Publisher’s Note: In 2021, this website made a deliberate attempt to get closer the Black Farmer movement and educate our staff and the people who visit this website on the plight of the Black farmers. Personally speaking, this has been an emotional roller coaster. I’ve felt sad, disgusted, angry, perplexed, baffled and hurt. Are any of those words and feelings positive? The answer is NO! I can only imagine how Black farmers and their families and supporters feel. If you are new to this issue, or thought that the USDA had already “done the right thing,” scroll down and watch the video below. “I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice,” is a documentary that chronicles the injustices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also known as ‘the last plantation,’ and the lived experiences of Black farmers who chose to fight against discrimination.
This website is committed to sharing as much information as we can in the pursuit of justice for Black farmers. We have a section on the site dedicated to the sharing information on the plight of the Black Farmers and we sponsor the website JusticeForBlackFarmers.com.
Gary A. Johnson, Founder & Publisher (Black Men In America.com)
Michael Stovall got involved in the campaign for justice for Black farmers in 1996. He and other Black farmers are still fighting USDA today. On August 25th, Stovall plans to attend a town hall in Jackson, MS, with Dr. Cornel West. Dr. West is the only candidate for president who has taken up the cause of Black farmers.
Click Here To Help Micheal Stovall
(Click here to watch a conversation with Dr. Cornel West here.)
Click Here To Read Michael Stovall’s Story.
Click Here To Listen To and See A Name and A Face of A Black Farmer
Season 1 Episode 1: This broadcast features host Lawrence Lucas, Black farmers Michael Stovall, Corey Lea and advocate Dr. Waymon Hinson. To learn more about the plight of the Justice for Black Farmers group and their battle with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) visit the Justice For Black Farmers website at www.justiceforblackfarmers.com.
Season 1 Episode 1: This broadcast features host Lawrence Lucas, Black farmers Michael Stovall, Corey Lea and advocate Dr. Waymon Hinson. To learn more about the plight of the Justice for Black Farmers group and their battle with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) visit the Justice For Black Farmers website at www.justiceforblackfarmers.com. The extended version of this broadcast is below.
Season 1 Episode 1: (Extended Version) This broadcast features host Lawrence Lucas, Black farmers Corey Lea and Michael Stovall with advocate Dr. Waymon Hinson. T o learn more visit the Justice For Black Farmers website.
Stay Current with the Justice for Black Farmers Movement with Lawrence Lucas on Spotify
Click Here To Listen To and See A Name and A Face of A Black Farmer
Farmer Facts
The number of black farmers in America peaked in 1920, when there were 949,889. Today, of the country’s 3.4 million total farmers, only 1.3%, or 45,508, are black, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture in 2019. By comparison, 95% of US farmers are white.
A Name and a Face (In Support of the Black Farmer)
Black farmers and their families have endured a different kind of suffering than other farmers.
It’s not that people don’t care about the plight of Black farmers. They can’t make a connection. How many of us know a full-time Black farmer? Someone who farms for a living? Unless you personally know a Black farmer, you don’t have a link or emotional connection…until NOW!
Why Is It Important To Give A Voice To Black Farmers?
As the creator of this website and the owner of several social media platforms, I feel it is my responsibility to use these platforms to educate the public on the plight of the American Black farmer. In order to understand their plight, we have to listen to their story. When I say “listen,” I mean listen for clarity.
These are real people who are losing their land, had it taken away and are suffering in a way that the average person probably cannot understand.
How many of us know a full-time Black farmer? Someone who farms for a living. Unless you personally know a Black farmer, you don’t have a clue to their suffering…until NOW! You can’t say that you don’t know because the resources are within a “mouse click” away.
Lawrence-Lucas-Letter-to-President-Joe-Biden-Call-for-Systemic-Change-at-USDA.pdf
Dear Congressionals, Are You Listening? By Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.
March 14, 2023
Dear Senators and Representatives:
I am contacting you via phone and mail since you represent citizens of the State of _____and some of its most vulnerable citizens are under attack in Washington, DC by the USDA.
My understanding is that Texas has the most African American farmers of any state. As Black farmers, their cases of malfeasance by employees of the USDA/FSA go back well into the 1960s, and that is just for those farmers who are still alive. Many have died in these battles for justice. That said, the latest Ag Census data indicate that there are 48,697 Black producers in the US and that there are 35,470 Black-operated farms. This document lists the number of Black producers by state: Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee. There has been a significant decline from 1920 where there were upwards of 950,000 Black farmer operators and from 1910 when Black farmers farmed 19 million acres. The losses have been horrendous and much of it is due to the malfeasance of the USDA. These losses from the land and productivity of the land are estimated at $326 billion.
Our specific aim has been to find debt relief and compensatory damages for what is known as the “Pigford Legacy Farmers,” or those who did not find debt relief under Pigford v. Glickman. To this end, a large group of us met in front of the White House on March 1, demonstrating near the anniversary of the Fairness Hearing for the Pigford v. Glickman case before Judge Friedman, March 2, 1999. We believe now, as we believed then, that Pigford was a debacle and that Black farmers were worse off before than after. Pigford promised either a $50K sum plus debt relief under track A, or a sum not determined plus debt relief under Track B. Over 22,000 applied for inclusion in the class, over 15,000 prevailed for inclusion, and only 371 received debt relief. In the face of decades of verifiable discrimination, debt relief is precisely what they wanted and precisely what they did not receive.
One sign from the Demonstration that resonated deeply with me was this one: “We gave you the White House. You gave us Tom Vilsack.”
As we all know, Congress had appropriated 120% of the indebtedness of socially disadvantaged farmer and ranchers within the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. These funds were for debt relief and taxes for those farmers who had suffered discrimination in the farm/services division. However, Secretary Vilsack, in our opinion “slow-walked” the process and allowed 12 white farmer class action law suits to be filed and for two courts to issue restraining orders against the USDA that disallowed them to pay Black farmers and other SDFR.
