PBS News Hour

JOHN YANG: In 1910, about 14 percent of U.S. farmers were black, owning more than 16 million acres.

Now, according to the agriculture's latest farm census, only one in 100 farmers is black owning fewer than 5 million acres.

By one estimate, that's a loss of land value of about $326 million.

A new documentary called "Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land" explores how this happened, its lasting effect on black families and their efforts now to reclaim their legacy and create generational wealth.

Emmy nominated Eternal Polk wrote and directed the film and is one of the film's executive producers, along with the television personality Al Roker.

How did this big drop in black farmers and black farmland ownership?

How did this happen?

ETERNAL POLK: Well, there is a little known legal loophole called heirs property, which essentially allows for a person to buy an interest in your property and then force you to sell the land at a low rate or you just lose it because you don't have the funds to fight in the court.

So, imagine you have ten heirs who all have a claim to a property and one of them sells.

And it doesn't matter how big or small the interest of the property that they sell.

Someone who bought that interest can now force you to sell all of it.

So if it's 4,000 acres and they sell one acre, that sale of that one acre will allow the purchaser of that acre to force the sale of all of the land.

And that's pretty egregious when you think about millions of acres that have been lost.

JOHN YANG: As I understand from the documentary, a lot of farmers thought by weaving it to all their heirs, all their children, for instance, it would better, it would be easier to hold on to, but didn't turn out to be the case.

ETERNAL POLK: Well, exactly.

Because their thinking was and it kind of makes sense that you would have to get everyone to sign off on the property sale.

But you do not have to have everyone sign off to sell one portion of the property you're entitled to.

And it especially happens in situations where there's no will or no clear title to the land.

And that's where sort of the chaos sort of comes in with a lot of people being able to have a claim to a piece of property.

And it could be ten heirs if it's one generation, two or three, it could be 40 or 50.

And in some cases, where you have five generations, it could be 200 different people who have a claim to a piece of land.

JOHN YANG: How much of this did you know before you started working on this project?

ETERNAL POLK: Man, it was amazing for this to be such a pervasive issue in the agricultural space that I knew nothing about this particular legal loophole.

Whenever I mentioned this project to anyone and I mentioned what the topic was and what were covering, inevitably someone would say, oh, that happened to me.

Or we're going through that right now.

It's kind of a silent situation because no one is advertising we're about to lose our land.

And oftentimes people don't know what kind of legal recourse they have, what resources are available to them, so they kind of go through it alone.

And this film has really kind of illuminated how real this issue is.

Even now, today, it's still happening and people are taking advantage of this loophole.

JOHN YANG: So on the inheritance law that we talked about earlier, you not just point out the problem, but you do have solutions.

And actually, it seemed to me that if someone is in this situation and pays attention to your film, they know what to do.

Is that a goal?

ETERNAL POLK: It definitely was.

The idea that someone could do something and then take your home and then you have to fight to get it back and you have to fight and pay for it.

It's not just you fight and they say, oh, you fought and you fought it off.

You have to pay for your land that you already own.

Once you go through this whole process, if it comes out unfavorable.

So, because this is such a daunting situation to be in, I really wanted us to show and demonstrate that there were people out here who are doing the work and there are solutions and ways you can monetize land, because that's another big thing.

When you realize how much land you have, the question then becomes how do we take care of it or how do we monetize it?

And I can tell you, no matter what level, economic or educational background someone comes from, inevitably I have someone who comes to me and says, I didn't know this and thank you, because now I know there are resources and options for us with our land.

JOHN YANG: In the documentary, you talk a lot about the or it illustrate the importance of this land to these families in a spiritual way.

Was that something you really wanted to make sure was told in this?

ETERNAL POLK: Yes.

Yes.

I really felt that the land has such a spiritual conversation with people all over the world.

And because of different situations here in the United States, whether it's racism or terrorism, where people were driven off their land or just by some legal manipulation, they lose the land.

We've lost a connection to that land as a general populace, and I think that's a common issue, no matter what background you're from that this connection to the land is not what it used to be.

And I think it's a very spiritual thing that leads to healing for us, for all of the things that come from the earth to the connection to the Earth and what it provides to us in terms of healing and peace and meditation and comfort is something I really wanted to express in the film.

I want people to go back to the land and be connected to it.

JOHN YANG: Eternal Polk, the writer, director and executive producer of Gaining Ground, which is going to be shown at some film festivals coming up in the next several weeks.

Eternal Polk, thank you very much.

ETERNAL POLK: Thank you for having me.

It was a pleasure.