Vol. 80/No. 28      August 1, 2016

 

Black farmers still losing land, says protest in DC

 
WASHINGTON — Some 25 farmers and supporters from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma and North Carolina protested in front of the U.S. Supreme Court July 8, in solidarity with hog farmers Eddie and Dorothy Wise and to highlight discrimination against Black farmers. The Wises were evicted from their 106-acre farm near Whitakers, North Carolina, Jan. 20 by several county sheriffs and 14 federal marshals armed with assault rifles.

The Wises took out loans to buy the farm in 1996 and eventually built it up to raise 250 hogs. In 2012 their loan request was turned down. The Wises told the court that U.S. Department of Agriculture loan managers had approved farm operating plans of “similarly situated white Caucasian livestock farmers” and that racism was behind the rejection.

The USDA filed suit in 2014 to foreclose on the farm, saying that the Wises owed $530,000 in principal and more than $60,000 in interest. The Wises’ attempt to win a hearing and debt relief were denied.

The Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association reports that the Wise farm was sold in auction in April.

At a 2008 meeting of Black farmers in Whitakers, attended by the Militant, Eddie Wise spoke on a panel discussing what is known as the Pigford Consent Decree, the settlement of a class-action lawsuit that challenged discrimination by the USDA. The government agreed to end discriminatory practices in loans and to compensate farmers who had been previously denied. More than 80,000 Black farmers filed for redress.

But even after the settlement, Wise told the panel, “If they see you coming, and you’re Black, the answer is still no.”

“Equal justice under the law does not exist for Blacks and poor people,” Eddie Slaughter, president of the American Agriculturalist Association, said at the July 8 rally.

“We are still losing land,” said Gary Grant, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.

Others speaking at the rally included Cory Lee of the Cowtown Foundation; Laurence Lucas, former president of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees; and Bernice Atchison, president of the Black Farmers Association of Chilton County, Alabama.  
 
 
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