians estimate that hundreds of innocent Black people lost their lives over false suspicion by White law enforcement authorities.
The attack was an insurrection of sorts, and though the event involved Black sharecroppers and other less fortunate Black residents of the town, some Black property was still ravaged and essentially overtaken.
“What we see is the looting of these [Black people’s] cabins, the taking of the little livestock that they have and the taking of property that belonged to them,” said Brian K. Mitchell, an associate professor of history at University of Arkansas-Little Rock in a mini-documentary by Forbes.
“A great number of people fled after this event.” James White, a descendant of survivors of the Elaine Massacre, expressed similar sentiments.
“It’s a lot of money here, but there’s no generational wealth for Black people,” White said.“When the killing was over, all the wealth of Black people just went away.”
History has shown, in many cases, that there is a direct correlation between Black massacres and the lack of land access and ownership.
At the peak of Black land ownership in the early 20th century, Black farmers and landowners had acquired an estimated 19 million acres of land. Today, Black farmers now own barely 3 million acres of land, totaling a loss of $326 billion worth of land in less than a century, according to research cited by the American Bar Association.
Last year, ABA published a report documenting the alarming statistics that revealed the adverse effects of Black land theft and state-sanctioned discrimination.
ABA highlighted Luke McElroy, a Black farmer who owned 155 acres of land in Alabama, who was murdered by a neighboring White farmer in 1949 over a property dispute. The report also highlights Isaac Simmons, a minister and Black farmer in Mississippi, who was lynched by six White men in 1944 when he refused to yield his farmland to the men, who apparently thought it had “valuable oil deposits.”
“The stories of these men and many others in the Burnham-Nobles Archive of racially motivated killings of Black people in the Jim Crow South highlight the violent theft of Black farmland, often to the benefit of white farmers,” says the ABA article.
Though the two aforementioned incidents were singular cases of unjustifiable White-on-Black killings and seizure of land, it still underlines the correlation between racially charged acts of violence and its subsequent ramifications on Black America’s access to land and land equity.
“As a result of having their land stolen from them, many Black landowners lost a valuable tool for wealth creation,” the article continues.
“Accordingly, while the children and grandchildren of white landowners reaped the benefits of ready access to capital—education, home ownership, and entrepreneurial safety nets—the children and grandchildren of dispossessed Black landowners faced the perils of migrating to inner-city ghettos—crime, poverty, and instability.”
The trend is quite apparent: nearly every instance of a Black massacre has resulted, in some form or another, of the lack of access to land, opportunity and wealth.
Oh, and by the way — New England is no stranger to race massacres, either. Boston was home to race riots in 1967 and a series of events in New London, Connecticut, led to a race massacre in 1919.
In Maine – which seems to be the most unlikeliest of places – the plight of Afro-indigenous farmers seemed to have caught the eye of policymakers.
In general terms, massacres have had a profound legacy that has been woven into the fabric of this country. Despite the unsavory aftermath of gradual Black land theft, the fight for Black land ownership continues.
Image provided by the city of New London