In fact, many of us protested against Vilsack’s appointment long before he was appointed, but President Biden ignored us. In fact, we participated with the Biden/Harris transition team and were told at one point in the process that what we wanted, “race-based remediation to a historical anti-black process” was “unconstitutional.” We told President Biden and Secretary Vilsack about this.
Then, in 2022, Congress signed the Inflation Reduction Act which made allocations available to “distressed” farmers and ranchers, a race neutral language that circumvented frivolous law suits. In that bill, $3.1 billion was allocated for “distressed” farmers to bring them into compliance with their debts with USDA/FSA for those with guaranteed loans. It also allocated $2.2 billion for farmers who can show that they were discriminated against. The Ag Secretary is slow-walking these processes as well.
At this point, Secretary Vilsack has released $800 million to approximately 11,000 “distressed” farmers and ranchers, and our group, The Justice for Black Farmers Group, can only identify nine Black farmers who have received partial or full relief from their debts. We also are aware that they are receiving 1099s from the IRS. This is reprehensible. Their debts are paid off and now they are under the economic boot of the IRS. We know that there are approximately 3,000 Black farmers whose indebtedness is under $210 million. We think he is “cherry-picking” farmers and that this will enhance his credibility. We are not buying it.
There is much more history to Secretary Vilsack’s acts of malfeasance than we can discuss in one letter. However, my blog outlines a number of matters related to him. We believe that he is owned by Big Ag. In fact, a simple google of funds released to various agencies within Big Ag will validate this point.
There are numerous investigative reports about the failures of USDA to honor its contractual obligations to Black producers, and the consistent theme is that Secretary Vilsack has failed us.
We, therefore, would like for you to stand with us, join in concert with our voices to President Biden, to accept the resignation of Secretary Tom Vilsack, and put in that position someone who can settle these matters once and for all. Black America is watching.
Respectfully,
Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.
Representative, Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association
Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group
Representative, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees
Dear Mr. President:
Surely you agree with me that we live in perilous times with threats from Russia, domestic threats from balloons from China and other places, and threats to democracy here in our own country. While I think you are, by and large, handling those threats well, there is one threat that you, sir, are not handling well, and that is the prompt for this open letter to you.
You are mishandling the Black farmer issue. I am disappointed. I am bitterly disappointed and disillusioned with the manner in which you have handled the Black farmers of our land and their city cousins. Country cousins and city cousins are connected, know each other, and talk to each other.
We were very hopeful back in the day when your campaign looked to be going down the tubes, when Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina stepped up and endorsed you, and we saw the winds of your campaign change. We saw outstanding successes among the Democratic Party in Georgia for both you and Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock.
Then, Mr. President, we began to wince at what some of that change meant. We had fully engaged the campaigns of Senators Warren, Booker, Sanders, and Warnock, and we engaged with Mr. Mike Bloomberg. As the ticket of Biden/Harris won, we then engaged the agriculture transition team. Much to our surprise, the gentleman with whom we had been working on this team and your policies was not actually the person in charge. We realized that former Ag Secretary Thomas Vilsack was pulling strings from behind. We were advocating for changes within the USDA, for accountability and transparency, and for full debt relief for aggrieved Black farmers. Then, in one particular meeting we heard that what we wanted was “unconstitutional.” One of your team members, an attorney, told us that. We were flabbergasted.
Then, we watched with much interest as a variety of people pressed you both publicly and privately not to appoint Tom Vilsack to another term as Secretary of USDA. Much had been written about the failures of his two terms under President Obama, and despite opposition from congressional folk and the NAACP leadership, the Justice for Black Farmers Group, and the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, and others, you nominated him anyway. And then we observed the “love fest” at the senate confirmation hearing and I, for one, was nauseated and alarmed.
We were hopeful despite these things at the beginning of your presidency and now we are not so hopeful. We see where the winds of change have taken us. They have taken us down the road of “Big Ag,” and because of that Vilsack, who is owned by Big Ag, is your Secretary of Ag. We want to know if you indeed are also beholden to Big Ag or is it just Mr. Vilsack. We have our suspicions, and we’d like you to dissuade us of them. We see how Big Ag is getting the major source of funding from USDA. We also see that Vilsack’s favored organizations are getting millions of dollars despite there being no open application process.
What did you miss from the messages of “don’t appoint Vilsack?” When you were making decisions about your cabinet, and what voices did you ignore? What about his previous terms did you respect? What did you anticipate being different under your administration? Were you indebted to Tom Vilsack in some manner?
Surely you know because your team has done its research that he has an incredibly spotty history: a class action suit by Black state employees in Iowa, extreme favoritism of white, corporate Ag, and a racist, dismissive attitude toward socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.
Research about Vilsack has been published in numerous places under numerous names such as Lloyd Wright in the Washington Post, Rosenberg and Stucki in numerous publications where investigations are published, and even me here on this blog.
A painful political cartoon is out in public spaces. It is insulting to you. It shows you as Jim Crow Joe with Black voters in your right hand and Vilsack and Dr. Dwayne Goldmon, his equity advisor, as marionettes on the strings in your left hand. It is insulting and I cringed when I saw it, but the people with whom I work, and respect say that “a picture is worth a thousand words” and have made in public in various social media.
Your appointee knows that we are displeased with him. You know that we are displeased with him. We have written both of you numerous letters. We met with him and members of his team several months back, but he did not listen to us. Instead, he spent a few minutes filibustering as to his accomplishments. That is not why we called the meeting. In a follow up letter we told him so.
