let justice roll

Satchel Paige: Graphic Novel

2012-02-11T12:15:00.004-06:00

There are several comic book readers in my family. Comics got me onto the path of reading. My youngest son gifted me recently with a 1955 Classic comic about Davy Crockett. It brought back a lot of memories. Those were the days of Archie, Batman and Robin, the Green Lantern, and Superman. In my personal collection are the Book of Genesis Illustrated, word for word from the King James text, and Miller's Holy Terror, and a couple of others, along with a few others. Rumor has it that justice oriented graphic comics are here somewhere, gifts of my oldest son, but I can't find them. Maybe they've been misplaced in our moves over the last few years.

While my sons and grandsons still read and collect those comics, my reading interests have changed. I enjoy keeping up with the old favorites via them. My interests lean toward social justice themes. One overlap popped up recently.

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, written by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso with an introduction by Gerald Early, and published by The Center for Cartoon Studies, is a wonderful graphic novel. Written through the lense of Emmet Wilson, sharecropper and former baseball player, the story gives the historical background of farming while black on someone else's land and how it was simply another version of slavery and the plantation days. It was dangerous to speak out against the white landowners. You might wind up wounded or dead. Ask Mr. Wilson.

Against this story of pain, suffering, and humiliation arises Satchel Paige, one of the most notable players from the Negro Leagues, a rookie for the Cleveland Indians in `1942, and an inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. His story is remarkable. He helped change history. Though he came across as the consummate showman, he was a serious and gifted athlete.

I'll not rob you of the pleasure of reading the entire book. I hope you'll purchase it and read it to the children so that our future can be different from our past. One quote though. Long after Emmet had retired from baseball due to an injury, and during the hard days of working the land, he also had a son, Emmet, Jr. One day he pulls out a souvenir from his baseball days, the day he got a hit off Satchel and got an autographed baseball from him. As he gave the ball to his son, he said, "For the first time, I told Emmet, Jr. the story of how his daddy went head-to-head with Satchel Paige. And unlike them Tuckwilla boys, his daddy came out on top. For the first time since I played ball, since Emmet, Jr. was a baby, I felt somethin' on the inside. I remembered the type of man I am. I gave Emmet, Jr. that ball....I hope it reminds him of who he can be."

Here are some links. Here is the book. Here is a review of the book. Here is the official Satchel Paige web page.

Red Tails, the Movie, A Must See

2012-01-21T19:15:00.003-06:00

The story of Tuskegee airmen in WWII is a must see for those who care about justice and for those who are unwilling to let stories of courage die. Directly from the Jim Crow rule of law at the time, facing the reality that Jim Crow ways of thinking and living were alive and well on the battlefield, these men fought Hitler's army, sometimes their own fellow airmen, and for freedom in America, creating along the way an incredible legacy.

See this link for more details.

Check out this one as well.

Put at the top of the use of your entertainment dollar that of seeing this movie. I'm also going to go buy the book from which this movie was taken.

Hit this link for some background on the movie.

On Martin Luther King Day 2012

2012-01-16T17:22:00.001-06:00

Today is a day of reflection and service. My pondering has led me into such places as the current status of civil rights for people of color, for women, for marginalized populations. I am wondering how we as a society are better all of these years after Dr. King's death. How are we the same? Some matters are heartening, others not so.

Today is also a day of personal wonderings. How would my own personal world be different had Dr. King not given the ultimate sacrifice? What have I been able to experience because he came. What would be missing had he not come? Here are a few personal reflections.

Dr. King gave his life as the ultimate sacrifice and because of that sacrifice I was able to have Dr. Robert Lee Washington as a high school teacher; Charles, a friend from upstate New York, my wife, and I had that experience of looking for an apartment in Memphis long ago and were able to make sense of it; the N-word is not a part of my vocabulary; and bringing together kids of all groups, black and white, rich and poor, public school and private, middle and upper class neighborhoods and projects was an important effort at the church in Memphis.

Developing four social justice teams at Abilene Christian University in the COAMFTE-accredited MFT program happened and all of our lives are different as we explored Black farmer, Black Indian, and white privilege issues, and as we presented at various forums around the country, Christian and secular.

Meeting and engaging BFAA, Gary and the Grant family, Dr. Muhammad, Dr. Spencer Wood, and farmers in North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas have been rich and challenging. Hearing story after story after story and gathering health and well being information, for me have been life changing.

Publishing a modest piece with Dr. Edward Robinson and seeing it referenced in several journal articles says that the work is being noticed. Ours was just one piece that this researcher and preacher of the gospel was working on at that time.

Walking the farmers' land in Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, and other places brought a gripping reality to the progress and the lack thereof in matters related to the USDA.

Meeting USDA officials at one meeting and being encouraged by one person to just tell the farmers to get over it and move on and at the same conference feeling moved as one speaker had us shut off our microphones as she spoke from the heart about injustices.

Participating in mediation hears with DOJ and the USDA brought home the reality of how persons in governmental positions saw Black farmers versus how Black farmers viewed themselves and their stories. I am swayed by both. Power and privilege and the lack thereof will forever be significant concepts and realities.

Meeting Harry Young and marching on his behalf in Kentucky with Monica Davis, Charla Hinson, Dwayne Burger, and others provided an insight into organizing protests. Attending the community action meeting with Gary Grant and others in Scotland Neck, NC as that community attempted to save its local schools and their kids from six hours on a bus every day gave me a perspective on community activism and its influences.

Walking through Sweet Auburn and reflecting on a friend's words, "Several years ago we would not have been able to do this," meaning that a black man and a white man could not walk across the street in that section of Atlanta or any other black section of America had it not been for Dr. King.

Considering the fact that I now live in Indian Country, work for an American Indian tribe, bringing a family way of thinking to a people who still experience the impact of historical trauma. Those experiences at ACU and with Black farmers prepared me for this work. Thinking, talking, and strategizing about how to bring music and lyrics of farmers' struggles into the mainstream is something I do often

The questions are still the same. In what societal ways and in what personal ways are you and I different because Dr. King came? In what ways are we personifying his "I Have a Dream" speech that day in DC? In what ways are we helping to remove Jim Crow ways of thinking from the hearts of people?

Just wondering this evening. Just recounting a few personal stories.

Troubling My Soul

2011-06-04T10:54:00.000-05:00

Few things trouble my soul quite like the challenges the Grant family in Tillery, NC has with holding on to their farm. Their story is well chronicled in many places on the web. Gary has been an activist since he was a youth. His sister, Van, likewise. My wife and I love them and respect them deeply.

Please take the time to read the letter that follows. Pray for this family. Contribute to the cause of this family. Help us to help this family. They have given much to the righeous cause of justice, and justice especially for African American farmers.

This letter is addressed to Eric Holder, Attorney General of the US. Feel free to cut and paste it and send it on under your name.

TO:

The Obama Administration
Attention: Eric Holder, Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

askdoj@usdoj.gov

FROM:
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________

Ph: ____________E-mail: _______________

RE: Matthew and Florenza Moore Grant - (Gary Grant v. USDA)

I am very concerned that the legal case of Matthew and Florenza Moore Grant vs. USDA was recently and unfairly thrown out by a North Carolina District Federal Court.

For over thirty years the Grant family has been fighting for justice and is now being buried once again in legalized minutia, with serious consequences. These are the facts that are not disputed: USDA has played a dangerous and proverbial game of “cat and mouse” offering the Grants, on three occasions, a settlement which never materialized, though never because the Grants rejected it. At the same time not one employee of USDA has been penalized, fired, or denied their retirement benefits. The USDA, whose employees perpetuated all the years of discriminatory policies against the Grants and other Black farmers, remains unscathed.

Now the courts are retreating from addressing these claims as they sense political pressure from right-wing ideologues and right-wing zealots such as columnist Andrew Breitbart and Representatives Steve King (R-IA) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who are trying to stop Black farmer settlements by arguing that there is “rampant fraud” among the claimants. Not only are these claims unsupported, but no one has ever made any such claims regarding the case of the Grant family. The “investigations” by Breitbart, King, Bachmann, and others are sadly more racialized witch-hunt than objective fact finding.

There have been many important struggles in the Civil Rights Movement. Discrimination against Black farmers is an important civil rights struggle today. The Grant family has been, and continues to be, part of the Black farmer leadership cadre. In what appears to be an effort to attack the leadership of this struggle, the USDA, Department of Justice, and various courts have singled out the Grant family and other families who have stood as part of the Black farmer leadership by drawing out their cases. Most recently emboldened by a shifting political climate, lower-level courts have single-handedly dismissed the legal demands of several leadership families. This is a stunning and legally unsound tactic that perpetuates the egregious suffering of Black farmers. This is all occurring while no one disputes that these families suffered devastating discrimination at the hands of local USDA officials.

