Kiesha Cameron is part of a movement of Black farmers pushing for reparations and equal opportunity in agriculture. America’s wealth and power is due to the hard work of exploited enslaved people. Their work in tobacco and cotton fields in today’s terms would have been a multi-billion dollar industry. Now, systemic racism has pushed Black farmers to the margins of these practices through violence, lack of legal support, prejudice, and poverty—in turn, barring them from opportunities to create sustainable, wealth-building communities. Savi Horne, the director of the Land Loss Prevention Project, emphasizes the need for land rights to be central in reparations. This is a complicated process and there is much more work that needs to be done on governmental levels. Cameron, Horne, and many others are working to reclaim farming for Black communities. They are taking back power and control to combat centuries of exploitation and racism, instead replacing it with autonomy and healing. Photo credit: Lynsey Weatherspoon/HuffPost
