BLACK FARMERS: Why They Can't Wait

[Nia Imani]

BLACK FARMERS: Why They Can't Wait

By Camille Jackson | Staff Writer, Tolerance.org

"I've farmed all my life," Berniece Atchison said, cradling a stack of manila envelopes. "Vegetables mostly. I have 59 acres of land. My husband is a farmer. His father and his grandfather were farmers. My children were raised on a farm. It's embedded in me."

Atchison is proud that her children have now bought their own land for farming.

"But," she said, taking a breath, "we will not have a next generation of black farmers because the USDA will not cooperate."

In 1999, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, reached a $2.3 billion settlement agreement and consent decree resolving a class action lawsuit filed by black farmers. The lawsuit sought to make reparations for a long history of admitted racial discrimination within the agency.

Known as the Pigford case, the settlement affected farmers who were denied credit by the USDA during the Reagan Administration when the civil rights arm of the agency was eliminated. The farmers who were denied credit also had to prove that they were discriminated against because of race.

"A lot of farmers couldn't do that because they weren't given information that a white farmer under similar circumstances received a loan," said Robert Zabawa, a professor at Tuskegee University's College of Agriculture, Environmental and Natural Sciences. "Part of the original settlement is that there is supposed to be a moratorium on foreclosures."

About 96,000 farmers were eligible, and 23,000 filed claims, but only 13,000 farmers received a portion of the settlement, estimated to be $50,000 each. The rest were told their claims were submitted too late.

"Truthfully, I don't see why the USDA has denied so many claims. It's for our ancestors. It's just unfair," said Ruby Thomas whose grandfather owned a cotton farm in Alabama. "Today I can't even get a small business loan."

'If you owed the government ...'
In late January, nearly 400 black farmers, most of them elderly, overflowed a conference room at historic Tuskegee University for a legislative briefing by U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham. They were angry and confused, listening intently to what Davis had to say.

"The number of foreclosures and defaults has been staggeringly high," Davis explained. "And the number of black farmers is a fraction of what it used to be. If you owed the government money, it would have collected by now."

Last November, Davis introduced a bill, HR348, or the African American Farmers Benefits Relief Act of 2005, that would re-open the Pigford case. The bill seeks to:

Make sure farmers receive timely notice of deadlines using African American media outlets to notify farmers;

Let farmers who didn't meet deadlines file a claim;

Require the USDA to release regional information on loans -- such as the number of loans approved, the number denied, and disbursement dates to create transparency in the process and a method to prove discrimination;

Appoint a third party to monitor the administrative process; and

Have a process where banks can stay a foreclosure until farmers have a chance to prove their claim.
Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney also has introduced a bill re-opening the Pigford case, but Davis' bill is more specific, targeting those who've been labeled "late filers" by the USDA.
"I think folks who work with black farmers would argue they deserve more and better, and they should have a case to seek re-dress again," Zabawa said. "Davis' point is that, given the makeup of the Congress right now, chances are zero."

Thomas Burrell, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association told BlackAmericaWeb: "The movement will not take hold until leadership takes charge. We are hoping that, through Davis, this issue for black farmers that has been in limbo will now be re-ignited, and black farmers can recover the compensation they are due."

People are weary
Berniece Atchison falls into the "late filer" category, despite her meticulous record-keeping and correspondence with attorneys.

"They set us up to fail," she said, producing documents that show the claim facilitator sent critical information weeks late, after meetings were held to help the farmers file claims. "Farmers have lost so much. There have been heart attacks, strokes, families have split up -- all because the USDA deprived them of due process."

The real damage, she explained, comes from the USDA's failure to notify farmers in rural areas.

Obie Beal, a vegetable farmer in Georgia, maintains that his constitutional rights have been violated. He's been attending meetings like the one in Tuskegee since 2000 and has seen "no movement."

"The bill (Davis) is proposing is too weak," Beal said matter-of-factly. "And the USDA will probably challenge it in court and defeat it -- if it passes. People are weary and don't trust the U.S. government anymore."

Many railed against lawyers involved in the case. Davis defended them, saying the lawyers were never paid. If they had been, Davis said, they could have done a better investigation, found more resources, and notified the farmers in a better, more timely way.

A year ago, J.L. Chestnut, one of the leading attorneys on the case, spoke at an annual farmers conference held by the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.

"When people have been ruined by their government, it is hard for them to believe that this government now wants to help them," Chestnut said. "I suspect, but don't know, that for every black farmer who thought he had a chance to recover money and join the lawsuit, there were at least one or two others who didn't and walked away from it. I suspect that there are farmers who really didn't get notice no matter how much advertising we did."

Like Atchison, Sue Willy Seltzer was also a late filer and was denied any restitution. She thinks the bill is a good idea, although it comes too late to save her farm.

Mitchell James, a Tuskegee graduate, had 79 acres of land -- a "good-sized farm" growing cotton.

"It's deeper than all this," he said referring to Davis' bill. Though he hopes the bill will pass, James remains skeptical, believing the people within the government agency conspired against him. "They froze me out," he said of his dealings with the local arm of the USDA.

"I have a degree in agriculture and they wouldn't give me credit," he added. "Social attitudes have led to injustice. Change will only come after the fact."

Source: http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=1357