Mr. and Mrs. Grant both died in 2001overwhelmed and broken-hearted because their government had failed them so miserably. As progressive farmers, their land and way of life, and their happiness and well-being had been racially exploited and were in serious jeopardy.

I want to add my influence and voice to support the settlement of the Grants’ legal claims. This tragic outcome can be readily remedied with the settlement they were promised and deserve through your thoughtful and rigorous leadership.

Regarding the struggle for equal treatment of the Black farmer, history will ask…. “What did you do?”

cc: Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) - http://hagan.senate.gov/contact/

Thanks for the Opportunity

2011-06-04T10:18:00.000-05:00

It is a rare occasion on which my wife and I both get to speak of our commitment to the cause of African American farmers. This summer at our church, a variety of folks are invited to speak of their vocations or avocations, and the ways in which God is involved.

Charla and I traced the history of our involvement, told stories that illustrate the plight of farmers against the racism of the USDA, and placed all of these issues against the larger context of God's Kingdom Come, and the place that social justice has in the greater threads of the Christian movement.

Frankly, we were reminded once more of how the stories have impacted our lives. We think the audience was more than curious about the Cause.

So, thanks to Eddie Poblete, minister of the Central Church of Christ, Ada, Oklahoma, for inviting us to speak. My prayer is that more activists for the Cause have been found.

Auction Blocks and Courthouse Steps

2011-05-28T10:44:00.001-05:00

For several weeks now I have had various words and tunes in my head that parallel auction blocks and sale of Black-owned farms on courthouse steps. Not that these two situations are entirely analogous, but that they do have some curious and demeaning parallels. "No More Auction Block" by Robeson, Odetta, and Dylan is the standard. At the end of the day, I may just add some lyrics to that haunting tune.

In the midst of doing some research on auction blocks, I came across the book, Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember. You can read a review here. It is not a warm-hearted read, but it is a "I need to know and respect and remember" read. One remembrance that especially moved my heart and fits into the conversation about lyrics and tunes is one by James Martin. Here he is in his own words:

The slaves are put in stalls like the pens they use for cattle--a man and his wife with a child on each arm. And there's a curtain, sometimes just a sheet over the front of the stall, so the bidders can't see the "stock" too soon. The overseer's standin' just outside with a big blacksnake ship and a pepperbox pistol in his belt. Across the square a little piece, there's a big platform with steps leadin' up to it.

Then, they pulls up the curtain, and the bidders is crowdin' around. Them in back can't see, so the overseer drives the slaves out to the platform, and he tells the ages of the slaves and what they can do. They have white gloves there, and one of the bidders takes a pair of gloves and rubs his fingers over a man's teeth, and he says to the overseer, "You call this buck twenty years old? Why there's cup worms in his teeth. He's forty years old, if he's a day." So they knock this buck down for a thousand dollars. They calls the men "bucks" and the women "wenches."

When the slaves is on the platform--what they calls the "block"--the overseer yells, "Tom or Jason, show the bidders how you walk." Then, the slaves step across the platform, and the biddin' starts.

At these slave auctions, the overseer yells, "Say, you bucks and wenches, get in your hole. Come out here." Then, he makes 'em hop, he makes 'em trot, he makes 'em jump. "How much," he yells, "for this buck? A thousand? Eleven hundred? Twelve hundred dollars?" Then, the bidders makes offers accordin' to size and build.----page 291.

These images must not be denied nor forgotten.

Just a Few More Words

2011-05-08T20:48:00.001-05:00

The previous post from today deserves a few more words. As most of you who read the words on these pages know, I have been actively involved with the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association since 2005. A modest faculty renewal leave from Abilene Christian University led to an engagement with Gary Grant, President of BFAA. Justifiably so, this organization needed to check me out. From there, my wife and I went to Tillery in the summer of 2005 followed by trips to North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas to interview African American farmers who had experienced discrimination at the hands of the USDA.

That partnership led to Memphis, TN and a Black Summit, and then Summits in North Carolina, and even a modest role on the board of BFAA. Interviews with both Black and White farmers in the region.

Along the way, my role was very clear: tell the stories of Black farmers in places and spaces where they will not or cannot go, explain the impact of discrimination and "farming while Black" on the health and well being of farmers and families, and get the stories and the health challenges to as broad an audience as possible.

Along the way we also developed four Social Justice Teams at ACU. You'll find them within the pages of this blog. Those people and those efforts flow through my veins unlike any other work with university students. To this day, those students and I talk on occasion about those days, and they tell me about what they are doing for the cause of justice in this world. I am proud of them and the work we did.

At the 12th Annual Black Land Loss Summit, immediately after lunch, we assembled for the beginning of afternoon presentations and conversations. First, there was an award to Rose Sanders, a hero in the fight for justice as she worked on behalf of farmers involved in the Pigford Class Action Suit.

It was then my turn to present. Instead, Gary Grant asked for me to come forward. I was in my own world of thinking about the presentation (it is noted a post or two back). He also called in Charla from the booth outside the conference hall. I do not recall what Gary said, but I do recall the family gathering around, and Charla saying some words that only she can say in ways that only she can say them. I whispered to Gary,"I'll say a few things in my presentation." Photos were taken.

I moved to the front to speak. Words would not come. Emotions did. Words would not. It is not like me to draw a blank. All I could say was "stunned." Fighting through the tears, I babbled a few things and moved into the presentation. Thankfully the moment is memorialized in the Commonwealth Progress. There we all are. I looked stunned, Charla is in tears, the family is clapping, and one grandson looks on in curiosity.

So, I do not feel deserving of this award. That is what some have said. I am honored to receive the award named for a man who died before I came along. I am honored to have on my wall an award in his name. I love his family.

My wife and I are committed to the cause for which he and his beloved wife died.

That is the best that I can do.

There is much to be done.

"A Man Called Matthew Award"

2011-05-08T20:24:00.001-05:00

May 8, 2011

The Grant Family

Concerned Citizens of Tillery
P.O. Box 61
Tillery, NC 27887

Dear Friends:

The list of past recipients of “A Man Called Matthew Award” is lengthy and impressive, and for my name to be listed alongside theirs is an honor unlike any I have ever received. Those men and women form in my limited estimation a hall of fame of those who have immersed themselves in the fight for justice for African American farmers.

Unlike that afternoon at the 12th National Black Land Loss Summit when I could not find the words to express my gratitude, the time since has allowed moments of reflection upon the intersection of our paths and convictions. A modest faculty renewal leave in 2005 from Abilene Christian University, the visits to Tillery, the friendships that you have formed with my wife, Charla, and me, engaging with students from the Social Justice Teams, the Summits at Tillery and at Franklinton Center, and the encouragement to tell the stories of farmers and families, all form an amazing tapestry of our mutual commitment to the cause of justice for African American farmers and families.

Some matters are simply intellectual pursuits and look good in a faculty member’s tenure and promotion file, but justice is at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a reflection of the reign of God’s kingdom in this world. Our calling as followers of the Man from Nazareth is to leave the world a better place than we found it, one act of righteousness at a time.

Simply put, I am very grateful for your willingness to entrust to Charla and me the stories of your lives, and to allow us to walk with you and to fight with you on behalf of African American farmers and families. My commitment is to “wear” the award with dignity, respect, and humility.

With love and respect, and on behalf of Black farmers and families,

Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.
Activist/Advocate/Researcher

No More Auction Block

2011-05-01T19:07:00.000-05:00

I was recently introduced to Bob Dylan's version of this song. This one by Odetta is incredible.

12th National Black Land Loss Summit

2011-04-17T17:48:00.000-05:00

The Summit title was gripping enough, "Still Fighting, Still Farming, and Still Eating," but the list of previous Summits and where this one fell was also of much interest. From 1997 to 2011, other Summits have been Black Land Loss: And Then There Was None; Justice for Black Farmers; Steps to Healing the Land; Ten Years After Pigford--Moving Forward; A Vision for the Future; and Save the Land--Benefit & Rally, just to name a few.

The Summit has a rich background against the legacy of land loss and discriminatory practices of the USDA. The Concerned Citizens of Tillery and the Land Loss Fund are also rich in history. See this link for a summary of these historical times and places.

Multiple goals were set for this year's Summit including reversing African American land loss, increasing the number of Black farm families in operation, and developing an inventory of what farm families produce around the country.

