Living life in post-Pigford

Few people would say that the Pigford Consent Decree was just. Some would say that it unnecessarily spent money on Black farmers. Others say that it was too little too late. Others say that attorneys got what farmers should have gotten. All in all, at best, it was a mixed effort. Here's a link that summarizes the effort. Here's a link that spells it all out in great detail. And, here's one more link that summarizes more complications of the suit as of July, 2008. Finally, here's an article that puts the Consent Decree within its larger context of African Americans and Black farmers.

So, now that the 2008 Farm Bill has been settled, now that we know that there's $100,000,000 minimum to settle grievances with the 73,000 Black farmers who were denied access to Pigford, now that we're in the middle of an election year, and now that our nation's Black farmers are settling in to various law suits, how do we know that things are going to get settled any differently? We can only work, hope, and pray for justice this time around.

In a previous post, I gave a shout out to a county south of Birmingham, AL in which close to 1,000 farmers never received information about Pigford. At this point, I'm also wondering about how the Black farmers of our country who were denied access in 1999 will find out about what's going on on their behalf in 2008. As for me and my house, there'll be calls made to various and sundry Black farmers to make sure that they know and to make sure that they're letting their friends know. No one in the USA should be kept out of the loop of this thing.

Here's one more link that briefly summarizes these important matters.