Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership

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. (June)