Dinner at the Tillery Community Center, a walk through the Tillery History House, and viewing and discussing the documentary "We Shall Not Be Moved: The History of the Resettlement Farm" got the Summit off to a good start.On Saturday morning, a panel of Gary Grant, BFAA president; Rose Sanders, legal counsel for Black farmers under Pigford; and Dr. Ridgley Mu'min, Minister of Agriculture and director of the Nation of Islam's farm participated. The two-hour session was a review and history of the Pigford Class Action Suit and what it achieved and what is has left unaddressed. This was a fascinating time as three passionate leaders presented similar and different view points on Pigford.

Stephen Bowens, Attorney at Law with Bowens Law, PLLC, presented the history and complications of Wise v. Veneman (2000) and most recent developments for the families and their cases following the decision by the courts to not certify a number of families as a class. In short, the courts are often not a place to seek justice in this day and age.

After lunch, I presented "Living, Dying, and Thriving: Family Life and the USDA." After several years of interviews, hours of discussing matters with farmers and family members, the verdict is clear: farming is hard work, farming for Black farmers is even more difficult, and when the USDA gets involved (as in the case for Pigford claimants and others), many signs and symptoms of the impact of discrimination are seen in the life, health, and family of the farmer and family.

Dr. Spencer Wood, sociology faculty, Kansas State University, presented a complex set of data and interpretations related to Black land loss in "Land Loss, Confusing Statistics, & Economics of Land Ownership." He is the premier expert on this topic. In short, it is not a pretty picture.

Doroathy Barker facilitated a group of panelists from the USDA on "USDA Rural Development and Forestry Divisions--Operation Spring Plant," in which options for the use of land were presented. If matters can be trusted, there are multiple options available for minority farmers to work the land successfully.

Crystal Matthews, attorney with the Land Loss Prevention Project, Durham, NC described the "Land Loss Prevention Project's Smart Growth Business Center." Interesting material. See this link for more.

Scott Muhammad, Co-Director with his wife, Erica Henry, of Students for Education and Economic Development (SEED, Inc.), Eutaw, Alabama, presented a challenging and captivating presentation on how to get city cousins onto the land. More specifically, his 16-week apprenticeship program looks like a doable venture.

Planning for the future brought together Gary Grant, BFAA president; Eddie Wise, farmer and entrepreneur from North Carolina; and Willie Wright, research associate from UNC to the table to discuss "Where Do We Go from Here? Planning for the Future." The struggle for justice in the USDA and its policies, diversity in farming, and the future of Black land ownership were discussed.

Again, there is much to be done.

Black Land Loss Summit: Personal Thoughts

2011-04-17T15:27:00.019-05:00

Tillery is both a place in space and time and a personal space and place for my wife and me. We first met Gary Grant, members of the Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association, the Concerned Citizens of Tillery, and the Open Minded Seniors in June, 2005. Seems like we've been friends for much longer. The actual number of times we've traveled to this rural, farming community escapes me at the moment. There are the other occasions in which we have met up with these good people and other advocates for justice.

This event required preparation in a number of ways. Knowing that I was to speak and knowing the gravity of the Summit required time and energy well in advance. I am never quite prepared for events, conversations, and presentations. They have taken on a life of their own with us.

"Still Fighting, Still Farming, Still Eating" reads like a riveting title. 12th National Black Land Loss Summit is likewise riveting.

The Biblical passage printed on the conference brochure reads like something from church, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Sound familiar? Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter six, verse 12.

We fly into RDU, travel by rental car to Roanoke Rapids, marvel at the beauty along the way, check in to the motel, rest a bit, and then meet up with Gary and Spencer. It's on. A challenging evening of conversation, issues, and challenges and opportunities is just the beginning.

The next day, we head out to the Community Center after doing a few errands in town. First task of the day? Sweep the floor. We are family. We sweep the floor. After a light lunch, we set up the display table, a chronology of previous summits and gatherings in the form of t-shirts and booklets. Participants begin to arrive. The crowd swells. Dinner, "We Shall Not Be Moved," and more engaging conversations. On the way back to Roanoke Rapids from Tillery, we sing songs and tell of their origins with a person who has flown in from Alabama to join us.

Saturday morning, we shift to Halifax Community College. Displays set up, technology in place, the people begin to arrive. A stimulating day of debate, information, food, conversation both public and private, new friends who have traveled hours and hours to get there, and plans for the future. The "A Man Called Matthew Award" will remain memorable as long as I have memory.

Photos taken, goodbye exchanges made, more dinner conversation, more goodbyes, and a final trip back to Tillery. That is a skeleton outline of the weekend. More in the next post on this page.

How to capture it? People, racism, farming, farming against all conceivable odds, different perspectives of the world, a collision of ideas and ideologies, friends forever in a common cause for justice.

There is much to be done.

12th National Black Land Loss Summit

2011-04-03T17:51:00.006-05:00

12th National Black Land Loss Summit

Still Fighting, Still Farming and Still Eating

April 8-9, 2011

Historic Site of the Tillery Resettlement Community

and

Halifax Community College, Weldon, NC

Friday and Saturday, April 8 and 9, promise to be interesting and challenging days.

The 12th National Black Land Loss Summit will be held in the beautiful farming community of Tillery, North Carolina, site of the Tillery Resettlement Community and on the campus of Halifax Community College, Weldon, NC. Check out the BFAA web page for complete details. Check out the Halifax web page for the greater Halifax area points of interest.

Special rates are offered at the Holiday Inn Express, Roanoke Rapids, for attendees.

The event begins at 4:00 pm on Friday and runs until 9:00 or so Friday night. There will be good food and good conversation around the documentary, We Shall Not Be Moved. You will be moved at the presentation and discussion of this important piece of history.

On Saturday, beginning at 9:00 am on the campus of Halifax Community College, and ending around 5:30 pm will be a riveting schedule of speakers and topics.

The speakers are farmers, advocates, attorneys, and researchers. They are affiliated with the USDA, the Land Loss Prevention Project, or the Nation of Islam. Are care deeply about land loss among African American farmers. All care deeply about families.

The topics range from the real truth of Pigford I and II, the Wise Class Action Suit denial, the impact of discrimination on the health and well being of farmers, rural development options for farmers and families, the Land Loss Prevention Project's ideas relative to business, and getting youth back into farmer. There will be much, much more.

These events are always stirring and memorable. My wife and I have been to several. We hope to attend more.

Here are some reflections on the last Summit. You'll see some photographs as well.

12th National Black Land Loss Summit

2011-02-27T19:06:00.003-06:00

Save the date: April 8-9, 2011!

12th National Black Land Loss Summit

Theme: Still Fighting, Still Farming and Still Eating

Historic Sites of Tillery Community and the Franklinton Center at Bricks, NC

This summit will bring together farmers, landowners, panelists, activists, researchers, and academics from across the country to develop a plan of survival for Black farmers and landowners. This will be an action-oriented seminar focused on how to increase the number of young Black farmers, land use diversification, rural community gardens, food sovereignty in "forgotten communities," and improvement of health within Black communities.

A central focus will also be the latest developments in the Pigford Class Action Lawsuit, or better known as Pigford II.

See www.bfaa-us.org for more information and opportunities to contribute financially to the cause.

I hope to see you there.

Save the Land: Black Farmers Benefit & Rally

2010-10-09T20:03:00.003-05:00

The Black Farmers Benefit & Rally is set for Saturday, October 23, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, at Unit #46, the Moore/Grant Homestead, 914 Roanoke Drive, Halifax, NC.

Come early and see the History House. Travel the beautiful countryside and ponder what it looked like during the resettlement years when African American farmers worked then land.

Consider what is happening these days to Black farmers and Black land owners. Land loss is a tragedy for people whose blood is on the land.

Better known as Tillery, NC, farmers are encouraged to come and tell their stories.

Friends and supporters are encouraged to come, enjoy the music, eat some good food, and make a tax deductible contribution to the Black Farmers and Agriculturalist Association.

Farmers, students, and entertainers will have their rooms covered.

Attendees from out of the area can get special discounted rates at Hampton Inn, Quality Inn, and the Hilton Garden Suites, all in Roanoke Rapids, just a few miles up the road. Hit the link Stay! at the top of the page, go to one of those motels, and identify yourself as attending the Save the Land event. Or, ask for the "farmer rate," or tell them that you're attending the BFAA event. Any will get you the special lower rate.

Early arrivers on Friday, October 22 can view the movies "We Shall Not Be Moved" and "Alaska Far Away."

Entertainers include Ermitt "Mr. Blues" Williams, Mighty Men of Valor, Mad Praise Recording Artists Ahnu and Crystal Clear, and Siobhan Quinn and Michael Bowers.

It will be a grand occasion. I hope to see you there.

