There is nothing in the Homestead Act of 1862 that explicitly excludes African Americans from benefiting from the law. Benefits were available to “any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States.” [1] The law makes no mention of race, and nothing in the law expressly prohibits African Americans from applying for land.

However, when the Homestead Act was signed into law, many African Americans were not legally considered citizens, and therefore could not benefit from the law. It was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that the question of citizenship for African Americans would be answered definitively. This law says that “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude […] shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States […] to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens...” [2] This definition of citizenship was later solidified by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. With the citizenship question settled, thousands of African Americans were able to apply for land and benefit from the Homestead Act. [3]

So, on the facts of the Homestead Act of 1862, Jon Stewart is incorrect. The Homestead Act did not exclude African Americans, and thousands benefited from the law. But his larger point - that black Americans have historically been excluded from many opportunities for wealth building available to white Americans - is essentially correct.

In the years following the Civil War, many political leaders fought against policies meant to benefit the recently emancipated, up to and including the vehemently racist Andrew Johnson, who became president following President Lincoln’s assassination. President Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (the law which clarified black citizenship), though his veto was overridden by Congress, and he opposed efforts to expand black suffrage, especially in the South. As it relates to the Homestead Act, racist administration of the law by some government officials, as well as overt threats of violence from local residents, prevented many African Americans from receiving full benefits under the law, and some black farmers who did get grants - particularly under the similar Southern Homestead Act of 1866 - received poor quality farmland that made it difficult to earn a living. While many programs were created to help establish an economic base for African Americans during Reconstruction, much of the political and economic progress made during this period was lost or diminished following the end of Reconstruction and the subsequent rise of Jim Crow segregation.

Whether through racist policies [4][5], predatory loans [6], or acts of racial terror [7], there have been any number of obstacles that have prevented African Americans from building wealth and keeping it.

[1] National Archives, “Homestead Act of 1862” (document and transcript), https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/homestead-act

[2] Civil Rights Act of 1866, https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1866FirstCivilRightsAct.pdf

[3] National Park Service, “African American Homesteaders in the Great Plains”, https://www.nps.gov/articles/african-american-homesteaders-in-the-great-plains.htm

[4] NPR, “The Color of Law Details How U.S. Housing Policies Created Segregation”, https://www.npr.org/2017/05/17/528822128/the-color-of-law-details-how-u-s-housing-policies-created-segregation

[5] Pete Daniel, “Disposession: Discrimination Against African American Farmers in the Age of Civil Rights”, https://uncpress.org/book/9781469622071/dispossession/

[6] “The Plunder of Black Wealth in Chicago: New Findings on the Lasting Toll of Predatory Housing Contracts”, https://socialequity.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Plunder-of-Black-Wealth-in-Chicago.pdf

[7] Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, “1921 Tulsa Race Massacre”, https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/