"At the very same time that America refused to give the Negro any land, through an act of Congress our government was giving away millions of acres of land in the West and the Midwest--which meant it was willing to undergird its white pheasants from Europe with an economic floor. But not only did they give them land, they built land grant colleges with government money to teach them how to farm. Not only that, they provided county agents to further their expertise in farming. Not only that, they provided low interest rates in order that they could mechanize their farms. Not only that, today many of these people are receiving millions of dollars in federal subsidies not to farm, and they're the very people telling the Black man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. This is what we are faced with, and this is the reality. Now, when we come to Washington in this campaign, we are coming to get our check." Martin Luther King, WE ARE COMING TO GET OUR CHECK, 1968.
My grandparents, Negstad, purchased the rights to complete a homestead in 1885. By the time that Grandpa, Lars, died in 1919, he owned 480 acres of land and had enough money in the bank, $28,000.00, to buy another 160 acres. Each of his four children received 160 acres. This is my legacy, for the land on which I grew up was the 160 acres he homesteaded.
When I recently visited Ed and MaryJane, she sent me off with a shopping bag full of books. The MLK quote above is from one of those books. WE ARE EACH OTHER'S HARVEST: CELEBRATING AFRICAN AMERICAN FARMERS, LAND AND LEGACY, by Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar.. The book is an eyeopener about the discrimination Black farmers have faced. It also causes me reflect on the advantages I've experienced as legacy of the Homestead Act and other benefits flowing to my grandfather and father.
I'll have more to say about the book after I've finished reading it.
Takk for alt,
Al
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