In 1920, according to federal data, there were about 925,000 black farmers in America,

or about 14% of all farmers.

A century later, there were only about 42,000 or about 1%.

Much of that is a legacy of systemic discrimination in Agriculture Department programs.

Ali Rogan reports on how the Biden administration is trying to help farmers who have been

historically excluded from government assistance programs.

Today, black farmers own less than 1% of US farmland according to the Agriculture

Department's latest farmer census but efforts are underway to help these

farmers reclaim their lost land. Last month, the USDA issued over $2.2 billion in payments

to Black and other minority farmers across the country.

It's a move the department hopes

will offset decades of discrimination these farmers faced when trying to secure loans.

John Boyd is the founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association.

Mr Boyd, thank you so much for joining us. You yourself are a fourth generation farmer.

I'd like to ask you about the discrimination that you personally have faced over the course of your career.

The discrimination that I faced was more in your face, blatant type of discrimination.

There are many black farmers in the area experienced, you know, I was called the N-word, I was spat on. I had my application torn up and thrown in

trash can in front of me and this person that was responsible for making farm loans

in my local county office would only see black farmers on

Wednesday so we named it black Wednesday when white farmers came in he would

bring them in service service them, and one particular year he

is farmer Earl, he passed him a check for $157,000 in front of me after he told me a qualified borrower that he wasn't going to let me

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