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Bell, a doctoral student, obtained a bachelor's degree in animal sciences and a master's in agricultural teacher education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University -- the nation's largest historically Black college or university.

He said that he's witnessed barriers entering the industry firsthand and is living his purpose by striving to \"break generational curses.\"

The story of how nearly 1 million Black families were stripped of their farms, and therefore robbed of their hard-earned generational wealth, isn't a story often told when discussing U.S. history.

From the 1860s to the 1920s, dozens of towns violently expelled entire Black communities and forced them to flee their homes using tactics that included racist mobs. Many stories of Black residents, particularly those living in the South, were detailed in the 2007 award-winning documentary \"BANISHED.\"

\"PHOTO:
Courtesy Devin McAllister/ Sankofa Farms
PHOTO: Kamal Bell, a doctoral student and founder of Sankofa Farms in Cedar Grove, North Carolina, poses alongside his students Yakir Lee, Kamal Bell Kamron Jackson, Mikal Ali and Jamil Ali.
>

At their peak in 1920, there were over 949,000 Black farmers in America, according to a 2017 report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That number has now plummeted to roughly 45,000 Black-owned farms.

Now, Black farm owners makeup a mere 1.3% of the country’s 3.4 million total farmers. In comparison, approximately 95% of rural land across the country is currently owned by white farmers.

Booker told Mother Jones that the bill is an effort to help mount a long-overdue federal effort to reverse the \"destructive forces that were unleashed upon Black farmers over the past century.\"

The bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., would become a sevenfold expansion for African American farmers, transferring to them up to 32 million acres.

Kenrett Jefferson-Moore, chairperson of the Committee on the Opportunities and Status of Blacks in Agricultural Economics at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, said that this bill is a great step toward justice for Black farmers.

\"African American farmers have had to fight for so much over the years -- information, rights, land access, capital access and so on,\" Jefferson-Moore told ABC News.

\"PHOTO:
Universal Images Group via Getty
PHOTO: A day laborer rides a tractor in a farm in Clarksdale, Miss., Aug. 1940.
>

The 46-year-old mom and wife also echoes the fact that knowledge is among the key ways to open the door for those interested in the field.

\"Education is key for farmers,\" Jefferson-Moore added. \"If we can ensure that African American farmers are gaining access to information to preserve their hard work and effort, it could change the trajectory of their farming legacies.\"

Jefferson-Moore, who grew up in Doyline, Louisiana, was exposed to the world of agriculture as a 5-year-old by her father, who was a school teacher, tax assessor and part-time farmer.

\"It brings tears to my eyes to think of how this would change opportunities for African American farmers,\" Jefferson-Moore said, \"especially my father.\"

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