"The Great Debaters"

It's a stirring movie based on a true story.

By day Melvin Tolson was an English professor and coach of the debate team at Wiley College, a small Black school in Marshall, Texas, during the mid-1930s. By night he was an activist for the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union. He lived in two worlds, and both were important.

As a debate coach he was demanding. As an activist he was purposeful and deliberate. The worlds were kept separate until the local sheriff's department sniffed him out as a threat to the local separate but unequal worlds of the times.

His students are edgy, smart, articulate, precocious, and vulnerable. The tenant farmers are defeated and afraid, yet they are determined to step out from beneath the heal of the boot of the plantation system known as tenant farming where the advantages were to the owners.

The story of his students will move you as they begin to grasp a vision for what they can do in the days of Jim Crow as they defeat one Black school after another to eventually face Harvard, the best of the best among prestigious White schools. You will see their internal strivings and relationships, and you will see them horrified (and you will be horrified yourself) at the sight of a lynching as they try to find their way to a campus for another debate. "What did he do wrong?" is a question that is asked. Eventually, the answer, "He did nothing wrong." They barely escape, and whatever naivete they lived with was now shattered.

You'll admire the work of Tolson's secret life and his public life. You'll be amazed at the great things his students go on to do with their lives.

You'll cry.

You'll feel like you're in that great hall in Cambridge the night of the great debate.

You'll want to stand up and applaud.

It's a great story of people, education, community, and facing the odds of the Jim Crow South.

It's a must see movie. Check this link out for more historical background to the movie.

The Greatest Christmas Carol

What is your favorite Christmas carol? Is it "Silent Night," or maybe "O Holy Night?" Here's perhaps the greatest of all time, in her own words, Mary, the mother of Jesus:

My soul praises the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me--
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.
Luke 1:46-55.

Try this link for an amazing version of the song from John Michael Talbot.

You'll find Larry James' post from Tuesday the 25th both interesting and challenging.

Jaime Goff's post from December 18 is a must read for what Christmas is all about

May your Christmas Day be blessed.

"Thou Hast Supplied My Every Need"

"O God, to Thee I come today,
And with true repentance kneeling.
The while I bend my knee to pray,
The tears from mine eyes are stealing.
But for they grace lost would I be,
Or ship-wrecked on life's hidden shoals,
Or left to drift upon the sea
Where dwelleth all earth's derelict souls.
But Thou didst free me from all alarms
And shield me from the tempter's power;
Thou broke the shackles from my arms
And thou didst cheer my darkest hour.
Thou has supplied my every need,
And made me free, and free indeed."

A prayer by Theodore Henry Shackelford (1916-1918) as qouted in Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers of African Americans by James Melvin Washington, Ph.D.

Farm Bill and Justice for Black Farmers

The Pigford v. Glickman case has been a topic of much debate for some time. Some have hailed it as the greatest effort in the Civil Rights Movement, period. Others have railed on it as one more gross miscarriage of justice.

More on this later on these pages, but in short, if a Black farmer farmed and was discriminated against between the years 1981 to 1996, there was a virtual lock on receiving some measure of justice via Track A and its $50,000 remuneration plus debt and tax relief, or Track B and its $75,000 remuneration plus debt and tax relief. Track A was supposed to be relatively simple, but track B demanded more information. See this link for the latest figures and here for an ongoing evaluation of the effort.

Numerous problems have evolved including some receiving payments when they had not farmed during that window of time, and I've even heard stories of white farmers receiving payments. What is that about?

One of the most serious problems amidst the large number of problems with the class action effort was that of informing, or rather failing to inform, Black farmers of their right to enter the case. Many farmers did not receive word of it. In fact, one day soon, I'll write a piece about an entire county in Alabama in which Black farmers were not informed and about the woman who is devoting her life to righting these wrongs. Hard to believe? I have copies of various documents supporting that fact. So, in short, there were close to 74,000 who were not admitted to the class because of late claimant status.

So, in the Senate version of the 2007 Farm Bill which is apparently now in committee to resolve differences, the case will apparently be reopened.

Here are some links that provide more information on this crucial topic. John Boyd's comment is especially interesting: ''We're looking at far more than $100 million, absolutely,'' he said. ''But half a loaf is better than none," as quoted in the New York Times. Check out another piece in
the Ag Observatory.

Social Justice Team III will be meeting here on campus this morning. This will likely take up some of our time. We all need to be informed about these matters.

Faces on the Farm

A gentleman who is hip deep in activism on behalf of the Black farmer mentioned recently that he thought that one of the problems with the Black farmer movement is that there has never been a visible "face" of a farmer with which the cause could be identified. He's probably right. Did not the broken, beaten, and almost unrecognizable face of Emmett Till help to galvanize the Civil Rights Movement? Did not photos of Rosa Parks inspire us to action? Did not the face of Martin Luther King as he rivetingly spoke to us through the television screen move us?

What "face" should be the face of the righteous cause of the African American farmer? They are many. What "face," etched with life experiences will become the "face" with which we identify?

Should it be the face of the gentleman, now deceased, standing beside his mule in Tillery, North Carolina?

Should it be the face of the man in Owensboro, Kentucky who has had his land taken from him because he hasn't paid back a loan he never received?

Should it be the face of the elderly gentleman or his wife or his angry son in central North Carolina, all of whom agonize in different ways over the loss of land and livelihood?

Should it be the face of the elderly woman is south Georgia as she describes her life, husband, family, and the crops she'll work on that day?

Should it be the face of the man in Pavo, Georgia who lives in his single-wide under the oak tree along the sandy road named in honor of his deceased wife?

Should it be the men, father and son, in central Oklahoma who are still grieving the injustices wrought upon them and their family?

Should it be the resilient gentleman in central Kansas who is a activist like no other who believes in his right to his choice of livelihood, the man who refuses to give up?

Should it be the farmer out in west Texas who has faced numerous odds but still owns his land?

Should it be any one of countless thousands of named and unnamed African American farmers, male or female, whose faces will never be seen outside of their feed store, or local church, or street in smalltown USA? The ones whose stories will never be told?

Which "face" will it take to capture the hearts of people with passion and the minds and decision-making abilities of people in power to right these wrongs. Who is taking note of their faces? Who is telling their stories?

Just wondering.

Senate Passes Farm Bill

Watching a Senate debate requires having something else to do at the same time. The viewer is never quite sure if everything is happening on the screen, but likely not. We all understand that there are many contexts in which back channel negotiations or off the record conversations are taking place, and how the back scratching thing works. Surely senators often feel divided between what's good for my state versus what's good for my country. The added piece for me is what's good for "my people," and my people are more than just those who share my skin color, economic status, vocational choice, and region of the country.

So, it's good to know that the Senate passed its version of the farm bill last week. It's good to know that the farming industry, with all of its complexities and challenges, will continue to feed our people of this country and many around the world. It's good to know that there's a linkage between the land and the city, and that people in the city who cannot afford quality food to eat will be able to do so via provisions of this $288 billion or so bill.

I'm also glad that an amendment was passed that reopened the class action suit that has marginalized so many African American farmers. Those numbers are compelling and those people must be taken note of. We owe it to them. We belong to them and they belong to us.

Here's a link that provides a better summary, but perhaps we'll visit again about the farm bill on these pages when the committee work has been done and the president has signed off on it.

Thanksgiving at Home

Shena is a first year student in the MFT program here at ACU. I've asked her to share her story of what happened with her family at Thanksgiving. Read her words and hear her heart.

"This past Thanksgiving, my family and I went for long periods of time without water. For long days, we were unable to wash dishes, bathe, and even flush the toilet. My father became so exasperated, he filled an empty trash can to the brim with water just in case it went off again. The sad thing is that we had it good. We learned another apartment complex, Inwood Oaks, was being foreclosed because our management company had cheated them also. These poor people had their water off for weeks. There was sewage backing up in their bathtubs and numerous health code violations. This company has been doing this all over Texas for years. When Katrina first occurred, the owner filled nice apartments with hurricane victims carrying Section 8 vouchers and stopped paying to bills. He has cheated residents and management alike, promising them deposits and reimbursements that never come. One past resident nicknamed him the "Slumlord of the South" in a forum. He has become a master at taking advantage of people who are either ignorant of their rights or do not have the resources to fight for them.