We believed that he slow-walked the process under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and by doing so, he allowed time for 12 or 13 class action suits by white farmers to be filed in various courts around the country. My own research into the USDA database shows that not only have they NOT been discriminated against, but that the were very successful at receiving subsidies, MFP, and CFAP funds as well as the counties within which their farms and ranches are located. This research was on the first 6 litigants. There was no need to go any further although the data is there.
Even though the language was modified under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to “distressed” borrowers, from the appearance of things, most of those funds have gone to white borrowers and to very few Black “distressed” borrowers. At last note, Vilsack has wiped out the debts of 11,000 borrowers to the tune of $800M. We know of less than 10 Black farmers who have been recipients of that relief. We have little hope that he will disburse the $2.2B for those have experienced discrimination. We understand that he is actually trying to change the ways the second set of funds is to be managed.
We have it on good evidence that Mr. Vilsack thinks that distributing millions to favored organizations for technical assistance and to 1890s have been good for Black farmers. He is misguided and his assertions are insulting. Until Black farmers receive relief for the USDA’s blatant malfeasance and discrimination toward them, injustice and injury will continue to live on.
As you may recall, it was Black farmers who reluctantly formed the Class Action Suit, Pigford v. Glickman. Only 4.8% of those successful litigants received debt cancellation. Those Black farmers have continued to vote for Democratic presidents only to see their hopes for remedies to USDA’s discrimination dashed on the shores of Washington DC. I personally participated in a mediation hearing before USDA and DOJ in 1997 and learned first hand how the federal government treats Black farmers. It was not a pretty sight.
We were hoping to see things different this time. While Senator Warren’s policy for Black farmers was thorough and well publicized, we had to hunt via the internet for your policy. Your policy was less than satisfactory by comparison.
Bottom line, Mr. President, we gave you the White House. You gave us Tom Vilsack.
His racist policies continue. Sadly, you are now implicated in the process. His efforts are only putting lipstick on a pig. We know it’s still a pig.
The Democratic Party did well in the midterms. Congratulations on that. We fear that similar results may not be in the cards for the upcoming general elections. We are suspicious but that your reelection may indeed be hanging on by a thread.
City and country cousins talk to each other. They know how your secretary continues to favor unchecked, corporate Ag to the neglect of Black farmers of the land.
There is time to turn that around, but there is not much time. The clock is ticking.
We are hoping, praying, and demonstrating for a better day. We hope you will meet us in those spaces of hope, prayer, and conversation.
Respectfully,
To Whom Should This Post be Addressed: Biden, Vilsack, the CBC, or the People?
By Dr. Waymon Hinson
We have come a long way from there to here and we have actually gone nowhere. It’s like we are running in place, or maybe stuck in quick sand. Listening in on blog talk radio with Lawrence Lucas, Ramsess, Michael Stovall, Carolyn Jones, and Frank Taylor reminded me of how far we’ve not come the last 100 years plus and the obstacles the USDA puts in our way.
Early on, complaints had been filed for decades to the USDA Office of Civil Rights, but to no avail. Sadly enough, President Reagan essentially closed down this office in 1981, and the complaints were just tossed into the garbage can or at best, filed or maybe mis-filed, in an out of the way office there in USDA. Former Ag Secretary Michael Espy confirmed this in an interview with him.
During the late ’90s, 15 Black farmers settled their cases with the USDA/DOJ. They received compensation for their injuries, debt write-off, and promises of priority services including eligibility for future services. The documentary done by Shoun Hill and Waymon Hinson chronicles those stories, of 9 of those 15 Black farmers along with other key persons. The settlements were very uneven, all, in my opinion, due to the meddling of the Office of General Counsel.
My opinion is that the USDA and DOJ realized that serious allegations from Black farmers were coming, so a combination of events and people resulted in another debacle called the Pigford Class Action Suit. Unfortunately, the attorneys waived discovery which led to more pain and suffering. In short, 22,551 applied for Track A and 15,645 prevailed. They received $50K and promises of debt relief. At the end of the day, only 371 actually received debt relief. It was a bad deal for Black farmers who just wanted to farm and to hold on to their land. Large numbers of Black farmers lost their farms, their families, and their health. Many have passed on to the ancestors. We know many of them. With each death, we are sucker-punched. Some filed under Track B, and a few prevailed there. Then, later, Pigford II was opened, and, again, a few prevailed there, but not many. Who actually got the money from those two class action suits? The attorneys, but that’s a story for another day.
For a summary of these events, check out what I wrote back in 2018. More details are found there.
Our efforts since then have been consistently oriented toward justice for this group of Black farmers. We have not hesitated one iota.
When Senator Warren declared in 2018 that Black land loss was a function of heirs property, that Black people did not have clear titles to their land, had not paid their taxes, and other matters, we protested directly to her. We respectfully declared that the USDA was the culprit in Black land loss. She and her team believed us. As she was a candidate for the presidency, she spelled out a strong policy for Black farmers.
Although she was not elected, she continued to advocate for Black farmers. Along with other senators, she crafted the Justice for Black Farmers Actof 2020, knowing that under President Trump, it would not see the light of day, and that it would be resubmitted to congress the first year after his presidency ended.
The Justice for Black Farmers Group was formed.
And Booker, Warren, Warnock, and others worked on it. But it never was passed into law.
Instead, various features of the Bill were moved into the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 with the assistance of Senator Warnock. Within that bill was debt relief for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers to the tune of 120%. Here is that text: “The Secretary shall provide a payment in an amount up to 120 percent of the outstanding indebtedness of each socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher as of January 1, 2021, to pay off the loan directly or to the socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher (or a combination of both), on each” direct loans or guaranteed loans.
