BY STU SINGER AND CHARLOTTE HERNÁNDEZ
WASHINGTON, D.C. - About 200 people demonstrated outside the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) here April 23, protesting the government agency's discrimination against farmers who are Black. They then packed into and testified at a hearing on the subject called by the Congressional Black Caucus. US secretary of agriculture Daniel Glickman and other top USDA officials participated in the hearing.

"If you don't fight, you won't get anywhere," said 15- year-old James Evans, from Tillery, North Carolina. Evans and a number of other high school students took the day off from school to join the protest.

John Boyd, a farmer from southeastern Virginia who is the president of the National Black Farmers Association, told the rally and the congressional hearing that in spite of the USDA's announcement of a temporary moratorium on farm foreclosures, "There have been 1,000 foreclosures since the moratorium in December. Only 200 discrimination cases have been settled, of the 1,800 on file. This is an insult to all of us."

Lucius Abrams, a fourth-generation farmer from Keysville, Georgia, pointed out how difficult it was for farmers to come to this demonstration because it was at the height of planting season. He also described some problems caused by the delays Black farmers face in receiving federal loan money. "When the money is late it means you plant late. We've had to do that for the last 4 or 5 years. Late planting means we get lower yield from the crop and that affects future subsidy payments and crop insurance. But you still have to pay interest on the loan starting from when you filed for it."

At the hearing Glickman acknowledged that the foreclosures had continued after his December moratorium announcement. He said USDA would now require that when a civil rights complaint was filed, the foreclosure process would be frozen. Glickman offered no immediate money for spring planting. He said the Department was out of money and had to get more from Congress.

He did not announce any steps to speed up processing civil rights complaints, but boasted about two recent settlements awarded to Black farmers with long-standing discrimination complaints and offered that "all complaints that can be resolved by our June 6 goal, will be."

"Not just Black farmers are suffering," Boyd told the crowd at the rally. "Small farmers across the nation are suffering. But when you add on the 130 years of discrimination, we've been last for the USDA. We need the power to open the doors of the last plantation," as many farmers describe the Department of Agriculture.

Several white farmers who have joined the National Black Farmers Association participated in the demonstration, including Mike Newcomb from Chase City, Virginia. Newcomb's farm is near Boyd's. He said he joined the group to protest the favoritism shown by the USDA to the big farmers.

Kay Gannis, a farmer from South Carolina who is white, spoke at the rally and described her farm being foreclosed by the Farmers Home Administration, a division of the Department of Agriculture. "I would like to see the USDA and the FMHA completely put out of business. They're a bunch of greedy land hogs, and they cheat Black farmers, Hispanic farmers and us too, anybody that is poor."

A contingent of 11 workers, members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) in Greensboro, North Carolina, participated in the demonstration. Black farm leader Gary Grant from Tillery, North Carolina, spoke at their union meeting the week before. Grant welcomed them to the demonstration and urged other unions to join with the Black farmers. "This is for all working people," he said.

Stu Singer is a member of the United Transportation Union. M.J. Rahn, a member of UNITE from Greensboro, and Joshua Carroll a member of the Young Socialists from Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.  
 
 
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