Such is an example of institutional racism. However, I think institutional racism is only a symptom of the underlying discrimination in this country. I cannot express how much it hurts me to know that no one is going to reach out to help these Black and Latino families in Inwood Oaks. I'm always amazed to see how quickly people respond with large monetary gifts and donations to a white, middle class family who just had quintuplets but will watch people of color go homeless. No one will admit it, but to many, the people in Inwood Oaks deserve the trouble they have received. They must be lazy. They must be poor. They're niggers. They're wetbacks. And if they're not illegal, they may as well be. They must be on welfare and therefore useless takers. It seems like a brown face on the screen may as well be muted.

Perhaps I am just overreacting and this has just been an emotional last couple of weeks. It could be blamed on the movies I have recently seen. During this time, I have watched The Pursuit of Happyness, Hurricane, and Freedom Writers- three wonderful stories of triumph in the face of adversity. However, at the end of them, I did not cry in joy. I cried in pain and turmoil. WHY did this man have to go to jail for decades? WHY are we put in the dumb classes and labeled with learning disorders? WHY are my white colleagues recommending this as a good movie to me? WHY is no one as angry as I am? WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!

I am not satisfied with the Obama's and the Oprah's. One of us "making it" is not enough. It is not fair to ask us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps when institutions are not paying for our books and mandating tests that even parents cannot pass. Nor is it fair to show us a movie and expect us to find a new self worth, shedding the years of society telling us we are too dark to have Barbie in our color and too frivolous to save. I cannot celebrate with the growing middle class when there millions in jail and more teachers dropping out of school system than the students.

I praise God for the Erin Grunell's and the three advocates in Hurricane. Without them, countless lives would be unchanged and probably nonexistent. My hope is that the actions of these people would remind that us the news story is our story. That if we lose our life for our fellow man's sake, we will find it. We are so quick to pray, but slow to move. Where are the advocates? Where are the workers?

Lord, we need more workers.

So, during these movies, I do not applaud at the happy ending. No. I cry. I look these characters and wonder how many more mothers, fathers, uncles, friends, sons, daughters, and orphans die daily but do not get a television special… or even a news segment. I wonder how many more families will become homeless, how many more children will fail, and how many loans will be denied. And I wonder how long it will be before we care.

Most importantly, I wonder if my hands will ever be strong enough for more than just catching tears."

Shena Sandle

Judging Success?

After a pleasant meal consisting of my wife's world-renowned chicken pot pie, and a delicious lemon pie of some sort they'd brought, the conversation shifted when we moved from the table to the living room. We talked of things that matter, though it did seem that the conversations went in a gender-specific direction, at least in terms of who talked to whom about what.

Then, he asked me a penetrating question, one that has perplexed me before, during, and after its asking. "How do you judge the success of a team?" Or something to that effect. Excellent question. One that I'd like for our modest readership to weigh in on. How does one evaluate the efforts of social justice teams, or how does anyone evaluate and critique, or whatever other verbs you want to apply, in an arena where matters are exceedingly complex?

Is success judged by whether or not we were asked to present at some conference? Whether or not we learned more? Spoke out more? Wrote more on a blog or in a class project? Developed a higher level of sensitivity to the issues? Connected people with other people? Traveled? Engaged others in what we're doing?

Is "success" measured qualitatively? Or, is it measured quantitatively? Or, is the question really unimportant?

If you hit the links to the pages of the teams on the lower right of this page, you can see that we've done a few things, and I'd like to think that those folks did those things well. Some things have been done, but we're still sitting on the side lines, waiting to put some of those efforts into play. Some things continue to evolve.

I'm curious these days to know what other COAMFTE-approved MFT programs, like this one here at ACU, are doing in the areas of the curriculum and social justice and then in the area of co-curricular practices related to social justice.

Again, friends, how would you evaluate the success of a team of social justice advocates?

I Was Moved and You Will Be, Too

A view of "We Shall Not Be Moved" is a must. Contact the Concerned Citizens of Tillery office for information on how to purchase a copy of it. It needs to be in our offices, used in our classrooms, and made available to our students and friends. You can find the link to CCT's web page at the lower right of this column.

I was struck once more their commitment to the land, and how despite slavery, post-Reconstruction Jim Crow laws, and other damaging influences, African Americans were able to secure land and make a living off the land. Time and time again in my travels through the south and mid-west, adult children of African American farmers insisted that they were able to attend college and get decent jobs as a result of the successes of their parents on the land. The land wasn't given to them. They had to earn it. The resettlement community along the Roanoke River in North Carolina was only one of several around the country. There was one here in Texas, in Sabine County, and I plan to look into that effort and see how it worked.

Also rather striking were the larger issues of the plantation world, first the literal plantation and the owners and the owned, and then came the system of share cropping, simply put, another version of the owners and the owned. Undoubtedly, there were decent and ethical land owners who honestly worked on the halves with their tenants. On the other hand, unless a Black farmer could do math well, and understood the value of 3 cents here and there, the landowner, in cahoots with the owner of the store that sold seed, fertilizer, food, and other important commodities, took advantage of the farmers. At the end of the year when things got all settled, they were at best balanced, and at worst the Black farmer was left in the economic hole and had to work another year for "the man" only to discover that the year turned into years. The only way to escape it was to sneak out in the middle of the night, take the family, and go in hopes of finding a more honest landowner. There were few if any advantages to the Black worker on the man's land.

In "We Shall Not Be Moved," an effort on behalf of the "New Deal" administration is described that was implemented to put farmers on the land that they owned, to remove the onerous burden of the tenant farming, sharecropping system. Sometimes racism crept in such as following the flood of 1940 and later other nefarious means of taking land away, some of which continue to this day. This effort, though, helped African Americans, and whites as well, to get on the land, and to make a living on the land.

They were successful at their chosen vocation. Listen to the stories. See it in their faces. These were a resilient people who faced a variety of struggles, and who came to be successful in living off the land. A community was built that instilled values of faith, hope, family, and togetherness in the lives of people. Families helping families build buildings or slaughter hogs, or harvest the crops. They educated their children and gave hope to the next generation.

On a personal level, it was moving to see familiar faces and to hear familiar stories and to see familiar names on the screen and in the printed materials that accompanied the documentary. I also found it extremely moving to listen to "Wade in the Water," the CD of gospel music that provides the background music for the documentary.

Does this come across as advertising? Perhaps. Hopefully, though, it's simply one person's way of saying, "Hey! Watch this documentary. Listen to this music. You'll be moved by the folks who refused to be moved."

"We Shall Not Be Moved"

The citizens of Tillery care deeply about their history, so much so that they've worked with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University to develop a documentary of their history of the "Tillery New Deal Resettlement." A part of the New Deal of President Roosevelt, it provided opportunities for African Americans to own and to work their own land and to step out of the degradations of share-cropping and "employment" status with the White farmers. From the plantation era to major changes in politics, land ownership, and economics, racism still impacted the landscape when it was discovered that it would be a Black settlement and not a White settlement.

Once the Roanoke River flooded in 1940, the Whites were moved uphill, but the Blacks were left in the flood plain. The original plan was for "350 individual farms: 200 farms located on 10,000 acres at Tillery for Negroes" (June 21, 1938, R 4 FSA). It's still a viable, living, and active community full of activists who care about the people and the quality of life on their land.

In this amazing documentary, and in this fascinating radio program, you'll hear the history, background, and complications of the land, the people, and the dream. Stories of discrimination will be told. You'll be moved by the resilience of these people against insurmountable odds.

Check out the radio program where you'll hear Gary Grant, President of Executive Director of Concerned Citizens of Tillery, the directors of the project, and others discuss the quality of life prior to the disaster years when the USDA began various nefarious ways to retrieve the land from Black ownership.

Go to the web page for the Concerned Citizens of Tillery for more information, and purchase a copy of the documentary, "We Shall Not Be Moved: A History of the Tillery Resettlement," and also a copy of the CD, "Wade in the Water," recorded by The Joyful Sound Gospel Chorus.

It'll stir your heart and move you to action.

