BY STU SINGER
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Three hundred Black farmers and their
supporters from 23 states packed the largest courtroom in the
Federal Courthouse here October 13 for the latest hearing in
their $3 billion lawsuit against decades of racist
discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The farmers had just won an important ruling. Citing a pattern of discrimination by the Agriculture Department, Federal District Court judge Paul Friedman ruled October 9 in favor of a motion by lawyers for the 600 Black farmers already involved in the suit that they represent a class. Since the suit began, the government has sought to avoid this.
Michael Sitcov, lead attorney for the government, spent most of his effort during the three-and-a-half-hour hearing October 13 continuing to argue that the Black farmers' cases should be tried individually. The government has also dragged its feet in a court-ordered effort to settle the cases through mediation. Sitcov argued that the Black farmers should only be allowed to sue under the provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act. Under that law, even if the farmers won the suit their cases would be sent back to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for administrative review.
Judge Friedman responded, "I gave you a chance to mediate this case and you only settled eight cases.... Sending this case back to the Agriculture Department of all places wouldn't be rational."
The government's foot-dragging was denounced by one of the farmers' attorneys, J. L. Chestnut from Selma, Alabama. Chestnut accused the federal government of carrying out a strategy of delay. Thousands more Black farmers have been driven off the land since the suit was filed. Chestnut reported that in that period "many plaintiffs have had to declare bankruptcy, 60 percent have had to downsize their operations, and one farmer committed suicide. Delay is a death knell to us." His remarks drew loud applause in the courtroom.
David Howard, a farmer from Tchula, Mississippi, commented, "Just like Mr. Chestnut said, they want to stall us until we break."
`Proud we're sticking together'
At a brief rally and news conference on the steps of the
courthouse after the hearing, one of the leaders of the fight,
Gary Grant from Tillery, North Carolina, said, "We're here
today and they can't get rid of us. This comes out of
centuries of racist oppression and the refusal to see Blacks
as equal human beings."
Tim Pigford, a North Carolina farmer who was one of the original plaintiffs, told the rally, "I'm proud we're sticking together." The government attorney singled Pigford out during the hearing, urging the judge to drop his case from the suit because Pigford had previously gone to other courts to protest the loss of his land.
The October 9 ruling opens the way for thousands of Black farmers who filed discrimination complaints against the USDA between January 1983 and Feb. 21, 1997 to be brought into the suit. Pointing to the national implications of the victory the farmers' lead attorney, Alexander Pires, explained, "This decision makes this the largest civil rights suit ever."
At a meeting of about 150 in a nearby hotel after the hearing, the farmers discussed the next stage in this fight. This will include an advertising campaign on television, in newspapers, on radio, and in the Black media to invite other Black farmers and former farmers to join the suit.
The ruling recognizing the plaintiffs as a class followed an October 1 report by the Agriculture Department's inspector general that described the USDA's civil rights office as "in disarray" and "making little attempt to correct the mistakes of the past." As of September 11 the report found 616 backlogged discrimination complaints, many ignored for years.
Decades of blatant discrimination
The Black farmers' suit against the government results
from decades of blatant discrimination by the Agriculture
Department, especially in denying loans. Numerous public
hearings and studies, including by the Agriculture Department
itself, have documented these practices, which have resulted
in driving tens of thousands of Black farmers off the land.
This stage of the fight by Black farmers began with a demonstration outside the White House in December 1996. At every stage the initiative to continue and deepen the fight has come from the farmers themselves. Farm leader Eddie Slaughter from Buena Vista, Georgia, explained as he was walking out of the courtroom, "We did this, getting this far."
According to the USDA figures, farms owned or run by Blacks declined from 925,000 in 1920, 14 percent of all farms, to 18,000 in 1992, 1 percent of all farms.
Most farm loans from USDA are approved through county committees of the Farm Service Administration. Farmers in the county elect these committees, but there are virtually no Black farmers on any of them. One Black farmer after another described these committees as vehicles for favoritism, cronyism and discrimination.
For example, Percy Gooch, Jr. from Princeton, Indiana, described how his family recently lost their land and house at a government auction. Their land was divided up and sold at ridiculously low prices to white landowners anxious to get control of coal and oil deposits.
Lester Bonner, a farmer from Dinwiddie County, Virginia, said he was denied a loan again this year. "The lending board is all white," he pointed out. Sherman Witcher, from Franklin County, Virginia, recently lost his farm as a result of numerous loan denials.
The October 13 federal court hearing was to argue out motions by the government designed to end the suit and avoid or delay the trial, scheduled for Feb. 1, 1999. The judge heard arguments but made no new rulings.
Stu Singer is a member of the United Transportation Union in Washington, D.C. Sam Manuel contributed to this article.