Rooted
The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Why is less than 1% of rural land in the U.S. owned by Black people? An acclaimed writer and activist explores the impact of land theft and violent displacement on racial wealth gaps, arguing that justice stems from the literal roots of the earth.
“With heartfelt prose and unyielding honesty, Baker explores the depths of her roots and invites readers to reflect on our own.”—Donovan X. Ramsey, author of the National Book Award for Nonfiction semi-finalist When Crack Was King
To understand the contemporary racial wealth gap, we must first unpack the historic attacks on Indigenous and Black land ownership. From the moment that colonizers set foot on Virginian soil, a centuries-long war was waged, resulting in an existential dilemma: Who owns what on stolen land? Who owns what with stolen labor? To answer these questions, we must confront one of this nation’s first sins: stealing, hoarding, and commodifying the land.
Research suggests that between 1910 and 1997, Black Americans lost about 90% of their farmland. Land theft widened the racial wealth gap, privatized natural resources, and created a permanent barrier to access that should be a birthright for Black and Indigenous communities. Rooted traces the experiences of Brea Baker’s family history of devastating land loss in Kentucky and North Carolina, identifying such violence as the root of persistent inequality in this country. Ultimately, her grandparents’ commitment to Black land ownership resulted in the Bakers Acres—a haven for the family where they are sustained by the land, surrounded by love, and wholly free.
A testament to the Black farmers who dreamed of feeding, housing, and tending to their communities, Rooted bears witness to their commitment to freedom and reciprocal care for the land. By returning equity to a dispossessed people, we can heal both the land and our nation’s soul.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Millions of acres of rural land have been systematically taken from African Americans since the end of Reconstruction, reports essayist Baker in her vigorous debut history, which argues emphatically for this land to be restored to Black ownership. Her narrative comprises three parallel threads: emotional stories of her own grandparents, who persevered in maintaining their beloved rural lifestyle on 100 acres of North Carolina land throughout her childhood; accounts of other families whose access to the land was chipped away or lost over the course of the 20th century; and a chronology of anti-Black government policies, such as eminent domain seizures and inequitable loan terms. These policies, according to Baker, formed the mechanism by which land was transferred en masse from Black ownership and into the hands of the government, corporations, and wealthy white people, a historical and ongoing process undergirding today's racial wealth gap. She writes evocatively about Black farmers' relationship with the land and argues passionately for Black Americans to return to family farms (she's unabashedly utopian on this point, and her frustration with Black people uninterested in rural life is palpable). Baker keeps tightly focused on the topic and writes in a conversational prose that casually draws on a wide range of thinkers. Educators in particular will find this invaluable.