Tomorrow and tomorrows

Tomorrow is the last day of class in Family Therapy I for my first year students. They've spent the semester reading and writing about various models and theories of family therapy: structural, strategic, cognitive behavioral, and internal family systems. We'll gather at my house to eat my wife's world renowned breakfast casserole, fruit salad, blueberry muffins, and some brand of gourmet coffee.

Then, after breakfast, we'll gather in the living room and watch some videos that capture the themes that we've worked on this semester. We've done enough serious work, and now I want us to watch a view clips and think out loud with them about these important matters that can impact how we help people move out of their pain into some healthy way of living. It's a time of consolidating and integrating and making sense once more of important ideas for those who want to do family therapy.

Somewhere in the midst of the morning's conversation I'll show a clip from "Soul of the Game," one of my favorite baseball movies. Why baseball? Why a movie about Satchel, Josh, and Jackie? Good questions. A part of the passion that turns my crank about working with students is that we get to apply these curious marriage and family theories to larger systems. By "larger systems" we mean institutions of power and privilege, those that make or break folks, those that need not just reforming but transforming. Major league baseball was one of those powerful institutions.

This particular movie describes life in the Negro Leagues in 1945 when only one, yes, only one, Black baseball player will make the move to the major leagues. Satchel, Josh, and Jackie are three of the most popular of the massive number of gifted athletes stymied by Jim Crow and the will of powerful baseball owners. The movie shows the relationships between these men as each is convinced that he needs to get the call up to the bigs.

The scene I'll show is at the end of the movie. Josh has just gotten out of the hospital, an all-star game is about to be played against white players, and everyone knows that this is the one last chance to impress the scouts. Then the skies open, rain pours down, thunder cracks, and lightening dances across the sky.

There will be no game. As the rain pelts against his agonizing face, Josh Gibson screams a scream from the bottom of his soul, unleashing upon the viewer the agony of being so close to his dream, and knowing that the dream was now gone forever. His dream was ripped from his heart. He would never play baseball in the major leagues.

That brutal moment speaks volumes. It is the rageful, anguished cry of a man who had been put in his place by institutions of power and privilege. He knew how good he was. He also knew how powerless he was in the face of the powerful institution of white major league baseball.

There were no more tomorrows for Josh Gibson. He wouldn't live much longer.

Tomorrow morning I hope my students get it, that they live in a world where people, politics, and institutions of power still hold sway over people's lives. My prayer is that they get it, that there's much to be done, and so little time to do it in, and that one can make a difference in that one, small corner of the universe to which she or he is called.

My prayer is that they'll work to bring about tomorrows that Josh Gibson didn't have.

Provocative Words and Images

Dr. Larry James and I were in graduate school in Memphis at the same time. We were in some classes together, and at times his degree plan took him in other directions on that beautiful campus. I remember with good humor and fondness how in one class, he wrote what students considered at the time to be an "A" paper topic, the amphictyonic league in ancient Israel. I wrote on a topic that was considered to be a "B" paper topic, the historicity of the book of Jonah. As you might guess, students had sized up things well, and our grades reflected the same.

After graduate school, our lives took different paths, Larry to more graduate school, preaching, and now work in the areas of poverty, social, justice, housing, and other important matters. You can read about the work at http://www.larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com/. My life took a different route, youth ministry, more graduate education, and then life here in Abilene as a professor of marriage and family therapy who gets to work with students in the area of social justice, and what you find on these pages, Black farmers in particular.

In many ways and at many times, what he writes about and what I obsess about overlap. We are both involved in various aspects of the same things that matter to us, to the Holy One of Israel, and likely to you, or you wouldn't be reading these pages. Larry's blog has become a daily read, along with Mike's, Jaime's, and Greg's for other reasons, as is obvious by their amazing words and images.

Back to this point though. Several weeks back, a good friend gave me a photocopy of an appendix from a book. It is now on my desk, where it has been since it arrived via campus mail. For some reason, I cannot bear to spend much time with it. On the one hand it is simply a chart of states, years, and a specific action summed up. It is the content of those actions or activities that I find repulsive. Yes, someone needed to chronicle those matters, tally them up, and to let people like you and me know about them.

The focus of the document surely you are asking about at this point of reading these meandering words. The page lists lynchings of African Americans by year and by state. Yes, I find it repulsive to know that such was done to human beings, and that, according to another author, that we found it in those days to be human spectacle, or human theater. There's an author who has interpreted those times and places and horrors. My best guess is that author is under-reporting those atrocities because they were likely unreported during and after those times.

Earlier this week, Larry James provided the text of a lecture delivered by a former professor of his back in graduate school. In 2006 Dr. James Cone delivered the Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard Divinity School. It is a lecture that to me can only be delivered effectively by an African American lecturer. The lecture on "the cross and the lynching tree" is provocative as it engages the reader and the listener to consider the common and dissonant themes of these two images of atrocity.

Both images stir me to the core. I wear a symbol of the cross around my neck. Decorative though it is in silver and turquoise, I have said for years that it reminds me of to whom I belong, just as surely as the ring on my left ring finger reminds me of to whom I belong on this earth. I don't know of anyone who wears a symbol of the lynching tree, but I do know people whose relatives or friends or acquaintances died that way. It's a part of their history, and it is a part of our history as Americans, though a part that we likely would wish to ignore. However, it really can't be ignored.

Cone's words are stirring as he places the cross and the lynching tree side by side: "The cross and the lynching tree need each other: the lynching tree can liberate the cross from the false pieties of well-meaning Christians. The crucifixion was a first-century lynching. The cross can redeem the lynching tree, and thereby bestow upon lynched black bodies an escatological meaning for their ultimate existence. The cross can also redeem white lynchers, and their descendants, too, but not without profound cost, not without the revelation of the wrath and justice of God, which executes divine judgment, with the demand for repentance and reparation, as a presupposition of divine mercy and forgiveness. Most whites want mercy and forgiveness, but not justice and reparations; they want reconciliation without liberation, the resurrection without the cross."

I intend to read the text Larry has lifted more carefully, and I intend to listen more carefully to the presentation of Dr. Cone.

In this day and age, people are still getting lynched by various means, and we all still need the cross and the reconciliation, liberation, and reconciliation that it brings, and we need the atrocities to stop.

Yes, It Fits

Class was lively and engaging this morning. We discussed theory, therapy, and the application of various theories to larger contexts and institutions of power and privilege that impact the lives of people. Then, there is sports talk radio and tv, talking about the same thing.

The same thing? Yes, the same thing. Two universities, one of them my alma mater, the University of Mississippi, and Texas A & M, both quickly hired new coaches, apparently without considering minority candidates. At a time when somewhere close of 55% is the make up of African American football players on our nation's 119 or so university football teams, only 6 universities have hired Black coaches. The National Black Coaches Association is up in arms. Rightfully so.

The NFL has the "Rooney Rule" which says that a team must interview a minority candidate for each head coach position to be filled. It's been called a "dog and pony show," one that is disingenuous, but some say that it ultimately works for Black coaches down the line.

I think it's time for the NCAA to institute a similar requirement.

I also think it's time to move beyond dog and pony shows toward interviews and decisions that are substantive and respectful of all of God's children, every color dark or light, so the song lyrics go.

Not as Easy as it Seems

If you'll hit the links over on the right side of the page, you can go to the summaries of what Social Justice Teams I, II, and III have done or are doing. Writing about them this morning has been an interesting experience. There were obvious flashbacks of a pleasant sort to locations, times, and spaces at which or during which their lives and passions for justice intersected with mine. These people, presentations, and travels take up at least a major segment of an emotional and relational flash drive within me. They walked out, got busy, traveled, wrote, presented, and discussed these important matters with others.

How does a prof capture the essence of a team and its work in a few words? Not only is it not as easy as it seems, but it is an impossibility.

I think you'll be hearing more about these people in the days ahead.

The world is a better place because they live in it.

"Give Us Grace"

"Give us grace, O God, to dare to do the deed which we well know cries out to be done. Let us not hesitate because of ease, or the words of men's mouths, or our own lives. Mighty causes are calling us--the freeing of women, the training of children, the putting down of hate and murder and poverty--all these and more. But they call with voices that mean work and sacrifice and death. Mercifully grant us, O God, the spirit of Esther, that we say: I will go unto the King and if I perish, I perish--Amen."


A prayer of W. E. B. Du Bois from Conversations with God: Two centuries of prayers by African Americans by Dr. James Melvin Washington.

