The book “Black Farmers In America” is the culmination of a 4-year photographic documentary project by award winning photographer John Ficara. The book and the companion exhibit, “Distant Echoes - Black Farmers In America”, offer us more than just a documented record in pictures of the demise of black family farmers in this country. Through his photographs we feel their dignity, grace, humor and spirit as they battle the onslaught of globalization, changing agricultural technology, and discriminatory lending practices by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This is a story about losing a way of life, a loss of tradition for many families and indignities still often experienced by African Americans today.