We have accused Secretary Tom Vilsack of slow-walking implementation procedures which allowed 12 class action suits of white farmers across the country to scream out “reverse discrimination.” This article lines out the key dates from Warnock’s introduction of the Emergency Relief Act on March 3, 2021 up until the first judge issued a restraining order on June 10, 2021. Given that we live in the computer age and that the USDA has an internal system that covers all relevant information on farmers of all colors, it is apparent that Vilsack’s dallying at the door allowed these white farmers enough time to gather up their attorneys, one of whom had worked in the Trump White House and was in charge of developing his immigration policies. While they hollered out “reverse discrimination,” a perusal of the USDA data for subsidies and other benefits for farmers and ranchers, shows that the first six litigants were not only NOT discriminated against, they were huge beneficiaries of the USDA’s generosity in terms of subsidies, coronavirus relief funds, and Trump’s failed tariff war with China. The numbers are quite staggering both for the farmers and ranchers themselves and the counties within which they are located.
After the USDA opted not to fight these lawsuits aggressively in court, other lawsuits were filed included a couple by the Cowtown Foundation out of Tennessee. Those are still lingering in the judge’s chambers apparently.
Also, the Senate got busy under the leadership of Booker, Warnock, and others, and submitted pieces within the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. This time around, apparently in an effort to thwart the efforts of attorneys and folks from the previous Bill, the language was changed to “distressed” borrowers. The criteria for “distressed” was left to the discretion of Secretary Vilsack. $3.1B were allocated for this group of farmers and ranchers. Additionally, $2.2B were allocated to compensate for discriminatory actions on the part of USDA if that could be proven. It can without a doubt.
What is missing from this piece of legislation just as it was in the previous legislation is that of tax burdens. If a farmer/rancher receives “payments,” not debt cancellation or forgiveness, an important distinction, the principle would be taxable, but not the interest. That means that these folks would be receiving 1099s from the IRS, which could set them back even further than they would have.
At this point, we understand that the USDA has provided $800M in payments o 11,000 borrowers, and that step-by-step processes are being initiated for 1,600 borrowers whose cases are more “complicated.”
We have evidence that there are approximately 3,000 Black farmers who are currently indebted to the USDA. We have evidence that the total indebtedness is approximately $210M.
Our network is nation-wide, and at this point, we know of only seven, yes, SEVEN, Black farmers have received “payments” either partially or completely wiping out their debt. There seems to be no particular rhyme or reason as one has received “payments” of $1.4M and another $200K.
We are waiting for the Secretary to inform us as to how the $2.2B for discrimination will be managed. He is obligated by law to appointment one or more non-governmental entities to manage these processes.
Secretary Vilsack is obligated by law to disburse $3.3B to “distressed” farmers regardless of color of skin. We have not evidence that he is doing that for Black farmers. He is obligated by law to designate one or more entities to manage the complications of disbursing $2.2B to those farmers discriminated against.
Black farmers are tired of waiting. They are “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
More on this later, but the Congressional Black Caucus speaks loudly by their silence despite having a variety of means of speaking up for Black farmers.
If you want to hear first hand what the USDA does to Black farmers, scroll down to the bottom of this web page until you see the gentleman in the cotton field. Hit play and for the next 2:30 minutes or so, you’ll hear agonizing stories of what it means to farm while Black in America. This is the trailer for the documentary, “I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against the USDA.”
There is much, much more to this soul wrenching, gut wrenching saga. I just wanted you to be able to read a summary.
In the meantime, what is the Justice for Black Farmers Group doing? Good question. Go to this web page of Acres of Ancestry and to the community archives and you’ll find a substantial group of letters under the signature of Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, and Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group. They are addressed to Secretary Vilsack and to President Biden. You will also find documents to and from other congressional folks.
This letter in the community archives to President Biden contains a lot of links and resources and is a good summary of our efforts and demands.
What are we doing? We are knocking on the White House door, demanding attention from the President. Be sure to see the political satire that we include in this letter. It will move your heart.
We know that his office will forward our correspondence to USDA, which means that we are knocking on the door of Secretary Vilsack. We are demanding justice for Black farmers. We want him gone from USDA. Sooner rather than later is preferred.
We will not be deterred. This is a righteous cause. We will not be deterred.
Dr. Waymon Hinson is a licensed psychologist and marriage and family therapist, a researcher, and an advocate in matters related to social justice. Click here to view his blog “Let Justice Ring.”
Welcome to “A Name and a Face (in support of a Black Farmer).” Watch the videos below and get connected and help the Black farmers get the justice that they have earned and long deserved.
Waymon Hinson is a retired storyteller after 26 years in academics and 8 years with an Indian tribe. He has been involved with the Black Farmer Movement since 1994 as a consultant, author, writer, BFAA board member, and advocate. He currently serves as an advisor for the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and has participated in efforts to shape “The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020.” He has spoken at numerous state, regional, national, and international conferences on matters related to justice. He is also a frequent interviewee on radio broadcasts related to the documentary and the plight of the Black farmer.
About Shoun A. Hill
Shoun Hill is a photographer based in New York City, who is now a visiting professor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Originally from Frederick, MD., Hill began photographing professionally in 1993 for The Gleaner in Henderson, KY., after getting his Master of Arts degree from Ohio University. He has worked as a staff photographer for newspapers in Memphis, Tenn., and Orlando, Fla., as well as, doing internships in Minneapolis, Minn., and Louisville, Ky. While a staff photographer, Shoun photographed Super Bowls, NBA basketball games, and presidential elections. He has also been a part of gallery shows in Ohio, Florida, Illinois and New York.
Watch The Show Below and Learn From Several Black Farmers About Their Current Fight with Our Government Hosted by Harold Bell and Lawrence Lucas (President Emeritus, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees)
“I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice,” is a documentary that chronicles the injustices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also known as ‘the last plantation,’ and the lived experiences of Black farmers who chose to fight against discrimination.
