Understanding the deep history of Black land ownership in America requires acknowledging the intertwined experiences of Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous peoples before and after European colonization. Before the colonial era, nations such as the Muskogee (Creek), Choctaw, Cherokee, Guale, Yamasee, Saponi, and Powhatan controlled substantial territories along the South and East Coasts. With the advent of European settlement and the transatlantic slave trade, many Africans and Native American peoples intermarried, creating Afro-Indigenous communities that maintained land rights through various legal means, including treaties, inheritance, and Spanish or British land grants. By the 1700s and early 1800s, free Black and Afro-Indian landowners were a significant presence, owning thousands of acres across states like Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. However, the onset of industrialization and systemic racial discrimination led to the reclassification and legal erasure of these land rights. Laws such as the 1705 Virginia Slave Codes curtailed Black citizens' ability to own land or testify in court, making it much easier to dispossess them. Furthermore, Black Codes and Jim Crow laws effectively prevented many Black families from buying, inheriting, or maintaining property. These legal barriers coupled with violent measures—including white mobs burning Black-owned deeds and homes, exemplified tragically by events like the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 and the Rosewood massacre in 1923—resulted in massive, forceful land theft. Additionally, courts manipulated tax foreclosures and property laws, exploiting legal loopholes such as the "heirs property" provisions to dispossess Black families of their lands. Perpetual debt from sharecropping and crop-lien systems further trapped formerly land-owning Black families, making recovery difficult. Federal policies like the Homestead Acts disproportionately favored white settlers, excluding Black and Indigenous populations from equitable land grants. By 1910, Black Americans owned over 14 million acres of farmland, mostly in the South; yet, discriminatory practices by institutions such as the USDA led to the loss of approximately 90% of this land by the late 20th century. This systemic dispossession of land parallels the similar experiences of Indigenous nations, who lost more than 95% of their ancestral territories through treaties, allotment, and reclassification. Efforts toward restoration continue today, emphasizing land reclamation and reparations, along with broader racial justice movements. Understanding this history highlights the critical need for awareness and support for policies that restore land rights and opportunities to Black and Indigenous communities, ensuring a more just and equitable future.