She's One Mad Farmer

Bernice Atchison is President of a county Black Farmers Association in Alabama. She is mad and justifiably so. She is one of some 66,000 Black farmers who were denied entrance into the class action suit known as Pigford v. Glickman. She's up in arms and is relentless in her pursuit of justice. She represents her entire county of Black farmers, none of whom were notified as to the class action case and how to gain access to class membership. She has affidavits to prove it, but that story is for another occasion.

She speaks emotionally and convincingly as to the gross miscarriage of justice in the Pigford case. She's upset about the failure of discovery in the process, about farmers being compelled to locate a similarly situated white farmer with whom to compare and contrast their complaints, one of Judge Friedman's most grievous mistakes, and the burden of "substantial evidence." She claims that this whole thing is a breach of the constitutional rights of American citizens. In November, 2004, she spoke before the Subcommittee o the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary in the House of Representatives. See this link for her testimony.

In addition to those things, she has a long list of evidence that proves that she attempted to gain entrance in a timely fashion into the case but was repeatedly denied access. She's mad about a lot of things, and I don't think she's going to quit before she finds justice in the courts or somewhere.

She's a moving, active, emotional, intense presence in these matters. She's one of many "faces" in the plight of the Black farmer.

She wants to be heard, and she wants some serious action. Maybe, just maybe, the new farm bill will provide some measure of justice. We can only hope and pray for that to happen. See this link, pages 25 and 26, for a comparison of the House and the Senate bills on addressing discrimination towards Black farmers. Looks like there's a cap of $100 million and that foreclosures will stop for claimants.

I hope you're reading today, Ms. Atchison. There are a lot of us who agree with you.