The following 8:00 minute slideshow is for the average American citizen who knows little or nothing about the plight of the Black Farmer. There are things that you should know about the Black farmer and there are reasons why you should care. This video tells a fraction of the story regarding the challenges of the Black farmer. Systemic and pervasive racism, incompetence, broken promises are just a few of the challenges facing Black farmers and their families. This is also an example of “Farming While Black.” Thousands of Black farmers are saddled with debt, have exhausted their savings and lost their farms, eliminating any chance of generational wealth.
For more information visit www.justiceforblackfarmers.com.
Click here to visit the Pigford Legacy Farmer Ancestry Scroll.
Situation: The debt relief program that was in the American Rescue Plan Act last year is on hold. Some farmers say that USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack deliberately took too long to implement the program, allowing opposition groups to organize and file lawsuits. This appears to be another example of the ways in which USDA continues to fail Black farmers.
“Speak The Truth” Special: Challenges and Opportunities Facing The Black Farmers (June 18, 2022)
For this “Speak The Truth” special on the challenges and opportunities facing the Black farmers in America, Host Harold Bell and Moderator Lawrence Lucas as they welcome our special guest Corey Lea, Executive Director of The Cowtown Foundation, Inc. and several Black Farmers including Eddie Slaughter, Andrew Douglas, Michael Stovall, Carl Parker, Rod Bradshaw, and Chris Hilderbrandt. Featured news clips include Sen. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Corey Booker (the Addendum at the end of the video) question US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at the May 26, 2022, Senate Committee Meeting on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry/Opportunities and Challenges Facing Farmers.
An interview with John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers Association, by FOX News host Sean Hannity from May 2022, is shown as part of the Addendum toward the end of the video.
Farming While Black (FWB)
Book Description
Some of our most cherished sustainable farming practices have roots in African wisdom. Yet, discrimination and violence against African-American farmers has led to their decline from 14 percent of all growers in 1920 to less than 2 percent today, with a corresponding loss of over 14 million acres of land. Further, Black communities suffer disproportionately from illnesses related to lack of access to fresh food and healthy natural ecosystems. Soul Fire Farm, co-founded by author, activist, and farmer Leah Penniman, is committed to ending racism and injustice in our food system. Through innovative programs such as the Black-Latinx Farmers Immersion, a sliding-scale farm share CSA, and Youth Food Justice leadership training, Penniman is part of a global network of farmers working to increase farmland stewardship by people of color, restore Afro-indigenous farming practices, and end food apartheid.
And now, with Farming While Black, Penniman extends that work by offering the first comprehensive manual for African-heritage people ready to reclaim their rightful place of dignified agency in the food system. This one-of-a-kind guide provides readers with a concise “how-to” for all aspects of small-scale farming, including:
- Finding Land and Resources
- Writing a Farm Business Plan
- Honoring the Spirits of the Land with Planting and Harvesting Rituals
- Restoring Degraded Land through No-Till and Biological Tillage
- Crop Planning for Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs
- Preserving the Harvest and Saving Seed
- Raising Animals Sustainably and Humanely
- Urban Farming, including a guide to laws and land access
- Movement Building through education, direct action, & policy change
Throughout, Penniman includes “Uplift” sidebars to elevate the wisdom of the African Diasporic farmers and activists whose work informs the techniques described, as well as an honest and transparent look at the real work being done at Soul Fire Farm every day.
“Stewarding our own land, growing our own food, educating our own youth, participating in our own healthcare and justice systems,” Penniman writes, “this is the source of real power and dignity.”
“Farming While Black teaches us the fundamental acts of growing food and growing community.”—Karen Washington, from the foreword
About the Author: Leah Penniman
Founding Co-Director of Soul Fire Farm
Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer/peyizan, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. She co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our ancestral connection to land. As co-Executive Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs – including farmer trainings for Black & Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for people living under food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system. Leah holds an MA in Science Education and BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University, and is a Manye (Queen Mother) in Vodun. Leah has been farming since 1996 and teaching since 2002. The work of Leah and Soul Fire Farm has been recognized by the Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright Program, Omega Sustainability Leadership Award, Presidential Award for Science Teaching, NYS Health Emerging Innovator Awards, and Andrew Goodman Foundation, among others. Her book, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide is a love song to the land and her people.
More info on the Farming While Black website.
For more information visit www.justiceforblackfarmers.com, www.blackmeninamerica.com/black-farmers and www.calculationstalkshow.com.
Publisher’s Note: This article was written by April Simpson and originally published by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative news organization based in Washington, D.C.
After amassing more than $100,000 in debt over more than two decades of farming, a Georgia-based farmer named Denver got welcome news last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers like him would be eligible for a new debt relief program. USDA would pay off certain loans and give him a little extra for tax liabilities.
Denver did not receive a payment. But almost a year later, he received another letter: A notice that USDA intends to take legal action to collect the money he owes the agency. Denver asked the Center for Public Integrity not to use his last name out of fear of retaliation.
“We know that institutional discrimination is systemic within USDA,” said Tracy Lloyd McCurty, Executive Director of the Black Belt Justice Center. “So then the question is, how many other Black farmers around the country are experiencing this and they just don’t know who to reach out to about it?”
How Denver and other farmers like him got here is a confusing mix of bureaucracy, policy choices and litigation. Farmers and advocates fear massive land loss and foreclosures if this legal muddle doesn’t get straightened out. Data the Center for Public Integrity received through a Freedom of Information Act request also suggests that the USDA violated its own promise to suspend debt collections during the pandemic.
But we’ll start from the beginning.
In January 2021, USDA promised it would suspend debt collections, foreclosures and other adverse actions on borrowers with direct farm loans, made between the Farm Service Agency and the borrower, given the economic hardship posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
That decision was followed up by the American Rescue Plan Act. The new law included a $4 billion program to cancel certain farm loan debts farmers of color owe the Farm Service Agency, a USDA sub-agency that provides loans to agricultural producers. The law energized Black and other farmers of color who have long faced discrimination by the department, which has approved access to credit at lower rates and provided inequitable program payments than white farmers received.