Thanks, Lord

Lord,

Today's one of those amazing days, and I stop to reflect on the blessings you've given to me and those I love. So, today, I'm thankful for those right in front of me: my wife, sons, daughter in law, grandsons. For things going on outside of this warm house: gentle snowfall, snow-covered yard, the neighborhood, the university where I work, the department in which my work is housed, and city in which we live.

The meal today was amazing, offered by your hand and put together by my wife and our daughter in law. Stories around the table were inspiring and full of joy and laughter. The wonder of children in the snow, throwing snowballs at the elderly was fun.

And, today, I'm thankful, Lord, for the people to whom my students and I have been introduced around the country, for people who have moved beyond acquaintances to comrades in the righteous cause of Black farmers, for the Monicas, Garys, Harrys, Dennises, Willies, and Montes of this land.

And, I'm thankful for opportunities to serve people in your name. Those students who've walked alongside me in these efforts, Team I, Team II, and Team III, thanks for allowing our paths to cross, and thanks especially for their willingness to work as advocates in their chosen areas of life around the country.

I'm aware also, Father, that it is the power of the evil one and the dark side of human nature that offer us these opportunities to serve. Eradicate from our land, from our world, and from our hearts, O God, all vestiges of racism. Remove from the institutions of our government even the smallest of glimpses of discrimination. Empower us, O Holy One of Israel, to rise up and speak against things that harm individuals, couples, families, and communities.

Restore us all to wholeness and to right standing with you. Empower us to speak for the powerless, advocate for those who are in need, and lift us all up as your people to serve your people.

May your Kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Politics and Farming, Black and White

Is it possible that the farming issue, and that of Black farmers in particular, will influence the presidential debates and outcome over the next few months?

Already, Obama has thrown down the gauntlet.

And, Hillary has drawn her line in the sand, at least in terms of getting the farm bill passed.

Who on the Republican side is willing to do the same, not just for the farm bill but for African American farmers besides Chabot from Ohio?

Just wondering.

Not Any Ordinary Day

We should have known from the start. An unseasonably warm Wednesday turned into a cold and windy Thursday. At the campus police office we were informed as to where the corner of East Main and Martin Luther King Boulevard was located. Then, we figured out that the "Third Thursday Thing" was being held out at KSU's Research Farm, some seven miles away.

Then it all became clear. We had been given permission to march in a location far, far from where the farmers were meeting. OK. I get it.

Despite the weather, some of us made our way out to the farm, and actually attended some of the listening sessions. Key leaders in agriculture from KSU and the state of Kentucky were there, along with a large number of Black farmers and a few White farmers. On the third day of a Kentucky Small Farmers Conference, we were interlopers. We were not invited, but we had attended.

A part of our group was removed with a police escort to the entrance to the farm while some of the rest of us had lunch inside with the farmers. That was an enjoyable occasion, chatting with Black farmers who surely wondered why we were there. We simply moved about, introducing ourselves and asking about the state of the Black farmer in Kentucky. Some seemed genuinely interested in the interest that we showed. The three of us were oblivious as to what was happening outside.

After a brief time at the entrance to the farm, we adjourned to a restaurant in Frankfort to consider strategy and next steps. It was an enlightening afternoon with Mr. Young, his brother, and a variety of other activists. His story needs to be told. People need to hear his story. His story deserves some action from some people who have the power to make things happen.

I'm still curious as to how we were not invited to leave, how it was that we got to stay and eat chicken and dumplings, and turkey and dumplings, and vegetables, and how we got to enjoy those conversations.

A Man, Mission, Family, and Farm

He is an intense man, a person of deep passion, resolve, and commitment. He moves with energy. He talks fast, thinks fast, multi-tasks with the best of them. He wears a lot of hats, and he leads a multitude of people and institutions. Environmental issues, elderly health care, and, of course, the survival of the Black farmer crowd his plate.

He sits across the desk from me. If his desk is an indication of how complicated his life is, then it pretty much speaks for itself. He leads an organization of Black farmers, has spoken before various subcommittee hearings, and has written more letters and spoken to more politicians and people of influence than anyone can count. If you want to see his face, he's the middle of the three men in the picture at the top of this blog. If you want to see his family, go back to the wreath-laying ceremony blog.

Today, though, when he lays aside all other hats, he's concerned about his family farm. Naturally so. Though his heart is with the larger movement of the survival of the Black farm and family, he is fighting to hold on to the land he was raised on, land which brought in the money that educated him and his siblings, so I must give him a wide space within which to speak his mind. And, speak his mind he does. He's quick witted and laughs easily, worries perpetually, and gives his very life and soul to the causes that are most important to him. So, when he challenges my naive assumptions, I listen. When he corrects my terminology, I listen. When he points out the way things are, I listen. He is the teacher; I am the student.

His family is fighting to hold on to their land. Here's their story in brief.

His parents, Florenza and Matthew Grant, moved from Virginia to Tillery, North Carolina in 1947 as part of the "New Deal Settlement Settlement" project. The Whites got the best land, and the Blacks the worst land. Still, they made it work, until, of course, natural disasters hit, "acts of God" that impacted farmers of both races. In the 1970s, then, Halifax County FmHA began efforts to seize the land.

So, in 1976, all "hell" broke loose for the Grant family. Since 1972 the Grants had been borrowing money from the USDA, but between 1972 and 1976, three natural disasters hit the county, which was declared a natural disaster area. Foreclosure efforts began in 1976 despite these disasters, and despite the fact that the family owed a modest sum of $10,000. Creative efforts that included leveraging the Grant children's credit against the amount owed were denied. Disaster relief funds available to all farmers were not offered. The FmHA District Director was ruthless, saying, according to Gary, to his father, "It does not matter who you go to see, whether it's local or in Washington, DC, or who you bring; if you don't bring the entire amount of your loan, we are going to sell you out." Why not? This was prime farmland that is found along the Roanoke River, an area that was becoming a prime development area. Still is apparently to this day.

Like many other Black farmers and families, the USDA did not respond to their complaints during those earliest of days as the Office of Civil Rights was open and closed sporadically, depending upon who was in office in DC. Wisely, the Grants joined forces with the Concerned Citizens of Tillery and its Land Loss Fund along with the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association to fight in support of the Pigford V. Glickman suit which later became known as simply as "Pigford."

The Grant family, however, continued to fight their own individual battle, and in early March, 1998, a "Final Resolution Agreement" was signed which gave the Grant family $350,000 and debt write-off. Still to this day, the agreement has been ignored. Signed then. Ignored now.

Then, in October, 2000, the Grant family entered a class action suit known as Wise v. Veneman along with other African American men and women farmers from North Carolina. When Mr. and Mrs. Grant died, their children, heirs of the estate, continued to seek justice under the law. Required by the Department of Justice to withdraw from the Wise case, the Grant family refused to sign away future options under an agreement of withdrawing "without prejudice" which would mean that they would be allowed to continue in the courts if injustices continued. Unfortunately, those in the Pigford case essentially signed away this right, which means that once a decision on behalf of a Black farmer was made as to eligibility and merits of their case under Pigford, the final decision was indeed final, and they would have no redress under the agreement. Another form of enslavement in my opinion, and I've listened to numerous farmers whose cases were compelling but denied under Pigford.

In Wise v. Veneman, Mr. and Mrs. Grant alleged various acts of discrimination including failure to offer disaster relief funding available to other farmers, failure to execute a fair buy-back option available to farmers under USDA policy, being compelled to work under the onerous demands of a supervised contract, and other matters related to the operations of the county office and supervisors.

Despite a legal battle that has ensued since 1976, the battle still continues, but it apparently will end one way or another on November 20, 2007 in a federal court in Raleigh, North Carolina. A "Writ of Execution" has been served which demands that the Grant family settle all financial matters despite the fact that it was originally settled in 1981. All parties have reneged on the signed agreement from 1981. The numbers are staggering. They would be staggering for any family.

Simply put, an agreement that admitted racial discrimination was signed in 1981, but all parties have opted to renege on it. Despite intense and ongoing struggles to save their ancestral lands, the USDA is intent upon taking it away. Signatures are to mean something in this day and age, as they were to have meant something in 1981. I frankly don't get it as to why the settlement was made and signed off on and then unmade and reinitiated as if the former never existed. The signed agreement was for $350,000, much, much more than enough to pay off the original debt plus the interest that has accrued since then, a penalty which, in my opinion, adds insult to injury.

