Access to Legal Services In 1910, African Americans owned more than 15 million acres of land in the United States, mostly in the South. Over 900,000 black-owned farms comprised 14 percent of all farms in the U.S. in 1920. But, by 1975, just 45,000 black-owned farms remained, and today black farmers make up less than two percent of the nation’s growers and one percent of rural landowners. Millions of farmers of all races were pushed off their land at the beginning of the 20th century, but systematic discrimination played a large role in the disproportion-ate loss of black land. 1 The lack of legal access for early black landowners meant that the major-ity of property was passed down as heirs’ property, without a clear title. 2 Over the years, that designation limited what heirs could do with their land to build wealth or credit: no mortgages or loans for home repairs, no eligibility for state or federal housing aid, and no loans or grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for farming — practically a requirement for any American farmer. 3 The Black Family Land Trust, a nonprofi t originally founded to serve the Carolinas in 2004 to halt the drain of black families’ land wealth, began working on cases in Virginia a few years ago. “We see land owned by African Americans and other historically un-derserved populations as a family asset that should be nurtured, protected and passed on for future generations,” says Ebonie Alexander, the executive direc-tor. “So, our work in many respects is economic development — keeping that land in the family, making sure that that land asset is a performing asset, whether it’s used for rental income, or agricultur-al production, or forestry.” The trust’s Wealth Retention and Asset Protection program seeks to resolve lingering heirs’ property and title issues, break the cycle with wills and estate planning, create conservation easements, and teach rural fi nancial literary. “I always say, ‘It’s not your grand-daddy’s farm,’” says Alexander of www.vsb.org brainstorming with landowners about modern ways to build wealth from the land — sustainable forestry, farm-raised seafood, modern greenhouse technology, etc. The Black Family Land Trust helped Thomas Dillard and his siblings set up a corporation for another 90 acres of their father’s Brunswick County land and has helped Thomas with an adjacent 25 acres he bought in the 1970s. “[Alexander] came in and gave us a family briefi ng, told us what we need-ed to do, helped us write the bylaws,” Dillard says. “She put us in contact with the lawyer out of North Carolina. She started us off on the right path, where we had been fl ailing for almost 10 years.” Alexander says it’s not just about convincing landowners to keep land together and fi nd value in it: they also need to trust the attorneys that will help them do that. She says she deals with a lot of skepticism from black landowners about engaging lawyers. But Alexander sees her role as bridging that divide — between the families and lawyers that are sensitive to historical context. The new trust grew out of a project by students at the North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham, and lawyers have been instrumental in resolving cases since then. “To me, African American land ownership has a distinct place in the history of our country,” says Andrew Branan, a North Carolina-based Ebonie Alexander Andrew Branan an increasing number of African American families did gain ownership of farmland in the decades after the Civil War, through the 20th century that land ownership declined under a variety of pressures.” The traditional land trust commu-nity may have overlooked black land-owners in the past, he says, and funding opportunities have been lost. Branan says that taking cases and working with the trust has given him a chance to par-ticipate in a family’s personal history for the better — to contribute in preserving land that someone’s ancestor might have acquired during Reconstruction. “I also look at it as serving a broad-er public purpose — clearing title to real property, securing farming tenure and helping families move forward,” Branan says. “I believe that’s what leads to its best use.” Branan admits they’re complex cas-es, and a lot of what he does is disabus-ing family members of preconceived notions — for example, that someone who lives on the land has a greater interest in it — that might be holding up We see land owned by African Americans and other histori-cally underserved populations as a family asset that should be nurtured, protected and passed on for future generations ... attorney who recently left full-time private practice to be an extension assistant professor at North Carolina State University. “It was something that was, of course, generally forbidden in southern states before 1865. Though the process of reconciliation on the title. Branan, who is licensed in Virginia, too, has helped families narrow the number of owners by creating controlled mecha-Black Family Land continued on page 48 47 Vol. 67 | August 2018 | VIRGINIA LAWYER