BY KEN MORGAN AND STU SINGER
TILLERY, North Carolina, - The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) announced an agreement January 5 to settle
the class-action lawsuit brought by thousands of Black farmers
charging the department with decades of racist discrimination.
The consent decree is an attempt to end the historic suit
against the USDA. It was scheduled to go to trial February 1.
The settlement, which has received widespread media coverage,
is an acknowledgment by the government of the truth of claims
by Black farmers that they were illegally denied loans and
access to USDA programs.
Under the agreement, the USDA may have to pay as much as $300 million depending on how many Black farmers meet the terms of the consent decree. Many Black farmers say the settlement is inadequate and it does not address the continuing discrimination by the Agriculture Department. They say it will not reverse the drastic decline in the number of Black farmers.
"It's a settlement, not justice," said farm leader Gary Grant at a meeting of Black farmer activists January 6 in this northeastern North Carolina town. The meeting mapped out plans to protest the settlement, including a call for a national demonstration at the federal courthouse in Washington on March 2 when a "fairness hearing" is scheduled on the consent decree.
"This is not just a fight about money. This is about justice. We are our brother's keeper. I'm not ready to roll over. The same people who took the land from us are still in these offices," said Eddie Slaughter, a Georgia farmer and vice president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA). BFAA scheduled a national meeting for February 20 in North Carolina to map out plans around the lawsuit and future activities.
The outline of the settlement was reported by lawyers for the farmers at three contentious meetings in late October in Selma, Alabama; Pine Bluff, Arkansas and Durham, North Carolina. But no written copy or summary of the deal was presented, at least to the large majority of farmers, prior to the settlement agreement.
The settlement agreement offers Black farmers cash payments of $50,000, a payment of 25 percent of that to the Internal Revenue Service to cover taxes, and wiping out of debts owed to the USDA. The settlement provides no relief from debt owed to private lenders that farmers obtained when they could not get government loans.
Black farmers who have an active discrimination case or those who file an affidavit that names specific individuals in the USDA who denied them loans will be eligible for the payment. Farmers who claim greater damages will be required to have extensive documentation of discrimination and have to stake their claim on an all or nothing gamble to be decided in a non-appealable arbitrator's decision.
Lawyers for the farmers are awarded a down payment of $1 million to be paid within 20 days and "reasonable fees, costs and expenses."
Agriculture Secretary Glickman described the settlement as "closing a painful chapter" in USDA history. "We do not admit or deny any of the specific allegations in the lawsuit," he said, "but the fact that we are settling with a significant amount of money does indicate that we believe there is substantial liability."
No actions are to be taken against any of the USDA officials who have carried out the racist discrimination. They will stay in place with the same ability to delay and deny loans to Black farmers. "We'll face the same racist bigots as before in the county agriculture offices, with their hangman's nooses and confederate flags," Gary Grant told a TV reporter in Tillery.
Private creditors will be on the $50,000 payments "like flies on sugar," as one farmer put it. And even for farmers who do not have much private debt, $50,000 does not go far in making up for losses from foreclosures and bankruptcies. A new tractor alone can cost $100,000.
"We're being sold again into slavery," Eddie Slaughter said. "A fair solution would allow me to go into court and present my case. I'm not going to fight this on my own. There is great discontentment from farmers I've talked to in Georgia, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Without a fight, our future is nothing but debt slaves to the USDA."
According to federal statistics, in 1920 some 14 percent of farms in the United States were owned by Blacks. By 1992, the number had plummeted to 18,816 or less than 1 percent. Hundreds of Black farmers filed complaints with the federal government over the past 15 years stating they were routinely denied aid automatically granted to whites. Many times their applications for government aid were rejected with racist remarks.
Over the last several years Black farmers began to organize protests and demand government action. The current stage of the fight by the Black farmers began with a demonstration outside the White House in Washington in December 1996.
After that demonstration the secretary of agriculture, Daniel Glickman, agreed to a temporary moratorium on farm foreclosures against Black farmers claiming discrimination and a series of "listening sessions" were set up in a number of cities in January 1997 to hear reports from farmers about discrimination they suffered. The booklet the USDA published about those "listening sessions," Civil Rights at the US Department of Agriculture, a report by the Civil Rights Action Team, confirmed the charges by farmers who are Black, women, Chicano, Puerto Rican, and Native American about blatant discrimination against them by the USDA.
Farmers filed two suits against the USDA, Pigford v. Glickman and Brewington v. Glickman. In September, 1998 a report by the inspector General of the USDA reported that discrimination at USDA was an ongoing problem, even after repeated assurances by Glickman that they were a thing of the past. A month later Federal Judge Paul Friedman certified the plaintiffs as a class, an important victory for the farmers and a blow to the USDA defense.
BFAA activists are available to speak before farmer, union, and community groups. The BFAA can be reached at 252-826-3244 in Tillery, North Carolina.
Stu Singer is a member of United Transportation Union Local 454.