Such is the sign of the times in many sections of our country. Bottom line, the Grant family, a proud and resilient family, a people who love the land, family, and farming, need our help and support. On the pages of this blog there is a letter than can be cut and pasted and faxed or emailed to the highest office in our land. On another page, there is a slightly different version of the same letter. Check out this link for more information and another version of the letter. Write it in your own words. Adapt it to fit how you say things, but fax it to the White House as a show of support for these good people.

So, the conversation with Gary and me lasted for several hours, and over the course of several days, and since then via email and telephone, the conversations have continued. In my book, what's right is right and what's wrong is wrong. The right ought to be done, and the wrong ought not to be done.

This family has been wronged. They have paid for it. There were no health problems of significance in the Grant family when these matters started. Now, Matthew and Florenza Grant are deceased, taken early from their midst, according to the survivors, due to the unrelenting and brutal stress of it all. And, a brother of Gary Grant's, a Viet Nam veteran and farmer, has also been claimed by death as well, way too early as a result of the persistent and hostile threats of foreclosure.

This family is a good family. Pillars of their small community they are.

They deserve better treatment.

Your Place, Mr. Young, Is Way Over There

Here is the sequence related to the demonstration on behalf of Mr. Young, Kentucky farmer from Owensboro:

"Mr. Young, you and your supporters may demonstrate on the FSU football field, though it is several miles from the KSU Research Farm where the meeting with Black farmers will be held on Thursday, November 15, 2007."

"No, Mr. Young, you and your supporters now have permission to demonstrate on the corner of East Main and Martin Luther King Boulevard, still several miles from KSU's Research Farm where the meeting with Black farmers will be held on Thursday, November 15, 2007."

"Mr. Young, you and your supporters must vacate the premises immediately. You have no right to be on this property where the meeting with Black farmers is being held. You may kindly assemble your supporters at the entrance to the property of the KSU Research Farm, and, you'll notice, that it's about a mile up the road, at a dangerous intersection, so be careful, and, our police department will kindly escort you and your supporters to that location."

Much was to be learned on that day.

Disbelief and White America

Several years ago when I first entered the arena of the Black farmer, I wrote an unpublished document that I used on several occasions. The words were met with two sets of responses depending upon the audience. With a White audience, many responded much like me, disbelief and shock. With a Black audience, the response was something like "of course; we knew that all along."

In those early days I was shocked by what I saw with my eyes, heard with my ears, and experienced emotionally. And, that is the thing that troubles me. That disbelief is still amongst us folk who've not been exposed to such injustices as we chronicled on these pages, and which we will continue to chronicle here. The prophets of old did the same. They listed the abuses of the powerful upon the powerless, of the poor at the hands of the rich, of the landholders upon the land poor.

There is likely something innate in the lived experiences of the privileged to disbelief, even in the face of credible evidence and credible witnesses. Perhaps there's some protective element within us that compels us to distance ourselves. Perhaps some day soon on these pages, I'll write about internal family systems and how we work internally, according to Richard Schwartz, one of my favorite theorists and therapists.

So, today will likely be one more of those times. Those of us who are White will come face to face with stories of those who are Black, those who are Black farmers, those who are family members of farmers.

I'm disturbed that several years ago I was shocked. Today I'm just disturbed by what I see and hear.

Mr. Hall meet Mr. Young; Mr. Young meet Mr. Hall

Thursday morning in Frankfort, Kentucky ought to be interesting. In a small town nearby, Harry Young, long time farmer, lives on a small portion of what was a large and successful family farm.

Unfortunately, he got in the cross-hairs of the USDA and has lost his land.

So, on Thursday there will be a "protest/teach-in" led by various and sundry people from around the area and around the country. You'll see a variety of people at the entry to the Kentucky State University campus. Originally the group was relegated to the football field, some distance from the flow of traffic, and what these folks want is visibility and notoriety for their just cause. So, the president of KSU has relented and given permission for this group to assemble in this more visible spot.

Also occurring on the very same day, Jeff Hall, Director of the FSA office for the USDA there in Kentucky, will be meeting with Black farmers to discuss the 2007 Farm Bill and its implications for them.

So, what is Harry Young, family, friends, and supporters mad about? Check out an earlier post on this blog to specific links, but in short, this story appears too massively complicated and unreal to be real. The USDA alleged that they loaned him a huge sum of money and that he didn't pay it. Mr. Young says that he never got it, that someone else must have received it. It was a rather large sum of money, in fact. However, given the huge sum of money, one would think that there would be a money trail. The USDA won't open up its books to show the evidence that it has. Mr. Young has no evidence that he got; in fact, his evidence is that he never got it. Next came the threat of selling his land. He wasn't even allowed to sell the coal beneath his land to get rid of the debt that he never incurred. Now he's lost his land, and to make matters worse, there are now reports of KKK activities on his land.

Something's just not right about this picture. Something is very, very wrong about this picture.

So, it ought to be an interesting day, November 15th, Frankfort, Kentucky, KSU campus.

Dear Mr. President

Written below is a letter to President Bush about one specific farmer/family situation. This letter is co-written with Mr. Grant and is posted here with his permission.

While it is about one farmer family, it is representative of others across the country. Please consider cutting and pasting this document into letter form, craft it from your own perspective, and fax it to the White House. Time is wasting for this family and for others as foreclosures continue to happen around the country. The fax # is 202-456-2461. Or, you can email the White House at comments@whitehouse.gov. Long shot? Yes, worthy of the effort? Absolutely.

November 12, 2007

President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I have recently heard of the Writ of Execution on the heirs of Matthew and Florenza Moore Grant in the New Deal Resettlement Community of Tillery, NC. From what I have been able to ascertain, this family has been in a struggle with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for more than 20 years. That alone is a signal that something has gone awry in the process for citizens to settle Civil Rights Complaints with the department.

I further understand that USDA in 1996 failed to live up to a Final Judgment that covered four years of USDA discrimination against Mr. and Mrs. Grant. This is especially troubling because the document was signed by all parties, including the USDA’s Office of Civil Rights. Perhaps if this document had been lived up to, the Grant Children would not be facing this Writ of Execution at this time. The USDA reneged on this document of trust just as it has with many such signed agreements involving others. Such an obvious disregard for the well-being of potentially successful small family farmers is shameful for the government offices President Lincoln originally called "the people's department."

I did not get to know the late Mr. and Mrs. Grant, but I do know their heirs. I know that this family is hard working, tax paying, and citizens loving justice and equality, and that our government has already dragged them through much torture. Mr. President, you have the power and influence to cause these actions and any other action against this family to cease and desist. This family's Civil Rights complaints against the USDA and its former agency Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) have been proven time and time again. Mr. Grant, who was a successful farmer when he came to the former FmHA at USDA for loans, was placed on supervised loans; made loans at higher interest rates than white farmers all around him; and he, like other Black farmers, received his loans late. According to what I have discovered, even this Writ is the result of discriminatory practices by the USDA and its agent(s) on loans made to the Grants.

As President of the United States of America, you have the power and influence to address this situation and others. Now at a time when the Senate is debating the 2007 Farm Bill which will provide a modest sum of money for the cause of the “Socially Disadvantaged” farmer, your hand in these matters related to the Grant family will send a clear and present signal to the USDA and the FSA that you will not tolerate the mistreatment of our citizens.

Your immediate attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated.I would appreciate any opportunity to discuss these matters with you and your office staff.

Respectfully,

Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.
PO Box 29444
Abilene, Texas 79699
325-674-3722

Good Question

It was a normal Sunday lunch at the newest favorite Mexican food restaurant in small town USA. Church had been good, and the long drive home lay ahead of us, but for the moment, the food was good, the conversation lively, and the people wonderful.

In the middle of three generations talking about various things that matter, the lad across the table looked at me and asked, "Why do you work with Black farmers?" The question took me by surprise. Didn't know he was listening. After all, he did have a new, cool book to look at. Sometimes he's just that way, asking questions and making comments that seem beyond his years. Still, what are the words that can be used to say "discrimination, foreclosures, unequal treatment by comparison to 'similary situated white farmers,' and racism in America," especially if you're talking to a seven year old?