Tomorrow Another Vote

2010-08-01T18:37:00.002-05:00

Senator Reid, D-NV insists that tomorrow will bring a face to face vote on the discrimination case of Pigford v. USDA as well as the Cobell case of American Indians v. the US Department of the Interior. It's called a stand alone vote. I can hear some in America groaning, wondering when all of this pay-out of our tax payers dollars is going to end. We're living in 2010, they will say, not 300 years ago, so just get over it. I didn't do anything to them, and neither did my grandparents, so why are you holding us accountable for history's misdeeds? Check out the article for the facts about the vote and comments about it as well. Interesting. Very interesting.

It's not that simple, is it? History is revisited daily in lives of some people, all based upon bias and skin color and assumptions and "world views," and all of that sort of thing.

Injustice is injustice. Wrongs need to be made right. America needs to address grievances from the USDA upon the lives of Black, Indian, Hispanic, and women farmers. Let's deal with the African American farmer issue. Yes, some received a settlement under Pigford. Those stats are very, very misleading. Only a small number prevailed, and the majority under the least amount of dollars. I can tell you a lot of stories. There are many stories that need to be told, stories that would make us weep if we didn't take it so personally and react defensively.

Tomorrow is a pivotal day. The vote comes. Face to face they will stand, Democrats and Republicans. I hope I'm wrong about the vote. Lord, bring victory to these struggling families who serve you by working the land.

A friend of mine posted me today on Facebook with this link. It summarizes a lot. I don't think it could be said much better. The Sherrod case is indicting more than just one or two people. At the end of it, it pretty much says what I've been thinking and what I wrote on these pages a few days back. I hope you'll read it. It's found in Yes Magazine and talks about the real story of racism at the USDA. It's a long, long, ugly history of injustices to Black farmers of this land.

Small farms, black farms.......

2010-07-30T15:40:00.001-05:00

Farmers are farmers. Farm families are farm families. Small family farms are passing away and we must fight to keep them.

There are some significant differences though.

Black farms are going away faster than White family farms.

Let's march arm in arm together.

I'm trying to link up Farm Aid with Black FarmAide Action Gathering.

Any suggestions?

I'm listening.

Shirley Sherrod, Modern Day Hero

2010-07-25T15:42:00.003-05:00

I am not a news reporter. Neither am I an unbiased observer of these processes. Here are my stream of consciousness reflections of the past few days.

The news feeds came in rapid-fire. USDA official fired. Racism in the department still. Black woman resigns under pressure from USDA secretary and the White House. The woman is Shirley Sherrod, USDA's Director of the Georgia Office of Rural Development. She had previously worked with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund.

It has happened so fast that there is now a wikipedia page about Ms. Sherrod and the process.

Like you, I read those early accounts with interest. "There's more to this story," I thought. A former student posted me, "What do you think about this?" There's more to the story.

The short, edited speech reveals inner reflections and thoughts of a Black woman in White America helping a White family hold on to their farm when Blacks are losing their farms at an alarming rate. She sends the White family to a white attorney. This was in 1986.

Then, various pieces of the story began to emerge. A longer speech had been edited. Surely there is a political agenda behind that. A major news network picks it up unedited. She's fired. Compelled to pull off to the side of the road and send her resignation via Blackberry. The White House wants you to resign.

The outcry is huge. An acquaintance sends out a lengthy post to a large group of people, including me for some reason. The tenor of the post is "it's time to get over it," "discrimination is over in the USDA," "an appointed official cannot speak her mind so openly," and on and on it went. A friend sends a measured but intense response back with multiple themes of think more critically before you respond, get the facts, read the times, know the history, work for change, and other things. I'm lining up behind the latter.

The White couple attest to her support. They are at the center of the storm, baffled at the speed and pace and spin of the story that involves them. Ms. Sherrod helped them save their land.

The edited version of the speech is there, edited at a curious moment in the context of a larger speech. The larger speech is indeed longer. The cry is for her to be restored to her position.

The truth comes to light. She was reflecting upon her change of mind and heart and attitude, a shift away from a racist perspective. She told her story of triumph over bigotry. She rose to a higher place and space of professionalism and humanity. She joined in the fight to stave off the loss of small family farms.

She has a long history of fighting for justice, even within her own family and among her own friends. Therein lies a story that deserves even more interest. Her friends are sticking up for her. She has a personal story of injustice.

The agenda of the editor is exposed. Fox News scrambles to explain itself. CNN had it but didn't move on it until more information was revealed.

In systems theory terms, this is schismogenesis at its finest. Or at its worse.

The USDA secretary calls and apologizes. The President calls and apologizes. Hasty decisions are undone. Maybe. Ms. Sherrod gets to decide now.

I want to believe their sincerity, but the Pigford II class action suit is still unsettled. Congress has not found its way to fund the $1.15 billion settlement. Republicans are blocking the vote left and right. Farmers are dying. Farms are going on the auction block.

Shirley Sherrod has gone from villain to heroine.

For me there are several subtexts of this story. In the world in which we live, information and disinformation are sent in a heart beat. Pieces of a story are foisted upon us as the whole. Political agendas are racialized.

Inequities still exist. We are not far removed from "The Civil Rights Action Team" and its 1997 report of racism within the USDA. We are not removed from "The Civil Rights Implementation Team" and its 1999 report that the USDA had not moved fast enough. We are not far removed from Congressman Stenholm's comment that if someone is found guilty of discrimination, they should be fired.

He said, "I am confident that most USDA employees are implementing their programs in a fair and consistent manner and would not violate the civil rights of customers that they are charged with serving. However, we cannot deny that there is a problem at USDA. Currently, they are faced with at least four class action lawsuits, and U.S. taxpayers have been exposed to the payment of millions of dollars in settlements. The USDA employees that have brought about these claims should have been by now removed, if not, they should be removed."

I agreed then. At least I agreed to part of what he said, the part about employees should be removed. I agree now. I've yet to see the evidence.

In my relatively meager involvement with Black farmers and families since the mid-1990s, I have heard numerous stories of farmers and their battles against discrimination. Some stories were told on the record and are recorded in BFAA's Historical Archives. Other stories were told off the record, not for public scrutiny. Others have been told in informal conversations at land loss summits. Others wound up in litigation. Some have been told on these pages. The one most compelling was that under oath an official both lied and was guilty of forging documents. He was forced to move over to another county. A year later he was promoted to the state level.

There are multiple subtexts to this story. Here is one that is of deepest interest to me.

I find it inescapable that a Black woman is forced to resign. I find it inescapable that I have not heard of Whites resigning. Maybe I just missed those stories, but probably not.

The whole story is out there. It is out there somewhere. Maybe we will all get it some day.

God forbid that the story remain a secret.

Still waiting longer..............

2010-06-27T15:27:00.003-05:00

President Obama's signature bill to fund an extension of unemployment benefits along with other measures took a hit the other day, falling three votes short of passing, 57 to 41. No Republicans voted for the bill. This was a complicated bill and had within it a variety of funding streams. The unemployed and Black farmers got the short end of the congressional stick. Looks like there is definitely a political spin to this as well.

Here is a paragraph from a CBS news article that summarizes the things we discuss on these pages. Read the article in its entirety here.

"The catchall measure also includes farm disaster aid, $1 billion for a youth summer jobs initiative and an extension of a bond program that subsidizes interest costs for state and local infrastructure projects. It would levy a new tax on investment fund managers but extend tax breaks such as lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and develop new products, and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in states without income taxes.

The death of the measure would mean that more than 200,000 people a week would lose their jobless benefits because they would be unable to reapply for additional tiers of benefits enacted since 2008. People seeking the popular homebuyer tax credit would be denied a paperwork extension approved by the Senate last week. And state and local governments would lose subsidies on bonds they issue to finance infrastructure projects.

It also includes $4.6 billion to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit brought by black farmers against the Agriculture Department for discrimination and another by American Indians involving the government's management and accounting of more than 300,000 trust accounts. By the end of this week, more than 1.2 million people will have lost their jobless benefits since a temporary extension expired at the beginning of the month, according to Labor Department estimates."

Still waiting.................

2010-05-15T15:44:00.004-05:00

From what I've read on various blog and news pages of late, Black farmers are dying. At least two funerals have been held over the last two or three weeks. John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers Association has spoken about these matters on his web page. Gary Grant, President of Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, has spoken personally about being at these funerals. Spencer Woods, activist and advocate for Black farmers posted recently on a Facebook page that it looks like there is an intent to wait Black farmers out until they die. It's hard to receive a payment for years of injustice if the one mistreated is dead.

In the latest issue of Readers Digest, an article discusses the injustices and inequities of the manner in which federal subsidies are handed out. In South Florida, the deceased receive payments. No longer are the last names of farmers in the majority of recipients. Instead, mega-farm operations are receiving supplements. According to this article 75% of the funding goes to 10% of recipients. What is right about that?

