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Vol. 71/No. 9      March 5, 2007

 
National Black Land Loss Summit held in N. Carolina
 
BY SAM MANUEL  
WHITAKERS, North Carolina—The 2007 farm bill and the plight of African American farmers was the focus of the Ninth National Black Land Loss Summit held here February 16-18. Most of the 30 people who attended included organizers of nonprofit groups assisting farmers, alternative and organic farm organizations, and former officials of the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A handful of farmers also took part.

Lloyd Wright, a former USDA civil rights director, presented several provisions the group proposes be added to the 2007 farm bill. These include a moratorium on foreclosures on Black-owned farms; making loans available for Blacks newly entering or reentering farming; funding for access to energy, including for fuel, electricity, and refrigeration; and increasing Black farmers' access to markets previously denied to them.

Carrie Hawkins of Macon, North Carolina, came to the meeting because she is taking over the family farm raising hogs and goats. "We will keep fighting to keep our farm," Hawkins told the Militant. The USDA initiated foreclosure proceedings against her family in the early 1980s, she said. "My father was part of the Pigford case, which helped us to keep the farm."

Hawkins was referring to the class action suit Pigford v. Glickman. Farmers filed this legal action Aug. 28, 1997, charging the USDA with racist discrimination in loans and other services between 1981 and 1996. On April 14, 1999, a federal court issued a consent decree settling the case, in which the government admitted to such practices. Those that could provide minimal proof of bias would receive a $50,000 tax-exempt payment, debt relief, and preference for future loans. Of the 94,000 farmers filing such claims, some 86 percent have been denied compensation, mostly for filing claims after stringent deadlines, which Washington imposed without adequate notice.

Robert Jones's father lost most of the family's 100-acre farm due to debts. "We have 35 acres left of which I am only able to farm on two acres at present," Jones said. He said the proposal to assist those returning to farming is important.

Conference organizer Gary Grant, who is also the president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA), announced that BFAA and other farm groups are also planning a Town Hall rally in Washington, D.C., on August 29, the 10th anniversary of the filing of Pigford v. Glickman.  
 
 
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