NFL Players Coalition draws attention to Black families’ loss of farmland

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Black Americans have lost millions of acres of hard-earned agricultural land in the last century, according to the Players Coalition, a group of NFL players and other athletes who are pushing for laws to help Black families maintain property over generations.

Players Coalition founder and retired safety Malcolm Jenkins and coalition member Kelvin Beachum, an offensive tackle for Arizona, hosted a discussion titled “Building Black Wealth” on Thursday at the convention center where media covering the Super Bowl are working.

They were joined by former safety Jeremiah Brown, serving as the moderator. Also on the panel were Thomas Mitchell, a professor of law at Boston College, and Adrienne Wheeler, the executive director of Louisiana Appleseed.

“One of the focuses, when we started the Players Coalition, was economic advancement, specifically in communities of color,” Jenkins said.

Following the Civil War, African-Americans acquired over 16 million acres of land through what Jenkins described as “heroic efforts.” But since 1910, much of that land was slowly lost due to legal hurdles that were set up in the Jim Crow era and made it tough for Black families to pass property down between generations.

“African-Americans got turned out in kind of a stealth way, to second-class ownership (of their land). They weren’t able to structure their ownership by meeting with lawyers to ensure the continuity of that ownership and to assure that they would get all the benefits that property owners often get from that ownership,” Jenkins said.

Mitchell spoke about his efforts to help Black Americans acquire and maintain property. He said he was asked to draft a statute to “give families more stability in their ownership” of property. After three years, he completed the draft in 2011, which has now been enacted in 23 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, he said.

“One of the racial gaps that folks are unfamiliar with is we have this massive racial estate planning gap in this country. Slightly more than 20% of Black and brown families have a will or other type of estate plan. For white families that range is about 40% higher,” Mitchell said.

Louisiana Appleseed, an advocacy organization, has worked closely with the Players Coalition to raise awareness of this issue and push for change. Wheeler outlined ways to improve the situation and maintain continuity of property ownership for generations.

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Joel Haas is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

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