If you are interested in what is happening in your area, the Environmental Working Group has a farm subsidy database. My students and I on the social justice team at ACU worked our way through a similar page a couple of years ago. It was more than interesting.

Recently Senator Reid of Nevada asked for a unanimous consent request in the Senate to settle the $1.15 billion commitment that President Obama made to Black farmers. It looks like partisan politics continues to enter the fray. It's time to settle this score, insofar as a modest sum of money can settle any act(s) of racial discrimination from policies and procedures of the USDA.

Here is a string of sources and quotes that summarize this serious matter.

If these do not move you, read this Tampa Bay area story about Mr. Bonner. It should move you. It did me.

Calls to officials at the White House and your senators would be appreciated.

Time is of the essence.

Bitter disappointment

2010-04-05T19:02:00.002-05:00

Yes, you've likely heard it by now. Congress recessed without passing the legislation to settle the "Pigford II" case that was hailed by President Obama. Yes, we know that health care reform is important. However, the President and Congress disappointed thousands of Black farmers, their families, and friends like me.

Here are those reports, written far better than I could write them.

Southern Studies

African American Environmentalist Association

Richmond County Daily Journal

Reuters

Washington Post

The Hill

The Indypendent

Federal Times

And many, many others, all reporting the same thing: promises made, people's hope built up, documents signed, inertia settles in, and encouragements offered once more.

Check out these important pieces of information from BFAA.

Become of member of the BFAA Facebook page. Keep up on what is going on.

We remember.................

2010-04-04T14:00:00.001-05:00

Blackcommentator: Black Farmers and Justice

2010-03-30T20:23:00.003-05:00

The following appeared in a February issue of blackcommentatory.com. It is now laid alongside the fact that Congress is now in recess and did not deal with this issue. Injustice continues to reign.

This article is fairly long, but I hope you'll give it a close read. It provides a good summary of the litigation with Black farmers. It describes some of the outcomes. It was hopeful. That time has passed. I hope it'll come again.

AFTER WAITING AND FIGHTING FOR DECADES, BLACK FARMERS MAY GET A LITTLE JUSTICE

Black farmers of America may finally be compensated for the loss of their farms and their land all across the southern states, with the recent announcement of a $1.25 billion bias settlement between representatives of the farmers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The discrimination occurred over decades and involved county agriculture committees that were charged with providing USDA-connected loans to farmers in their counties. The members of the committees were white and many of the farmers were black and therein was the opportunity for the long-term bias and discrimination. The Obama Administration has congratulated Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the farmers’ representatives in the agreement to settle the class action lawsuit, known as “Pigford II.” Pigford I was named for Timothy Pigford, a black farmer who was a lead plaintiff in the original case that was settled in the mid-1990s.

That first suit against the USDA was brought against President Bill Clinton’s agriculture secretary, Dan Glickman. Many farmers were left out of the suit and the number of farmers who received a part of the settlement was small enough that the legal case was continued. The result was the announced settlement this month. Congress authorized only $100 million to pay those farmers who were left out of the Pigford I settlement, so President Obama proposed in the 2010 federal budget an additional $1.15 billion to fund a complete settlement of all of the Pigford II lawsuits. About 16,000 black farmers were compensated in the first settlement, even though there were possibly 66,000 who might have been eligible. In that 1999 consent agreement, the total paid was about $1 billion. Most of the farmers in that case opted for the expedited $50,000 payment that required a rather low burden of proof of having suffered discrimination.

Because of the large number of farmers in Pigford I who didn’t know about the class action lawsuit or were not aware of the deadlines for joining the suit, black farmers’ organizations kept pushing to continue the suit. Included were John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, and Gary Grant, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association. Boyd expressed his satisfaction that the case finally seems to be settled, saying that the farmers and the government have “buried the hatchet.” But Grant, a veteran of the war with the USDA since his father, Matthew, was notified that his farm in Tillery, N.C., was to be foreclosed back in the 1970s, was not so quick to celebrate. He pointed out that farmers may receive the $50,000 and debt relief or debt forgiveness, but that farmers will have to pay taxes on the debt relief as “income.” There is a longer process, as well, he noted, in which black farmers might get as much as $250,000 in compensation, but it’s a longer process and the farmers in the class are not young and most of them might not be willing to go through such a drawn-out procedure.

Also, he did not want to jump the gun and say it was settled, because Congress next month has to approve the budget with the $1.25 billion for the agreement. The loss of black-owned land over the generations has been steady and it’s important to have a historical perspective on the problem: In 1920, one in every seven farmers in America was black, but, by the early 1980s, only one in every 67 farmers was black. Put another way, in 1910, black farmers owned 15.6 million acres and, by the early 1980s, they owned only 3.1 million acres. There were an estimated 926,000 black-run farms in the U.S. in 1920. By the early 1980s, there were said to be only 33,000 and, by the 1990s, even that low number had dwindled by a third. Black farmers lost so many millions of acres of land through a long process of political, social, and economic abuse, including lack of access to capital from both public and private institutions, lack of knowledge of their legal rights, lack of access to land (for expansion of existing farms), and loss of heired property.

The latter was used by unscrupulous land speculators and frequently by other farmers in the county or neighborhood. When a farmer died without a will, the family inherited the farm and, if one member of the family wanted his or her piece of the farm, the entire farm had to be sold, so that the selling member could get his or her share. Often, this happened after family members left the home farm for industrial work in the north---say in Chicago, New York, Detroit, Cleveland, or Philadelphia---and the old place had little or no meaning any more. They could be easily convinced to sell a portion for $10,000 or less and, thereby, the farm was lost.

In Gary Grant’s view, that was the beginning of the end of any possibility of African-Americans taking their rightful place in American society. “A landless people is a powerless people,” he said. Since many of the farmers in the Pigford I class had been young under Jim Crow in the South, they knew how little power they had in their local communities, but what they did have, their farms, gave them a measure of freedom and independence, even under those conditions. Loss of that land base for black Americans was a trial for Grant and others across the South, who knew what was being lost.

Discrimination works in many ways and part of the suit included charges that the foot-dragging and delays of the county committees in providing timely loans in the spring made the difference between having a crop to pay the bills and having no crop and losing everything. Routinely, if a white farmer and a black farmer came to the county committee on the same day to have their loans approved for seed and fertilizer, the white farmer would have the loan approved and have money in hand in short order. The black farmer, on the other hand, would wait---it could be a paper wasn’t filled out right---and wait and wait. By the time the loan was approved, the white farmer’s crop would be six inches out of the ground before the black farmer bought seed. That’s just one of the ways farms and millions of acres were lost.

And that’s why the USDA settled first one lawsuit, then another when it was clear that those who had been left out were not going to go away. For those farmers who were in accumulated debt to the tune of $200,000 or $300,000, a settlement of $50,000 is not going to make much difference, either in Pigford I or Pigford II. For most who will accept the agreement, though, it’s the principle of the thing and an acknowledgement that there is a little justice. It would appear that this was one of the most vital civil rights cases to occupy an entire people for the last half of the 20th Century, since it stems from post-Reconstruction and continued in one way or another for more than a century.

Yet, the issue did not raise a stir among any of the mainline U.S. civil rights organizations. African-American organizations might have made note of it at a convention or regional get-together, but it was not an issue of great concern, nor did the trade unions approach black land loss as a great civil rights issue, as they did in the larger civil rights movement of the 1960s. Nearing settlement, the USDA discrimination suit is likely to bring a sigh of relief from black farmers, but the land that is gone will not return to black families and they will not be raising families on their own land, with the dignity and self-respect that comes with being a tiller of your own soil. Had this been a bigger issue for more than just a few tens of thousands of black farmers and landowners, there might have been a different outcome.

Matthew Grant, Gary’s father, who built up his 40 acres in the Tillery resettlement community in the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, to a farm of some 300 acres on the Roanoke River, said it all in a one-page letter to Secretary Glickman in May, 1996. He explained that, since 1976, he had been in a “continued struggle” with Farmers Home Administration (FmHA), the year the USDA agency initiated foreclosure proceedings. He told Glickman in the letter, “…the blatant racial inequities practiced by the FmHA officers, which got Black farmers into trouble initially, have continued to be practiced. I was able to work with my other lenders and am now current with them. The only answer I have ever gotten from the FmHA agency is, ‘we are going to (sell) you out. It doesn’t matter who you bring.’ or ‘only the full amount due will stop the foreclosure.’”

