Participants in the meeting unanimously supported a resolution demanding a moratorium on foreclosures by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against farmers who have been victims of the agency’s racist policies.

About 100 farmers and their supporters attended the meeting of the federation, which was formed as part of the fight for civil rights in the 1960s and to back farmers who are Black fighting to hold onto their land. Farmers at the gathering came from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Texas.

“They don’t pay any attention to the small farmer,” said Shelton Cooper, 58, from Louisville, Mississippi. “By the time they get around to us they have spent all the money on the big farmers,” he said in summing up his experience with the Department of Agriculture. Cooper has managed to purchase 20 head of cattle and wants to break into cattle farming. He has not heard anything from the USDA regarding the loan he applied for over a year ago in order to expand his herd and acreage. Cooper said he had come to the meeting to get some help in his fight.

David Jefferson, 61, also from Louisville, grows a variety of vegetables on a 40-acre farm. He was denied a loan in 1979 and never received an explanation. “Nothing is going to change as long as the same people who discriminate are still in charge,” said Jefferson. He said he was not surprised to find that so many farmers had their claims of discrimination denied by the government.

Jefferson was referring to the 1999 settlement of the Pigford v. Glickman class action suit by farmers against racist discrimination by the USDA. Daniel Glickman was U.S. secretary of agriculture in the Clinton administration. The settlement provided a tax-exempt $50,000 payment to those who could provide minimal proof of discrimination, and forgiveness of outstanding debts owed to the USDA. It also promised these farmers priority on future loan requests.

During a panel on the Pigford case, attorney Rose Sanders said only 13,000 claims have been approved. Another 65,000 were denied on the grounds that they were filed late. The Federation is lobbying Congress to pass legislation that would allow those cases to be heard.

Federation director Ralph Paige told the meeting that “more than 500 Black farmers are under extreme threat of foreclosures that will result in the loss of 100,000 acres of farmland.” Many of these farmers are claimants in Pigford whose claims of racial discrimination by the USDA were denied. Participants in the meeting voiced a resounding “aye!” in approving the resolution calling for a moratorium on foreclosures.

Vernon Parker, assistant secretary of agriculture for civil rights, told the meeting the USDA is taking steps to address farmers’ concerns, including by appointing “minority advisers” to the department’s field offices. He also touted a 2004 agreement signed between the USDA and Marriott International to purchase produce from these farmers for the hospitality industry.

Paige announced plans by the farmers to attend an August 25 “Listening Forum” on the 2007 farm bill at Tuskegee University, where Secretary of Agriculture Michael Johanns is scheduled to speak.  
 
 
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