Eligible farmers such as Denver received notices from USDA that spelled out exactly how much it would pay to wipe out their debts, including 20% to cover tax liabilities.
As USDA prepared to implement the new law last year, eligible farmers were told they wouldn’t be punished for failing to make payments. So Denver stopped.
But legal challenges from white farmers claiming reverse discrimination were filed in several states. Eventually a federal judge stopped USDA from implementing the program and allowed a class action lawsuit to proceed.
“That’s one of the most heartbreaking situations that I’ve observed in my 30-plus years as a lawyer working with farmers,” said Susan Schneider, director of the LL.M. Program in Agricultural and Food Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law. “The USDA’s enjoined. They can’t really do anything.”
Gary A. Johnson, Publisher (Black Men In America.com)
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Eddie Slaughter, a proud Black farmer about the plight of Black farm owners in America. I don’t know how to describe my emotions after talking with him. Every time I engage any Black farmer, I ask myself, “Why is our government, including our elected officials, the Congressional Black Caucus and other advocates who claim to speak for those allowing this systemic debilitating and negative treatment to exist?”
Slaughter, who comes from a long line of Black farm owners and was determined to not let discriminatory lending practices make him the last.
To learn more about the plight of the Black farmers via the “Acres of Ancestry” video series click here.
Justice For Black Farmers.com Website
Subject: September 2, 2021 Letter to Tom Vilsack and Team
September 2, 2021
- Secretary Thomas Vilsack
- Attention: Chief of Staff, Katherine Ferguson
- Director, FSA, Zach Ducheneaux
- Senior Advisor, Dewayne Goldmon
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- 1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
- Washington, DC 20250
Secretary Vilsack:
As a follow-up to our recent correspondence with you and our meeting with you on May 28, we request another face to face, Zoom-type meeting with you.
While we remain vigilant about things related to debt relief for Black farmers and other socially disadvantaged farmers, our greater concerns lie with the structure of the USDA that continues to perpetuate acts of discrimination against employees of USDA and recipients of programs and services of USDA as well as the ominous threat of foreclosure of family farms. The eradication of any vestiges of racism and the structure that perpetuates racism are concerns at the top of our list.
As has been chronicled in numerous places now for decades, as we all know, both within USDA and on the outside looking in, the system continues to function in the same manner that it did in previous generations. Black farmers in particular continue to bear the brunt of discrimination on the one hand and failure of USDA on the other to compensate them for their loss of land and livelihood. We remain of the opinion that you have the authority to bring about 90% of the administrative changes from The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2021, and that you could do so with the stroke of a pen. We encourage you to do so.
Our other concerns remain in place as we have previously indicated. These are included in the list of fifteen that we lined out for you in our July 23, 2021 letter. They range from the historical mistreatment of Black farmers, to the failures of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), to the absence of a firewall between OCR and the Office of General Counsel (OGC), to the use of Commodity Credit Corporation, and to the absence of accountability, transparency, and independent oversight, and many, many more.
Please have your office contact us to set up the next meeting. We respectfully request that it involve you and your team as well as our representatives, and that it be scheduled for at least one hour.
Respectfully,
- Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus
- USDA Coalition of Minority Employees
- Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group
- www.agcoalition.org
- LawrLCL@aol.com
- 856-910-2399
CC: Justice for Black Farmer Group
Senator Warnock Continues to Battle for Black Farmers
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock may have found a provision in President Biden’s Build Back Better plan that would provide $12 billion in debt relief.
In a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Senator Warnock is trying to find a way to protect Black farmers and all economically distressed farmers from losing their farms by ensuring debt relief. Black farmers are suffering because of systemic discrimination by the USDA.
Zoe Willingham is co-author of a 2019 report on Black farmers for the Center for American Progress. The government’s documented history of denying federal loans to Black farmers led to the loss of about 90 percent of their land between 1910 and 1997, while white farmers lost only about 2 percent. “The first meaningful action for Black farmers is in the federal financial loan forgiveness in the American Rescue Plan,” says Willingham, who credits grassroots farmer groups and strong progressive leaders like Warnock for generating the support in Congress. “It’s been thrilling to see the leadership he’s taken on.”
Almost immediately upon arriving in the Senate, Warnock proposed a stand-alone bill, Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act. Its central component is loan forgiveness, and working with his Democratic colleagues Cory Booker and Ben Ray Lujan, he got the first meaningful action on this long and deep-seated problem of financial relief for Black farmers. “I do hope this is lifted up by Biden as a huge victory,” Willingham told The Daily Beast. “He has highlighted a forgotten segment of rural America, and that is rural communities of color.”
1983, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights described in detail the discrimination against Black farmers, the USDA (Department of Agriculture) settled a lawsuit with Black farmers to pay damages.
Click here to read Sen. Warnock’s letter to Sec. Vilsack.
Letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack, November 22, 2021
- November 22, 2021
- Secretary Thomas Vilsack
- Attention: Chief of Staff, Katherine Ferguson
- Deputy Secretary, Jewel Bronaugh
- Director, FSA, Zach Ducheneaux
- Senior Advisor, Dewayne Goldmon
- Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Margo Schlanger, U.S. Department of Agriculture
- 1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
- Washington, DC 20250
Secretary Thomas Vilsack:
The numbers are harsh and compelling. Whichever way you look at it, land was stolen from Black farmers. In the early 1900s, there were approximately 950,000 Black farmers working approximately 19,000,000 acres. Between 1910 and 1997 we lost 90% of our farm land worth anywhere from $250/350 billion to upwards of $1 trillion dollars. White farmers lost only 2% of their land during that time. Ninety-eight percent of Black agrarians have been dispossessed. Now there are approximately 38,000 Black farmers farming approximately 4.6 million acres. Our farms are smaller than white farmers and our farms produce much smaller income than do white farms. Our people have been victimized by systematic racism and land theft since the days of Reconstruction. There is absolutely no excuse to be had for what US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and others have done to our Black farmers. And now we want immediate systemic fixes to this centuries old problem.
