The Plight of Black Farmers in 2025

Thomas Burrell, President and Founder of Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, Inc. (BFAA), a Memphis, Tennessee-based nonprofit organization established back in 1997, was a recent guest on the Inside Scoop radio program broadcast on WWDB/AM every Wednesday from 8:00-9:00 am, founded by SCOOP Media owner Sherri Darden, the radio program is an extension of the SCOOP Newspaper.

- Thera Martin

Farming is at the very core of America. Without farmers, there’s no food. Mr. Burrell is an avid and passionate farmer from Covington, Tennessee. His family has a long history as farmers in Tennessee. He’s one of those Black farmers today on the front lines, speaking up about the challenges and plight of Black farmers in America today.

To understand where we are going, we have to understand where we come from, so Thomas Burrell offered up some history about Black farmers in America.

He said, “In 1910, as it were, 45 years after slavery, African American farmers and land owners had acquired over 20 million acres of land in the South. There were roughly 925 thousand Black farmers. For all intents and purposes, that number was more like one million. Today, we are down to less than five million acres of land and about 10 thousand Black farmers.

There has been a constant decline of individuals who were brought to this country by force, who helped to make this country the wealthiest economy on the planet. The United States currently has a 31 trillion dollar economy, and much of the success we have in America today can be traced back to the work, the labor, and the sweat of our ancestors in the Carolinas, Mississippi, and Virginia."