Matthew also described a civil rights complaint he filed in December, 1995, over what he termed an act of “brazen discrimination”, when a USDA county soils director in Halifax, N.C., appeared wearing a necktie “depicting clearly a confederate troop of soldiers and a confederate flag waving in victory.” “It is difficult enough to make a living as a farmer,” he wrote. “I have farmed all my life and I love it. My wife and I have raised and educated 6 children of our own and 4 foster children without benefit of aid from any government agency. Now, in our golden years, we find that at a time we should be at peace, we are still struggling to get this matter settled. I have no other choice but to appeal to you.”

As did many farmers during the long wait for justice, Matthew Grant died before his farm’s future was settled. His family carries on that struggle. The settlement announced this month is welcome to most for many reasons, but money won’t make up for the families who suffered the generations-old injustices, for those who lost their land and farms, and for those who were sent looking for work in unfamiliar places.

Black Soil: African American Farmers' Struggle.....

2010-03-20T12:26:00.005-05:00

This volume has been on my shelf following a trip out to Tillery, NC several months ago. It has intrigued me for a while, demanded my attention, but only on this cold, wintry day have I felt compelled to pull it off the shelf and read through it.

Glad I did.

Louis Andreas Michaelsen, a journalist from Denmark, raised on a small family farm, received a degree in American Studies from the Center for American Studies, University of Southern Denmark, in 2008.

His masters thesis is an interesting read: "Black Soil: African American Farmers' Struggle from Emancipation into the 21st Century."

It covers the current landscape of the challenges for Black farmers. It also covers the landscape for African Americans from plantation to Pigford and beyond. He addresses both sides of institutional racism. He interviews four important figures in the Black farmer struggle, two I've met, one I know well, one I'd like to know better, and two I'd like to meet some day. My path with Lloyd Wright, Former Director, USDA Office of Civil Rights, crossed in August, 2007 at a DOJ/USDA mediation hearing in Washington, DC. My life has been intertwined with Gary Grant, BFAA President, since early 2005.

Among things that make Mr. Michaelsen's thesis an interesting document is his liberal use of photos throughout. While a thesis done in American universities would not allow this sort of personalization, his work permits photos of those interviewed to be placed in key places of text. I think that is a great juxtaposition of narrative and persons.

Beyond this, his appendices are both personal and historical. Newspaper articles about Blacks moving from the farm to the city, census documents, and correspondence between Wilkins of the NAACP and Freeman, Secretary of Agriculture, and other historical pieces, are fascinating.

Both personal and moving are other documents. Documents between the Grant family and the USDA, one in particular that was the "Final Resolution Agreement - Matthew Grant," signed by Lloyd Wright on March 2, 1998 and by Matthew Grant on 3-4-98, and witnessed by Barbara Demery and Timothy Burke, was especially interesting and historical. It should have settled the Matthew and Florenza Grant case v. USDA. Documents that follow from the hand of their son, Gary Grant, show that matters were not settled. To this day they remain unsettled.

Finally, Appendix M contains printed materials from the funeral of Florenza Moore Grant, wife of Matthew Grant, and mother of Gary Grant. She passed in 2001, four years before Charla and I met her family. One line reads, "In her own right, for almost 80 years, Florenza was the sunshine of our world, the courage of our strife, and the dazzling superior mother in the Grant 'House By the Side of the Road.'" We have stood on several occasions at their burial site on the Grant family farm.

We were moved the first time and we were moved the last time. We will stand there again, if the Lord permits.

So, thanks, Louis Andreas Michaelsen for this important work. It deserves to be read and reviewed often.

A Great Day in Tillery

2010-03-06T17:30:00.005-06:00

The drive out to Tillery is always interesting. The terrain changes. There are fewer houses and larger fields. The morning sun glistens off the dew. The fields are in preparation for planting.

And on this day, we pulled into the parking lot at the Tillery Community Center and breakfast was on the stove and on the counter. The gracious women of the Concerned Citizens of Tillery had prepared a most amazing breakfast for those of us who had gathered there for the board meeting of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association. Warm greetings and warmer hugs were just the start of the day. Thanks to those wonderful women who spread breakfast in a wonderful way for us to begin the day.

Grant Grant, President of BFAA, led us thoughout this moving day. The morning session was spent re-envisioning BFAA. We heard an incredible history lesson as to how we got here, told by one who was there from the beginning. We discussed a number of things in terms of where we are. We explored options of moving into the immediate future in matters of social justice that impact all of us. The conversation was lively, at times intense, and always with an eye to what is best for the movement of which we are a part. We articulated a vision that continues to set BFAA apart as a radical organization, one committed to social justice, to righting the wrongs perpetrated upon Black farmers. Among other things, our task is to inform in a clear and concise manner those specifics related to what is being called "Pigford II," or the reopening of possibilities via the President and Congress' actions for those who are labeled "late filers," or those who did not get admitted into the Pigford Class Action Suit based on technicalities.

We took a break mid-day and had lunch at the Tillery Resettlement Cafe. Evangeline Redding is always a gracious host and a wonderful cook. It's always a pleasure to sit around her tables, eat her wonderful food, and engage in meaningful and often humorous conversations about life, events, and people in Tillery.

In the afternoon we returned to the Center and continued our deliberations, this time in an effort to wrap our minds around what we are calling for the moment the "October Event." More information will follow as to what will make in my opinion an amazing event on the Grant Family Farm in Tillery, an event that will stir our souls and give us more information about the plight of Black farmers and the challenges of holding on to the land. As the sun set, we wrapped up our conversations and took a trip down to the Roanoke River.

As the sun set of the river, which was higher than I'd ever seen it before, I thought to myself, "Lord, I wonder if the sun is setting over more black land loss, or is it simply setting on a day in which we've deliberated about our role in the effort to stem the tide of land loss?"

More information will be posted on this page over the next few weeks about the "October Event." For you who are praying people, please pray for this event and its impact.

Obama's Leadership

2010-02-23T20:34:00.004-06:00

Yes, there are some interesting signs of movement in the White House related to settling the Pigford Case for those 70,000 farmers who are called "late filers," or those who did not get in under the wire for the original Pigford Class Action Suit. Here are the words printed in various newspapers around the country.

Associated Press

Reuters

Los Angeles Times

Wall Street Journal

CNN

The Hill

That's all the good news. The challenges that lie ahead include: Congress appropriating the funding, protocol to be put in place for hearing the cases, farmers finding out that they are not eligible since they have no tracking number, and no funding until '11 at the earliest.

In the meantime, farmers are dying. Some are losing their land. Some are walking away. Some can't walk away because they are too ill.

The Time for Action is Now: LA Times Editorial, February 8, 2010

2010-02-10T18:42:00.003-06:00

What does it take for a farmer to get the federal government to make good on a promise – particularly if it’s the U.S. Department of Agriculture and it involves restitution for years of racial discrimination in rural America?

Patience. A lot of patience. And when that runs out, rallying for some help from Congress and the White House.

The current brouhaha dates to 1999, when the USDA reached a settlement with black farmers in a discrimination case that alleged that the agency had denied federal loans, disaster assistance and other aid to certain farmers because of the color of their skin. (The agency is still fighting similar class-action suits filed by Latino and Native American farmers.)

The USDA approved about 15,000 claims and paid out about $1 billion, but has refused more than 70,000 claims that were filed after the October 1999 deadline. Farmers said they were given no notice of the deadline.

The two sides have been fighting ever since. And despite a fairly scathing slap by the Government Accountability Office a few years ago, and President Obama more recently pledging to add an additional $1 billion-plus to the settlement fund as part of other Congressional bills, the cash still isn’t getting out to these farmers.
So the farmers are shutting off their tractors and taking their frustrations to the streets. This week, the National Black Farmers Assn. has been staging rallies across the South, trying to bolster support. It might be a tough sell, given the current state of the economy. They’re planning to wrap up their campaign with a national rally on Feb. 15 in front of USDA's main offices in Washington.

-- P.J. Huffstutter

On this day and all days

2010-01-18T10:37:00.002-06:00

Here's one of my favorite clips of Dr. King. May it resonate with us all.

Another exchange of ideas about hair

2009-12-19T16:13:00.002-06:00

Sometimes it's important to sit back and let someone who knows what they're talking about to provide instruction. Following the last post on Kid Rock's documentary, a good friend made some provocative comments via email. It is with her permission that the following quote is placed here. Thanks, Janice, for once more making me think about things that matter.