"Because they've been mistreated," I replied to him. He seemed satisfied. Knowing this little guy, he's probably going to come back some day and ask, "What do you mean by 'mistreated?'" That will lead to more conversations about things that matter.

Who knows. Maybe he'll grow up to advocate on behalf of Black farmers and other important matters. I hope so.

Taking a While to Get It

Growing up in Northern California my perception of racism was that it was a largely a Southern problem. I took a lot of pride (and still do) in the open-minded culture in which I was raised. During my adolescence, I became friends with people from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, and the Philippines. I dated a girl from El Salvador and another from Mexico, but I never met anyone from the South until after I graduated from high school. At this point in my life, if I would have been asked, I would have stated although racism can be found in all walks of life, and all parts of the United State, the biggest fault with racism lies within the South. In my ignorance, I pushed the blame for the embarrassing legacy of racism onto the South.

I have since come to realize the facts do not support my naïve adolescent view of racism. Scholars have pointed out the late nineteenth century saw a national acceptance of a stepping away from the equalitarian ideals of Reconstruction. This national acceptance, scholars state, is partially responsible for the rise of white supremacy, not only in the South, but all across the nation. The national acceptance can be seen in such actions as the 1896 Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson which permitted the “separate but equal” policy. These actions by our nation are what helped usher the counter-revolution in the south which eventually led to the establishment of the so-called “Jim Crow” laws.

It was eye-opening to discover the problem with racism was not just a southern problem. The problem with racism was a national problem. Yes, it was in the South that some of the more infamous discriminatory social practices took place, such as in education and voting which led to gross inequalities. However, the hard reality is that none of these discriminatory practices would have been able to last as long as they did if the rest of the nation had not looked away, or, sadly, agreed with what was going on.

I see this national problem with racism being carried on with Black farmers. African Americans have left agriculture at a higher rate than white Americans. From 1920 to 1997 African American farms declined by 66 percent. The Pigford case determined that Black farmers were discriminated against by the USDA. Unfortunately, the majority of the claims have thus far been denied. Therefore, even though they won in court, Black farmers are still losing. Black farmers are slowly becoming an endangered species, while the nation seems to have taken a blind eye toward their plight. It is sad to think how little our country has done in adequately dealing with our national problem and shame of racism.

Brian Wingfield
Social Justice Team III

They're Doing Something About It

Much has been said the last few days in the Senate chambers in DC about saving rural America. The rhetoric is pretty clear that the people in power in DC know that the countryside, rural areas, farming, and farming families are good for us. What's good for the family farm is good for America.

There are some folks out there in rural America who are making serious moves to do something about it. They are putting action behind their words, and, maybe they're doing more doing than talking. Either way, here is a site worth looking into and a people and an entity that deserve a shout out.

Try this link to go to information about a cooperative that is concerned about saving rural America, Winston County Self-Help Cooperative. They'll even put you on their email list if you ask.

And Let the Debate Begin

Thanks to a case of the stomach bug that's passing through Abilene the last few days, my wife and I are finding the Senate debate about H.R. 2419 more than interesting. It began yesterday with summaries of the bill, better known as the 2007 Farm Bill, kudos to all who participated, and words of appreciation and respect to all on both sides of the isle who have made this a bipartisan bill. Beyond the technicalities of the titles and the billions of dollars in each area, and implications of the bill and its massive scope, eventually, eventually, one senator spoke with passion about the impact of the bill on family farms and farming.

Naturally, for an educator, the posters, graphs, and charts were interesting. Too bad they couldn't use power point. On the other hand, as a listener-and-gatherer-of-stories kind of a professional, the segment on daily life on the farm by the senator from North Dakota was compelling. To those of us who live in cities, large or small, removed from the country-side, we need to be reminded of life in the country, and the display of labor and love by the 2% of our population who feed the 98% of us.

On the other hand, given the purposes of this blog, and the interests that fuel the flames of those of us who write on these cyber-pages, there was a glaring omission. Yes, I get it that the funding for the socially disadvantaged farmers is minuscule by comparison to funding in other titles, but my hope in our people is that eventually there will be meaningful debate and deliberative action on behalf of the disadvantaged farmers of our land, the African American farmer, the American Indian farmer, the women farmers, and others. And, I hope and pray that those who once farmed, who are still holding on to their land, will be able to farm again, and, I pray for those in rural areas who have never farmed will be provided that opportunity.

There was a shout out for the struggles of those who have lost their land to foreclosures due to inadequate responses to disaster, thus, the need for a more expeditious process with regard to disaster relief and funding. On the other hand, some of us have heard story after story, agonizing story after agonizing story, painful story after painful story, of Black farmers and their spouses and children watching as local officials come to repossess property and to place signs of foreclosure on family land. It is indeed a family farm issue; it is also a Black farmer issue. It is especially a Black farmer issue.

So, by the time the debate comes to and end, and hopefully the debate on procedural matters will end today, I am hoping and praying for more than just a small shout out to the struggles of African American farmers. They deserve more. In my opinion, we are obligated to make way for more than our history has provided.

Institutional racism

Sometimes it's not so obvious. Trying to detect it can be like grasping at a stream of water. You can see it and know it's there, but it slips through your fingers. Sometimes you're left with no evidence. It may not be a hate crime or maliciously worded picket posters. It may leave no proof that validates the experience of the victim. A fight against it may be met with logical excuses that strip away defenses and any possibility for change.

Institutional racism describes the racial discrimination that happens within systems that should be serving people equally. It could mean waiting longer to see the doctor. It could mean being stopped by a cop because you're black. It may mean not getting a job for which you are well qualified. It could be denied access to living in nicer neighborhoods because of racial discrimination in the housing and mortgage process. It could mean that every interaction with an institution is a reminder that you're seen differently.

Institutional racism is a phrase coined in the 1960's to give a name to something that was strongly felt but difficult to detect. Perhaps naming it was an attempt to make this form of racism something to be a little more easily grasped. And maybe if it can be named, then maybe it can be challenged and changed.

What stands in the way of our naming institutional racism for what it is?

Kimberly Cherry

A Few Thoughts on the 2007 Farm Bill

The 2007 Farm Bill is a hot topic in DC and around the country these days. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 will soon expire. That's the one that has organized and orchestrated farm-related spending since then.The 2007 version of the Farm Bill has been under development for some time now. The House passed its version of the 2007 Farm Bill, H.R. 2419, with much debate back in July. The Senate Agriculture Committee has just passed a slightly different version of the Bill, one which invests economics and efforts into a strategy to expand fresh fruits and vegetables for children across the country.

Next week, then, the full Senate will debate the farm bill. We'll see what happens. It ought to be more than interesting. To whom should it be more than interesting? That would include a long list: farmers, ranchers, economists, agribusiness teachers and leaders, and Black farmer advocates, just to name a few. I don't know about you, but I'll be tuned in to C-Span.

The Bill is a monolithic document of 742 pages and eleven titles covering commodities, conservation, energy, rural development, credit, nutrition, and other areas. The House version of the Bill is a $290 billion plan that keeps agricultural subsidies in status quo, no small problem for some folks, while adding provisions for those who grow specialty crops, those concerned about settling discrimination suits, and other things. NPR notes that the bill does not follow party lines but that it does follow regional interests. Critics have problems with its uneven subsidy policy, misguided conservation efforts, increased expenditures for food stamps, and international food and trade issues. Those are seriously complicated issues for amateurs like myself.

There are some measures under Title XI that relate to socially disadvantaged farmers. $15 million per year for five years, for a total of $75 million is allocated to "socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers outreach and technical assistance program." The amendments are designed to enhance various efforts, assist the Secretary in increasing participation of socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, allowing for the USDA to grant funds to Community Based Organizations, and requires the Secretary of Agriculture to inform Congress more specifically with how these programs are working. It also has implications for civil rights of these farmers by mandating accurate reporting of participation data, funding of beginning farmers and ranchers, a transparent process when denial of services has occurred, development of an office of outreach, and the establishment of a "Minority Farmer and Rancher Advisory Committee" at the USDA which would report Civil Rights actions to the Secretary of Agriculture in a timely manner.

