Dison described his group’s campaign to reopen the lawsuit. This was the first meeting here for BFAA, Inc., which has held similar meetings in other cities.

A flyer publicizing the event featured the slogan “Tell Bush ‘nem to make Ann ‘nem pay Tim ‘nem.” The “‘nem” is a popular reference to et al. Ann Venemen is the head of the USDA under the George W. Bush administration. Timothy Pigford is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the USDA. Dison said that BFAA, Inc., is campaigning to change or overturn the consent decree that settled the lawsuit in 1999 under the William Clinton administration.

In 1997 several suits by farmers to protest racist discrimination by the USDA were consolidated into the Pigford v. Glickman class action suit. Daniel Glickman was the U.S. secretary of agriculture under Clinton. On April 14, 1999, a federal judge issued the consent decree, which farmers agreed to based on provisions for a tax-exempt $50,000 payment to those who could provide minimal proof of discrimination, and for forgiveness of outstanding debts owed to the USDA. The decree also promised priority on future loan requests to farmers who had been discriminated against in the past. But that’s not what has taken place.

“The vast majority of Black farmers,” Dison said, “were unjustly denied, deliberately misled, or simply never informed as to their options in the consent decree. We want Timothy Pigford as well as all others who are owed money under the consent decree to be paid in full.”

The BFAA leader asked those in the audience for a show of hands if they had qualified in either Track A or Track B, the two choices for participation in the USDA settlement that the farmers could opt for. Only a few hands went up among the 70 people present. Dison then asked how many had been denied a settlement. Many raised their hands.

Dison discussed the meaning of the slogan “40 acres and mule”—the promise given to Blacks and other farmers that they would get land and means to till it—during Radical Reconstruction following the U.S. Civil War, and the imposition of legal segregation in the South, known as Jim Crow, following defeat of Radical Reconstruction, through the struggle against racism today. The BFAA leader noted that 925,000 Black farmers owned 16 million acres of land in 1910. Today, he said, this number has been reduced to about 26,000 farmers who own just over 2 million acres of land.

The Pigford v. Veneman case covers only documented cases of abuses against Black farmers from 1981 on, Dison said, thus disregarding decades of racist land grabbing and denial of credit.

During the discussion period many family members of farmers now deceased came forward with stories of the fight to save their farms. Farmers from Matagorda and Washington counties in Texas, and Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, were also in attendance. One farmer from Bay City, Texas, said that he supported any effort to get justice for farmers who are Black. “I came up to see how we can move this forward,” he said. “The USDA has been getting away with murder from years ago and we have to keep fighting this.”

Dison stressed the need to press the legal fight through the courts for a reopening of the settlement. To bolster its case for reopening the suit, BFAA, Inc., has prepared a questionnaire to gather information on the extent of the USDA denial of even the paltry $50,000 Track A claim, and those wrongly turned down after filing for the more substantial restitution under Track B claims. Everyone there was asked to sign up as members of BFAA, Inc., to join the class action suit campaign whether or not they are actively farming or were previously denied settlement claims by the government. Those with parents now deceased who farmed during that period also were encouraged to join the fight.

Anthony Dutrow, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Congress in the state’s 7th C.D. in Houston, explained why the SWP places immediate relief to working farmers on the party’s national campaign platform. “Workers and farmers face the same enemies and can be united to defeat them,” he told the meeting. “My campaign calls for stopping farm foreclosures, and demands government-funded cheap credit for working farmers and price supports to cover production costs.”

Dutrow continued, “Although capitalism profits from exploiting all working farmers, it’s clear from the racist practices exposed by the suit against the USDA that not all farmers have been treated equally.

“The USDA hoped the 1999 settlement would brush this history of racist discrimination under the rug. Clearly, all working people in hearing these facts and the dismal record of the USDA in settling with only a fraction of the affected farmers can join in offering solidarity in this effort. I will use my campaign toward that goal.”

After the meeting ended, most of those filing out of the church took copies of the SWP campaign platform and some stayed for further discussion with supporters of the socialist campaign.  
 
 
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