I think Rock (didn't see the movie) tried to bring awareness through humor. I was struck by your comments about the business industry part of it. No doubt that money has been made, but I think that really oversimplifies the issue. The brief discussion shared between a friend and myself had to do with how much "hair" is related to slavery and the position/privilege aligned with your hair-the socialization or unconscious carryover to present. In short...those with straighter hair (more white hair) were usually the master's children, although not claimed. Those children were often the house slaves and "afforded" more privilege b/c of their relation to the master. They also had a tendency to perceive themselves as better although they were still slaves. Whites had a tendency to see them as prettier and b/c self image was highly influenced by the master race-for example, children begin to develop an idea of self in relation to how the parent views them. So, if whites didn't see black as pretty and the lighter you were, the less black you were, therefore, you must be pretty or prettier. The hair thing is very similar to the color thing-it all ties together. The fairer blacks obviously were the children of the master. If white is beautiful, then black must not be, so the less black you are, the prettier you are. It's crazy! So, here we are in the 21st century still talking about what (how one) defines beauty or status based on years of slavery, dissociating from things that make you more black-more acceptable. Probably mostly doing life in some form of "self hate" not realizing it nor being able to give it a name. Unconsciously playing out on a daily basis. --- Janice Hayes

"Good Hair:" Let It Speak for Itself

2009-10-31T08:22:00.002-05:00

Chris Rock is apparently walking out on thin ice in some circles. From his daughter's pleadings to his research and interviews, and now to this documentary, he is pulling aside the veil of secrecy between some and others, but not so between others and others. Hair care is a multi-billion dollar industry in this country, for African Americans and for others of all genders and ethnicities. It's both humorous, engaging, moving, and informing.

On the white side, just look sometimes at the lengths that we men will go to do keep, replace, or make younger our hair, and that's just on the male side of the spectrum. I'll have to ask my wife about the female side of the equation.

In the meantime, I've watched and listened from the side lines the issues that Rock addresses in this documentary. It's been a learning experience, and it's time for all of us to learn more out of respect, decency, and all. Let me know what you think about this trailer and/or the documentary.

Struck by Quotes from Merton and Cone

2009-10-24T16:05:00.002-05:00

In my surfing through various pages of readings today, these two quotes stood out:

From Thomas Merton:

For me--the betrayal I have to look out for is that which would consist simply in attaching myself to a "cause" that happens to be operating at this time, and getting involved, and letting myself be carried along with it, simply making appropriate noises from time to time, at a distance. -- End of 1965, V.342-43 as cited in A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals.

From James Cone:

Because Black Theology's Christology is based on the biblical portrayal of Jesus Christ and Jesus' past and present involvement in the struggle of oppressed peoples, it affirms that who Jesus Christ is for us today is connected with the divine future as disclosed in the liberation fight of the poor. When connected with the person of Jesus, hope is not an intellectual idea; rather, it is the praxis of freedom in the oppressed community. -- God of the Oppressed

Nobel Peace, Present and Future

2009-10-10T16:09:00.001-05:00

Rapping for health

2009-10-08T20:10:00.004-05:00

The Committee to Save Education

2009-09-06T12:24:00.013-05:00

Our last event in North Carolina was also one of the more interesting. We know that community involvement and education are important to Gary Grant, and we knew that he was serving on a committee to save community schools a few miles away.

Tired though we were, we traveled where he traveled, this man of boundless energy. We drove to the New Birth Tabernacle Church, Scotland Neck, NC, for a 7:00 pm meeting chaired by Clure Evans. A full agenda was printed for all, and with the crowd small, and the meeting not yet begun, we followed Gary's lead and met all attendees. The crowd got larger as the evening wore on. Young and old, men and women. Workers and retired. All were there.

Gary asked me to speak extemporaneously about the value of research. I stumblingly did so.

Seems like the county superintendent has left town, perhaps under pressure, and now the school board is selecting a new one, and at the top of the agenda is revisiting the closure of schools in this predominantly black area of rural NC. Middle School kids will begin the day after riding buses to school across the county, literally across the county. By report, these kids will get on the bus at 6:10 and not get home until after 5:00. The time on the bus will be approximately 4+hours for each kid. Now what's right about that? School buses are cool, but not when you have to live 1/5 of your day on them. I hear it's a major challenge for school bus drivers and for parents as well.

Several things were remarkable: 1) there were several Black men who were leaders there, one the mayor, another the committee leader, another an officer at the local armory who volunteered the armory for a meeting, and an experienced community organizer; 2) the passion with which people were willing to be organized in a meaningful effort; and 3) the amazing skills of the senior gentleman in the crowd, a man I referred to under my breath to my wife as "the consummate community organizer."

Normally in the Black community is led by women. Not a bad thing. That's a good thing. Good women are needed in righteous causes. It is not the normal for some many young men to step up to the plate to lead important matters. Gary wanted us to note that. We did. They all spoke, they were informed, and my prayers are with them.

To top off the evening, we had great fried chicken at the best restaurant in the town, and we got to spend time with a young man with a bright future as a community organizer. He is young and unassuming, but he is willing to be tutored by Mr. Grant. Clure Evans will be a force to be dealt with over the next few years. I didn't get the officer's name.

Another gift to this community is a community organizer who had just moved to Scotland Neck with her husband who was originally from this area. Ms. Norfleet did the same things back in New York. Lord, bless her efforts. And, she is a licensed minister of the gospel.

I hear that 30+ attended this particular protest march and another 75+ attended a protest march at another school in the area. Who is watching?

"So, Lord, if indeed it's the case that people rise up at certain moments, in certain times for certain causes, could it just be that your hand is upon Gary Grant, Clure Evans, the officer, Ms. Norfleet, and the others who were there and not there that evening? Thanks for allowing us to see community organization in action. Bless that community. Bless that committee. Bless those kids as they endure long hours on the bus. Bless that school board and lead them to reopening those closed schools and opening up those closed neighborhoods. May your Kingdom come and your will be done in Scotland Neck, NC, as it also should be done in Ada, OK."

A Day of Celebration and More

2009-08-30T15:00:00.006-05:00

It was a day that my wife and I had been anticipating for a while. This day was to be a day of celebration in honor of Gary Grant, President of the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association, on his 66th birthday. We had not been in Tillery since February. It was good to be back.

We reminisced as we drove along country roads in rural North Carolina. The corn looked about ready to harvest. The soybeans and cotton looked to be the beneficiaries of a decent amount of rain of late. Old curin' barns along that stretch of land. Ramshackle houses, no longer occupied by those who worked the land. Large houses up lanes off the road looked to be well kept much of the time. We were in an area that was 97% African American.

As we pulled into an area known as the "Tillery Resettlement Community," things became even more familiar. "Over the Farm Road" was among the roads over which we'd passed in recent years. We pulled up to resettlement section 46, and on it we saw a pair of resettlement houses pieced together by the occupant, the gentleman we'd celebrate. Parking was across the road, adjacent to his parents' house and final resting place. We parked. As we crossed the road and walked up the lane, Cary came out to greet us with his warm smile and gracious hug. He had been there for a while getting prepared for the people who were soon to arrive.

Two large white tents were in the front yard, round tables were set under them, and folding chairs were ready for the seating. Spencer, our friend from Kansas was there, helping with finishing touches. Soon Gary emerged from his house. The party was on. Again, words of welcome and warm hugs fell upon both of us.

The crowd began to arrive. Diverse it was. A farmer's daughter and her three sons greeted us. We'd met in 2005. Her voice was unmistakable. She told her story within the context of her father the farmer's story of struggles in dealing with the USDA. She was proud to introduce her sons, and I was pleased to meet them. We talked of family, sports, and academics.

Off in the distance, up and over the trees that lined the Roanoke River, the clouds darkened, the wind began to blow, and we knew that rain was coming. First off in the distance, and then around us, and then blowing sideways into us, we were not terribly prepared for the interference that came.

By this time, numerous elderly friends had arrived. Those who were not able to get into the house before the rain came were forced to huddle in the middle of the tent.

But not even the rain could dim the joy of the day, and after all, aren't farmers generally glad for rain whenever it comes? Same on this day.

It was a day of food, BBQ, fried fish, birthday cake of other delicacies.

It was a day of celebration with music, singing, and dancing. Gospel and R & B sounds came over the speakers. We marveled at how a 66 year old man still had moves.

Friends had come from across the country, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, and Oklahoma. Politicians, ministers of the gospel, and advocates were there. Academics, farmers, and Concerned Citizens of Tillery were there. We were all in various ways connected to the man and the causes.

My honor was in leading the opening prayer. Others spoke words of tribute to this good man. Others quietly ate their food and enjoyed the festivities.

Some faces I missed seeing. They were elderly and feeble and couldn't get out. Others had passed.

We indeed celebrated his birthday. Even more, we celebrated the cause of righteousness for which he stands and for which he is laying down his life, environmental justice, Black farmers, the history of the Tillery Resettlement Community, saving a community school in a nearby community, and others.

The day ended with a walk across the road to the final resting place of the parents, Matthew and Florenza Grant, who had left an amazing legacy still lived out by their children. A group of us chatted, and then we formed a circle and a local pastor led us in prayer. As we opened our eyes, we turned to see a rainbow as it filled the sky off in the distance.