The number of dollars? Seems to me like too small an amount. Policy changes? Nice ideas, but we've seen those sorts of things before. Maybe this time they won't get trapped in bureauracy.

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives is a vocal critic of various aspects of the legislation. They specifically press for a percentage of the funding to go into areas where disadvantaged farmers are highly populated, a moratorium on foreclosures on properties of African American farmers, development of an independent board to review foreclosure actions, an increase in the amount of funding since the original authorization was never fully appropriated, more equitable funding of 1890 and 1994 institutions that work in the area of small farm research and other areas specifically related to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and "minority serving institutions," restructuring the commodity program so as to benefit small farming operations, and targeting more specifically direct loans to socially disadvantaged farmers.

The Congressional Black Caucus has been especially active, and apparently influential, in the development of the H.R. 2419. Check out this link for their release as to their contributions to the House Bill.

Numerous entities are critical of the ongoing policy of large subsidies for large farms and ranches. The Center for Rural Affairs, located in Nebraska, is especially sensitive to this area, and is advocating for change during this time of debate. See this link for their information and for opportunities to advocate on behalf of various aspects of the bill with the Senate. Follow the links so as to voice your opinion about subsidies or provisions related to the Black farmer and other socially disadvantaged farmers.

So, how complicated is this process? Very. How interesting is the debate going to be? Very. How concerned should we be about the outcome? Very.

Anybody who eats should be concerned about farming. Anybody concerned about farming and rural life in America should be concerned about the plight of the Black farmer. They are our brothers and sisters. We are their brothers and sisters. We are family. We are kin.

Priceless

Rental car per day: $50

Gatorade, coffee, and sunflower seeds: $25

Motel: $100

Breakfast at a local diner: $12

Four hour interview with the Black farmer just north of Leavenworth, Kansas: priceless

My personal journey

Growing up in the Dallas Ft. Worth area I quickly learned that economics play a significant role in people's lives. The extravagant status symbols and shopping opportunities of the North Dallas suburbs provided an eerie juxtaposition to the quiet desperation of poverty in urban Dallas. Prime real estate was gobbled by strip malls while families struggling to gain footing found themselves without affordable housing.

Larry James and Central Dallas Ministries organized opportunities for local communities of faith to spend a few hours walking alongside people intentional to pair the breaking in of the kingdom of God with the transformation of citizens in Dallas. These multiple encounters through my early adolescence reoriented my thinking towards the poor. One misguided friend once spoke in terms of bringing God back to the inner-city, he was quickly corrected with a wise man saying, "We cannot bring God back to the inner city because he never left it in the first place!" Wonderful work is done here alongside those with whom the work benefits the most.

My grandfather farmed for many years in West Texas before working for the state department in the Texas Water Commission. I sometimes forget that agriculture is in my blood. When I'm reminded of this heritage I recall family gatherings where wonderful stories about the hardships and blessings of working the land. There is a palpable sense of fulfillment, pride, and accomplishment in these stories.

My time spent with Dr. Waymon Hinson afforded me yet another reorienting experience. I've come to learn that not all farmers have been treated equal, more than that, many have been treated inhumanely. Many family's stories about farming are laced with pain, tragedy, and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Access to loans and vital information have been withheld along racial lines. Dr. Hinson regularly comes into contact with people who's life is forever altered by these discriminations and actively pursues resources while advocating for systemic change.

Both of these reorienting experiences remind me of something Jesus would be apart of. Jesus did not come to help a distant disenfranchised people group but rather called out for justice, mercy, and love from in middle of a crowd. He surrounded himself with people who were in need of healing and were in need of a voice. Jesus calls out for us to dive into the river social of justice and advocate alongside our fellow sisters and brothers against every injustice in existence. Injustice incarnated in the form of biased economic policy, short-sided legislation, systemic racism, or overlooked and underrepresented people groups. Our purpose is to join the chorus of those calling out against injustice and oppression in all its forms.

-Scott
MFI Intern

Preliminary thoughts: 2007 Farm Bill

The 2007 House-passed Farm Bill is an important piece of legislation dealing with agricultural policy that affects the lives of farmers and consumers alike. Additionally, and more to the point, the Farm Bill has important implications for the continuing fight against injustice and discrimination towards Black farmers who farm under USDA guidelines. Although the 2007 Farm Bill attempts to increase aid to socially disadvantaged farmers, most see the bill as a colossal disappointment. The EWG statement (http://www.mulchblog.com/2007/08/ewg_statement_on_house_farm_bi.php)
regarding the Farm Bill sums it up nicely by stating that it will be remembered as a “missed opportunity for reform of federal farm policies that are broken at their core.” This missed opportunity includes the chance to adequately acknowledge and correct the inequities in USDA policies in dealing with black farmers.

Link to the Farm Bill: http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/2007FarmBill.html

Check out this summary found at the Environmental Working Group web page from earlier this week: http://www.ewg.org/node/25509.

More on this later from the team as we read responses to the bill from around the country.

Sarah Hugman

The Wreath Laying Ceremony

It was an amazing day. We stood on the land, and we stood hand in hand. Most people knew each other. Charla and I knew none of them. They all knew Matthew and Florenza Grant. These were two good people who loved family and farming.

Their legacy is well known. They moved to this area from Virginia in 1947 as part of the "resettlement" movement, and then battled the Halifax County FmHA in the 1970s when the move was afoot to take the land away from those who'd settled there. They are laid to rest adjacent to their "House By the Side of the Road," a safe haven for visitors during those 61 years.

Their family and friends gathered around to pay them tribute. We placed a Peace Lily beside their tomb, honoring them as a couple, and honoring those for whom they symbolize, Black farmers engaged in a battle for life and livelihood. We linked hands, arms, and hearts. We prayed, we spoke words of grace, and we experienced anew the commitment to faith, family, and the cause of the Farmer and family.

It was an unforgettable day in Tillery, North Carolina. In the rain. On the land.

Pictured at the tomb of the late Matthew and Florenza Moore Grant are, left to right, Bruce K. Grant (son), Gary R. Redding (grandson), Gary Grant (son), Charla and Waymon Hinson, and Evangeline Grant Briley and Gloria Grant Olds (daughters).

Doorbells and tenant farming

The doorbell rang yesterday afternoon. I was home reading and writing, and our elderly neighbor dropped by with a curious question: "Do you have somebody to pick your pecans?"

My first thought was, "Of course not, we'll pick them ourselves." It was his next sentence that caught my attention: "We'll pick them on the halves and shell them as well."

See, we have this huge pecan tree on the west side of the house, and this year it is loaded with huge pecans. They are dropping, ripe and ready to eat. I've tried them, and they're good, but just haven't had the time or the energy to pick them.

Without checking with my wife, I agreed to the deal. Oops.

It was his "on the halves" comment that struck me. It harkened me back to the days of what I think is America's second plantation. Black farmers and White farmers alike worked the land as part of the tenant farmer, or the sharecropping system. The wealthy landowners purchased seed, implements, and all, and they provided a place for the farmer and his family to live. Some tenant farmers worked on the half and others on the quarter, all depending upon contractual arrangements and the will of the landowner. The system did not work well for the tenant farmer, generally speaking. The deck was stacked in favor of the landowner. Some landowners were on the up and up while other landowners were full of greed.

Debra Reid and numerous others explain the complications of the system. Even during the era of the New Deal, economic benefits which should have been passed on to the tenant farmer went into the pocket of the landowner. At the end of the harvest season, when all was settled, the tenant farmer had either broken even or was in the hole. Either way, the farmer and family had to stay on to farm another season under the same oppressive system, or move out in the middle of the night.

This was a dangerous time for Black farmers especially. They had to move far enough away to escape the wrath of the former landowner having a relationship with the new landowner so as to endanger the farmer and his family. And, those Jim Crow laws were a terror all of their own.

It's no wonder that many African American farmers and families chose to move to the city.

"Stand By Me"

James Melvin Washington’s “Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayer by African Americans,” a collection of 190 prayers covering 235 years, reveals on each of its pages the depth and breadth of emotion of the lived experience of an oppressed, yet tenacious and resolute people. Here is one that I find particularly moving, especially in view of what we're addressing on these pages, by Charles Albert Tindley, penned in 1905, entitled, “Stand By Me.”

