For nearly a century, racial discrimination in agriculture, exclusion from federal relief programs, and laws that preyed upon the economically disadvantaged have slashed the number of Black farmers in America from nearly 1 million in 1920 to less than 50,000 today. For a once-enslaved people forced to work the land of their oppressors, land ownership has always symbolized freedom. Despite experiencing obstacles to owning land, Black farmers gradually came to represent 14 percent of all U.S. farmers in 1910. By 2012, however, the share of Black farmers dropped to 1.6 percent. Many Black farmers and activists attribute that drop to discriminatory lending and other U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) policies. Even though farming adds billions of dollars to the U.S. economy, the number of farmers is declining. However, according to the USDA, the number of Black farmers is now growing, nearly 30 years after Black farmers almost became extinct. In March 2021, Congress passed one of the most sweeping relief programs for minority farmers in the nation’s history, through a provision of the pandemic stimulus bill. The landmark legislation is the result of more than 20 years of active organizing by Black farmers. The Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act will forgive 120 percent of the value of loans from the USDA or from private lenders and guaranteed by the USDA, to “Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic farmers and other agricultural producers of color.” This is hopefully the first step toward equitable treatment and increased opportunities for Black farmers.