When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America

by Ira Katznelson

The holdings of black farmers, furthermore, were much smaller than white holdings—63 acres in 1935, compared to 145 on average for whites—and their acreage was worth 20 percent less. Thus the average value of a black farm that year was $1,864 compared to $5,239 for whites.15