USDA faces a reckoning regarding its long history of discrimination against Black farmers and others. Investigative journalism continues to expose the racist mistreatment of minority farmers, especially Black farmers. Unfortunately, your history as administrator over these complaints remains extremely troubling. Whether as Governor of the State of Iowa (Pippen v. Vilsack, 6,000 Iowa state Black employees file class action) or Secretary, USDA, many of these trends occurred on your watch and they are very revealing.
The most recent articles in Mother Jones (https://www.motherjones.com/food/2021/11/black-farmers-debt-relief-stephen-miller-usda-loans-discrimination) and The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/article/society/black-farmers-pigford-debt) plus numerous radio talk shows and podcasts from such celebrities as Roland Martin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eOV4HULp0Q) and Yvette Carnell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTbYz6oFiQQ) come together. They speak to our opinion that Black farmers continue to experience racism and other wide-spread abuses even though there are false assertions about fixing the civil rights problems at USDA.
We have watched with disbelief and discouragement as a sequence of events played out in a “self-fulfilling prophesy:” a member of the Vilsack agriculture transition team declared that what we wanted, debt relief for Black farmers was “unconstitutional.” We contend that there was an unnecessary length of time spent from Senator Warnock’s two bills, voted into the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and the decision by a Florida judge to issue a temporary restraining order against you…..which stopped relief for Black farmers. Our contention is that you “slow-walked” the processing of these claims with a “process” that went beyond 100 days. We are fully aware that you with the stroke of your pen could have removed the debt that these farmers have suffered because of USDA’s long history of discrimination, not a “process”….but debt relief. Instead, we have white privilege that continues to be a part of USDA landscape at the pain and suffering of Black farmers and others. Trump paid out $16B in allotments to white farmers in a very speedy fashion, and Black farmers received only a very small fraction of those funds. Why for them and not us?
The word of USDA’s maltreatment of Black farmers is now being spread coast to coast, and north and south, via the award-winning documentary, “I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against USDA.” It is being seen in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington, DC, to name a few. People around the country are rightly alarmed that pre-Pigford farmers faced discrimination at the hands of USDA and that it is still ongoing. The trailer for that documentary can be found at: https://blackfarmersinsearchofjustice.film. We invite you to view it.
The Equity Commission will only reveal truths that many of us already know….farmers and USDA employees included. This is another method of side-stepping and not dealing with the culture of systemic racism, sexism, and other civil rights abuses that have haunted USDA for decades. This is discrimination within and of itself.
The evidence resides in the history of internal and external reviews of USDA and the Office of Civil Rights in particular:
- 1965 document by the US Commission on Civil Rights;
- 1982 document by the US Commission on Civil Rights;
- D. J. Miller Report, 1996;
- Civil Rights Action Team Report, February, 1997;
- Civil Rights Implementation Team Report (One Year of Change), March, 1998;
- Commitment to Civil Rights, 2000;
- Jackson Lewis Report, “Civil Rights Assessment,” 2011;
- Harvard Studies and Reports, 2015 and 2021;
- GAO and OIG reports, especially the latest OIG report, September, 2021, which contained “sensitive information that has been redacted for public release due to concerns about the risk of circumvention of the law,” and
- More.
The question must be…..who is looking into and implementing all these recommendations and solutions that have been offered by these very credible organizations.
We can ill afford to wait for an Equity Commission Report in year 2023 that will tell us what we already know. Farmers are losing their land, dying, losing wealth, and experiencing other abuses….not to mention all of the thousands of civil rights cases not processed….farmers and employees.
An important issue is the historical discrimination by the USDA county committee system. Another area is the Office of Civil Rights and its false assertation of no backlog of cases that we know is not to be true. The added assertion that there is a “firewall” separating the Office of Civil Rights and the Office of General Counsel continues to undermine the fair administration and processing of civil rights at USDA. We want to see the Commodity Credit Corporation used to benefit Black farmers. We want to see accountability, transparency, independent oversight, and justice over the entire civil rights process.
The Democratic party is facing a bold reckoning. We saw it in Virginia and other places around the country. Blacks come out and vote when they have causes they can support. A decrease in recent Black support puts President Biden, and perhaps Senator Reverend Warnock, and others at risk as well. Black farmers, their extended families around the country, and their supporters are watching very closely what is being played out in USDA and Washington, DC.
The taking for granted the Black vote is a failed and false assumption. Yes, our vote matters. Washington is paying more attention to its own drum beat….as flawed as it may be. The wishful thinking that we will go away because you ignore us is another false assumption. And for those who applaud your civil rights success have their heads in the sand…..for the sake of favors from USDA.
We will not be silent this time around. The cost is too great. This is no game with us. This is not time to continue sugar-coating the dysfunctional civil rights administration and processing at USDA.
President Biden has spoken of justice, that it will be deferred no longer. You have admitted that racism has existed within USDA for decades, if not longer. We want the speed of your efforts at bringing about solutions that work.
A hug will not replace the pain and suffering, loss of a way of life, generational wealth, and more…..and, yes, lives being destroyed and lost. This is what we have asked of you and your administration. We are sorry to say that “systemic discrimination” solutions have been ignored. Instead, we are offered up an equity commission that will investigate what we already know. That is unacceptable. We want to see results now……not later in 2022 or in 2023.