When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me;
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me.
When the world is tossing me,
Like a ship upon the sea;
Thou who rulest wind and water,
Stand by me.

In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me;
In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me.
When the hosts of hell assail,
And my strength begins to fail,
Thou who never lost a battle,
Stand by me.

In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me;
In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me.
When I do the best I can,
And my friends misunderstand,
Thou who knowest all about me,
Stand by me.

In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me;
In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me.
When my foes in battle array
Undertake to stop my way,
Thou who saved Paul and Silas,
Stand by me.

When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me;
When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me.
When my life becomes a burden,
And I’m nearing chilly Jordan,
O Thou “Lily of the Valley,”
Stand by me.

Challenging the silence

It was nearly midnight when my friend signed online and sent me an instant message. The conversation began just like many others we have had in the past. A polite and casual “What are you up to?” followed by my typical and mundane reply, “Not too much.” I thought for a moment as my fingers rested on the computer keyboard and I stared at the words I had just typed. The irony of my own words made me chuckle.

I clicked back onto the online article I had just been reading: “…USDA employees lobbying against Black Farmers…” It was almost too infuriating to believe. The injustice of it all…the outright discrimination…the lack of voices speaking out against the racism…the lives that are being damaged by the silence of those with power…

And there were my words. My silence. What was I doing? “Not too much.”

“Actually,” I said to my friend, “I am reading about the injustices that have been done to Black farmers.”

I could feel the confusion emanating from my friend hundreds of miles away as he read the words for the first time. “Why in the world are you doing that?”

I spent several minutes explaining how year after year land continues to be wrongfully taken out of the hands of black farmers and placed into the hands of white farmers; how the USDA has withheld financial support from black farmers that it does not withhold from white farmers; how people’s lives and families are being shattered by prejudice and discrimination that still exists within the USDA.

His response was disheartening, but yet, unfortunately, not unexpected. He resisted the idea that discrimination could actually occur in today’s world, with such awareness and sensitivity to racism. His first reaction was to deny and to look for plausible explanations. I understand his reaction. It feels better to believe that we have won this battle. But the truth is - we still have a long way to go.

I learned a good lesson from our conversation. I learned that I have a part to play in this battle, however small that part may be. My part is to challenge the silence about this problem, to start a discourse with others who deny unfairness, and to encourage others with a heart for justice to do the same.

Sarah Hugman

We missed it, but who was watching?

Do you and I remember the same thing? I was just a junior high kid living in East Texas. Where were you? Seems like it wasn't that long ago.

Falling strongly under the church's influence and its preachers as my "mother" and "father," perhaps what was passed on to me was also passed on to you. The context was a school meeting at which our preacher spoke, and at which time we recited the pledge of allegiance and prayed the Lord's Prayer. Don't actually recall if this was before the assembly or afterwards, but the preacher, good man though he was, influenced by the times though he was and we were, still, he led me astray. He insisted that praying the Lord's Prayer was wrong since the "Kingdom had already come." The church had arrived, so it was wrong to pray a prayer that had already been answered.

That one curious sound bite in time captures the theology of the time, that the church had arrived and that the church and the Kingdom were synonymous. Mike Cope does a good job of capturing these ideas in a recent blog. What had led up to that, you and I might ask. Our church historians say that there was a collision between the worldview of Barton W. Stone and his apocalyptic vision and the worldview of Alexander Campbell and his rational view of scripture. In the life and times of David Lipscomb, this clash played its way out, and the influence upon salvation of the individual came to the forefront as the church engaged meaningfully in the world receded into the background.

Placed over against salvation was the "social gospel," something that I knew as a kid was terribly, terribly wrong, despite the fact that I was clueless as to what it was. We were doing the right thing by preaching truths of the gospel and encouraging people to become followers of Christ, although it was languaged perhaps more succinctly as "join this church, or this movement," but we missed out on injustices in the world, a serious omission.

We did not do much in terms of feeding the poor and finding the homeless places to stay, and this was long before we could even think about ministry to the addicts alongside the road of life, despite the fact that they were indeed there. We did not speak as to the injustices of racism, segregation, and the Jim Crow laws.

We did not march with Martin Luther King, Jr. Neither did our African American churches and our brothers and sisters in those churches. A lot of people were marching with him, just not those of us from restoration roots.

We were doing right things, but not all of the right things. Maybe this time around we can get the people right, our theology right, and our activism right, to use Landon Saunders' phraseology from the recent ACU lectures.

Maybe there are causes for which we can march these days. Maybe it's not too late to protest for righteous causes.

Return to CRAT

In 1997 when the Civil Rights Action Team held their listening sessions in Albany, GA, New Orleans, LA, Halifax, NC, Belzoni, MS, and other places, they got an earful. Minority and limited-resource farmers recounted story after story of discrimination in the county offices of the FSA. If services were offered, delays and other things would block their usefulness.

More minorities were disapproved than non-minorities. In one state, 67% of African-American loans were approved and in another state 78%, which compared with 83% and 90% non-minority, makes things look pretty bad for the Black farmers of those states. In terms of processing times for loans, the process oftentimes took three times as long for minority farmers than for non-minority farmers. While limited-resource farmers have their own unique set of challenges given acreage, yield levels, problems with collateral, cash flow, etc., the sytem should not discriminate against Blacks versus non-Blacks.

Other problems were highlighted in the CRAT report such as lack of diversity on county committees, lack of availability of relief funding offered to White farmers, and lack of relief in the complaint processes, especially when the process leads back to the point at which the complaint was filed in the first place. Black farmers would often choose not to file a complaint because they were pessimistic about the potential outcome including fear of further reprisals. This was described as "the fox guarding the hen house (p. 24)."

One farmer is quoted in the CRAT as saying, "when hearings officers rule for the agencies, they were competent [upheld] 98 percent of the time, but when they ruled for the farmer, these same hearing officers were incompetent [reversed] over 50 percent of the time....This is indisputable evidence of bias and discrimination against a whole class of farmers..... (p. 24)."

Another farmer said, "I felt like that if I enter a complaint, then that would just speed up (the) foreclosure process on me. And I didn't want to do that, because some farmers, they already have complaints in with Farmers Home. And it didn't do them any good (p. 24)."

A graphic illustration was described by a farmer in the southeast: ".....and we never received our moneys on time. We never received our moneys on time. Which normally you would get a check November/December so you could start paying for the upcoming year. But I’ve never received a loan to my memory, it was already into the operating years, most of the time it was April when I received the money. My records would show that, that it was mostly in April when I would receive my loan. Too late to plant, actually to receive the total benefits from your crop that it was able to produce the maximum amount of production. It was too late to get that, receiving your moneys in April. You plant in maybe the last of April and May. You never would see the full benefits of the production from the crop."

He was one of those few who prevailed under the Pigford Class Action Case, so he still owns the land and is on the land, working the land, but it hasn't been easy. It's been far more difficult than for the average farmer in that area.

Advocacy and converts to the cause

Haugen has it right, I think, about advocates going, sending, and praying, but in this day and age there may be some other options. A while back Dr. Ridgely Mohammad asserted that if you want people to know something these days, put it out on a blog, especially for students to read it. That's a preferred mode of communication he said. I think he may be right. Just yesterday, I got an email from an advocate in Indiana who is wanting the word out about Harry Young and his plight in Kentucky. There is an earlier piece in this site about Mr. Young with links to various sources. We all need to network for causes that are important.

Another meaningful effort is simply word of mouth. So, over the weekend, while on a trip to Austin for a state board meeting, I was privileged to hear my son, Micah P., perform in the 6th Street area. Beforehand, a meaningful conversation started between the musician he was opening for, Will Johnson of Centromatic, and Will's mother. That conversation spilled over into Sunday lunch when Micah P., Will, my wife, and I were able to talk about music, social justice songs, and advocacy. "I'll look into it" was Will's comment. Micah P. is already a "convert to the cause," and is currently working on lyrics and music for a song about the plight of the Black farmer. Maybe we'll pitch those words out some day soon.

So, advocacy and "converts to the cause" can occur in the oddest of situations. It was just a family weekend, one filled with birthdays and music.

The farmers' cause got a shout-out. Maybe it'll lead to a convert.

We can hope and pray.