Farmers in the Black farmer documentary referenced above told the truth. A farmer grieves at his loss, “I lost my livelihood in farming. I couldn’t farm. They took away the one thing I really love, and that’s farming. That’s what the USDA did.” Another farm reflects, “The lack of people, by too many people, not really caring whether we get justice or not.” A third farmer says, “We’ve experienced discrimination for a very long time. Most people would have given up. To this date, I haven’t given up and I never will give up until justice is served.” A fourth farmer defiantly says, “[My father] says, ‘Don’t let USDA take my land.’ It was like anybody else, but just don’t you let them have it. We’ve done that. Nobody else has taken it either, but for sure the USDA will never get it. Quite frankly, I say the United States Department of Agriculture murdered my mother and father, and my brother.” Listen to their words, see their faces, and respect and understand their pain and suffering.
We continue to wait for a call from you and/or your office regarding working with us to address the ongoing culture of systemic racism, sexism, and other longstanding abuses at USDA. We will set up a Zoom call with you, our group, and farmers from around the country. It will include plenty of time for questions and answers. We want a minimum of at least an hour in length with a commitment to further engagement.
Respectfully,
Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus
USDA Coalition of Minority Employees
Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group
- www.agcoalition.org
- LawrLCL@aol.com
- 856-910-2399
- CC: President Joe BidenVice-President Kamala HarrisWill McInteeCedric Richmond
Resources
November 22, 2021
California Reparations Task Force Presentation by Lawrence Lucas:
Spoken testimony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_wxNjtyNqk
Written testimony (p. 307): https://acresofancestry.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/task-force-meeting-materials-.pdf
Carnell (Yvette) Podcast, September 13, 2021:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTbYz6oFiQQ
Civil Rights Action Team Report, February 1997 (CRAT):
https://static.ewg.org/reports/2021/BlackFarmerDiscriminationTimeline/1997-crat-report.pdf
Civil Rights Implementation Team Report, September 1997 CRIT):
https://permanent.fdlp.gov/lps15852/critprog.pdf
Commitment to Civil Rights Progress, 2000:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-106shrg70527/html/CHRG-106shrg70527.htm
The Counter article:
https://thecounter.org/usda-black-farmers-discrimination-tom-vilsack-reparations-civil-rights
The D. J. Miller Report:
https://static.ewg.org/reports/2021/BlackFarmerDiscriminationTimeline/1996_DJ-Miller-Report.pdf
General Accounting Office, 2008:
General Accounting Office, 2008:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-08-755T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-08-755T.htm
General Accounting Office, 2016:
The Harvard Report:
The Harvard Study:
https://www.chlpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/FLPC_OASCR-Issue-Brief.pdf
“I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against USDA:”
https://blackfarmersinsearchofjusticefilm.com/
The Jackson-Lewis “Civil Rights Assessment,” 2011:
https://www.coalition4change.org/USDA%20jackson.pdf
Mother Jones, 2021:
The Nation:
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/black-farmers-pigford-debt/
Office of Inspector General, 2021:
Pippen v. Vilsack (May, 2006):
https://casetext.com/case/pippen-v-state-7
Roland Martin, “Still Getting Screwed: Black Farmers Fight Back Amid Texas Lawsuit Over $5B In Debt Relief,” October 15, 2021:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eOV4HULp0Q
Senator Warren’s Plan, 2019:
https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/equity-farmers-of-color
US Commission on Civil Rights, 1965:
US Commission on Civil Rights, 1982:
https://static.ewg.org/reports/2021/BlackFarmerDiscriminationTimeline/1982_USDA-History.pdf
US General Accounting Office. (1998). Report to the Honorable Edolphus “Ed” Towns, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives. U. S. Department of Agriculture: Problems continue to hinder the timely processing of discrimination complaints.
https://www.gao.gov/archive/1999/rc99038.pdf
The USA Today article:
Black Farmers In The US: The Opportunity For Addressing Racial Disparities in Farming
This article was a collaborative effort by This article was a collaborative effort by the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility and McKinsey’s Global Agriculture Practice. (Daniel Aminetzah, Jane Brennan, Wesley Davis, Bekinwari Idoniboye, Nick Noel, Jake Pawlowski, and Shelley Stewart).
By Gary A. Johnson, Black Men In America.com (November 23, 2021)
The following report, prepared by McKinsey & Company reflects the economic disparities between Black farmers and non-Black farmers. Through what appears to me to be carefully conducted research and practical exhibits, the disparities between Black and non-Black farmers is clear to me. However, I encourage you to review the following data and draw your own conclusion.
Several factors have contributed to the decline of Black Americans in the agriculture industry. At the federal level, several policies have prevented Black farmers from purchasing land. For example, the Homestead Act of 1862 and the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 were passed prior to the Fourteenth Amendment that recognized formerly enslaved people as American citizens. As a result, lack of legal protections have made it more difficult to transfer land from one generation to the next. Not to mention, discriminatory lending practices have made it more difficult for Black entrepreneurs to gain the capital needed to own farms. Together, it comes as no surprise that there is a lack of Black farmers across the country.
While the role of the agriculture economy has grown, the share of Black farmers in the United States has declined over the last century. Today, just 1.4 percent of farmers identify as Black or mixed race compared with about 14 percent 100 years ago. These farmers represent less than 0.5 percent of total US farm sales (Exhibit 1). Further, Black farmers operate at 70 percent of US peer-level farm revenue with a 14 percent operating margin gap versus their peers, before government payments (Exhibit 2).
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 2
Farming may offer an economic opportunity for Black Americans, particularly in rural areas. While the median household income for all Black Americans is $45,438, the median income for farmers is nearly 25 percent greater, at $57,081. The median net worth for farmers is 43 times that of Black households, representing a potential opportunity for Black Americans to build net worth.
Exhibit 3
About This Group