It was a birthday party. It was much more. It was held in the middle of a historic community. It was held on a farm. The crops looked good. It was a day of celebration and more.

Congratulations, Team IV and Friends

2009-08-07T10:26:00.008-05:00

Though I've been away from ACU and the MFT program now for exactly a year, it was my fondness for the program, what it is all about, and the students who were graduating that drew us back into Abilene yesterday. Sure, we have family here, and it is more than sweet to share the time with them in their home. And, we have friends who love us here, and time is too short to see them all except for glimpses and bring hugs here and there.

The banquet always proceeds graduation for the MFT program at Abilene Christian University. Last night it was held in the Hunter Welcome Center. So, last night was one more in a long, long series of wonderful events in which God, gifts, and grace abound. Student representatives gave moving speeches. The graduating class offered their usual and customary spoof on the program and their love for each other, and, no, I do not zone out for ten minutes of rabbit chasing in class lectures; I only leave for five minutes. We need to keep an eye on the clock.

Comments by all indicated that it was an amazing year led by a Christ-spirited, servant-hearted second year class. Mathis Kennington received the Outstanding Second Year Student Award. Gretchen Etheredge was the recipient of the Spirit of the Counselor Award, both wonderful students from a great class of graduates. Among that group of world-changing people are three who formed Social Justice Team IV. We presented at two conferences, the second one with a bit of twist with Native Americana in it (amazing how similar land loss issues are for American Indians and Black Farmers), and met up once in Ada, Oklahoma, my new hometown, to fine tune where the project was going. Their contributions are chronicled elsewhere in these pages.

Daniel is going to College Station, Texas with his bride, Raquyyah is going to the University of Louisiana at Monroe to enter doctoral studies in family therapy, and Ty Mansfield is heading to Texas Tech, home of the Red Raiders, up in Lubbock to do the same. All three of these people are big-hearted and socially conscious, and will continue to make the world a better place, one social justice effort at a time.

I am looking forward to following these three into the next phases of their academic, personal, and social justice journeys; and I'm looking forward to all who will graduate tonight from Abilene Christian University.

The Struggles of Paul Quinn College

2009-07-20T20:01:00.004-05:00

According to the Saturday issue of The Dallas Morning News, Paul Quinn College is in trouble. Last month the school received news from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools that it was revoking the school's accreditation. Not content to go down without a fight, the school is going to appeal the decision. Check out the school's web page for President Michael J. Sorrell's statement.

Paul Quinn was founded in Austin in 1872 to teach African Americans who had been recently freed. The school then moved to Waco in 1882, and then to Dallas in 1990.

Who can argue with the school's mission statement:

“The mission of the College is to provide a quality, faith based education that addresses the academic, social, and Christian development of students and prepares them to be servant leaders and agents of change in their communities.”

The school is struggling the way a lot of small historically black colleges is struggling with dropping enrollment, a small endowment, and low assets.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the good news is that donations are up to $2.2 million for the fiscal year that ended in June. Other good news is support from the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and the United Negro College Fund.

The key to survival? It's probably more support locally and a higher enrollment.

Looks like now's a good time for Dallas area citizens to show some love to this small college that has a huge legacy.

A curious note is that enrollment at Wiley College at Marshall, featured in The Great Debaters, is up 36% and their net assets rest at $11 million. Check out their web page.

I'm going to follow both of these schools.

City Farming

2009-06-30T20:58:00.005-05:00

Folks are realizing the value of raising their own. From country cousins to city cousins, there is apparently a move afoot to get back to our roots in terms of eating what we grow.

Some folks are using small parcels of land to produce food for locals.

Read what is going on in Atlanta.

Take a look at this video:

I especially like the idea of having to go back in order to go forward.

Anybody else doing this sort of thing in your city or town?

A Very Brief Overview, One Farmer Mississippi

2009-06-28T10:41:00.001-05:00

God of Our Weary Years (1921)

2009-06-20T12:25:00.003-05:00

This poem from James Weldon Johnson's pen should have a familiar ring to it.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way.

Thou who wast by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray;

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand
True to our God, true to our native land!

From Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans, by James Melvin Washington, Ph.D.

An important update

2009-06-15T17:58:00.005-05:00

There is an important update on our efforts to save the Grant family farm.

Please check out this link to read up on it. I'd also encourage you to join the cause. It's a noble effort for a family that has poured out its life for what is righteous.

Here is the link: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/268646/20447472?m=6d54c0aa

Also, you can catch up at: http://www.grantfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, Mr. President, for Stepping Up!

2009-05-17T19:39:00.003-05:00

Here is a memo that is worth reading. Vilsack is outlining his plan to clean up the USDA, a noble goal and a monumental task. This is likely laborious read, or it may simply make for a skim read.
You can find the full text of Vilsack's memo here.

Here's the full text of an announcement that is widely circulating. It's worth a full read as President Obama and Secretary Vilsack are quoted. This one is lifted from Southwest Farm Press.

Funding for black farmers suit

May 8, 2009 10:46 AM

The Obama administration’s fiscal year 2010 budget proposal will include funds to provide a final settlement for the lawsuit that alleged discrimination against minority farmers in USDA’s farm programs.

“I’m pleased that we are now able to close this chapter in the agency's history and move on,” President Obama said in a statement. "My hope is the farmers and their families who were denied access to USDA loans and programs will be made whole and will have the chance to rebuild their lives and their businesses.”

“I am very pleased that President Obama is taking swift action on this matter as it will help us chart a new course at USDA, one on which all USDA customers and employees are treated equally and fairly,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

In 1999, USDA entered into a consent agreement with black farmers in which the agency agreed to pay for past discrimination in lending and other USDA programs. Thousands of claims have been adjudicated, but other claims were not considered on their merits because problems with the notification and claims process hindered some farmers’ ability to participate. To deal with the remaining claims, Congress provided these farmers another avenue for restitution in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.

For those who have claims that were not considered on the merits because the claim was found not to be timely, the 2008 farm bill provided the right to file a new claim in federal court. The total amount offered by the federal government, $1.25 billion, includes $100 million that served as a “place holder” in Section 14012 of the Farm Bill.

The announcement comes on the heels of a memorandum released two weeks ago by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack detailing an aggressive plan to promote civil rights and equal access at USDA. The memo announced the following:

The temporary suspension of all foreclosures within the Farm Service Agency's farm loan program, which will not only aid farmers facing economic hardship but will also provide the opportunity to review the loan granting process for possible discriminatory conduct;

The creation of a Task force to conduct a review of a sample of program civil rights complaints that have been processed or that are currently being processed - the complaints and inquiries total over 14,000, including over 3,000 that have not been processed;

Granting greater authority to USDA's Office of Civil Rights.

The Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights will collaborate with the other agencies to develop and implement a proposal for data collection across USDA, make sure all complaints are incorporated as part of one data system; and develop USDA policy and training to ensure that all complaints are received and dealt with in a consistent manner within a specific time frame.

Deeply Moved

2009-05-17T08:08:00.002-05:00

I am deeply moved that people around the country are following the words on these pages. Thanks to all of you for your interest and concern for African American farmers of our land.

Information about President Obama's commitment to addressing the injustices will be forthcoming.

Thanks, friends, for caring about justice.

Dr. Leonard is Coming to Town, no Coming to the Country

2009-05-15T03:59:00.005-05:00

Dr. Leonard, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for the United States Department of Agriculture, is coming to Tillery, NC this afternoon. This is no small gesture, I hope and pray, on behalf of the Obama administration and USDA Agriculture Secretary Vilsack in particular.

His participation in the meeting sends a signal that the administration will live up to its promises of making wrongs right in the egregious acts of discrimination perpetrated on Black farmers, and other minority and women farmers of our land.

I have heard their stories. They are convincing. I am thinking of a Black farmer in Texas who was denied access to Pigford on a technicality. And then, there's an entire county just south of Birmingham which did not receive the information about the Pigford case. How did this happen? Frankly, it beats me, but when public figures affirm that that is the case, and when there is an entire set of Black farmers who never read various and sundry publications, nor heard CNN, or other media outlets advertise as to the case, then I'm convinced.

You have read on these pages and other outlets over the last few years as to the nature of the offenses: lost applications, stymied at even the application process, too little funding too late, crop failure, no disaster relief for Blacks while the Whites are offered disaster relief, no extension of credit to the Blacks while offered to the Whites, foreclosures, foreclosures, and more foreclosures despite a moratorium on foreclosures. Sale of property not their own for pennies on the dollar. And the list could go on and on.

In the words of a friend of mine from Tennessee, "That can't happen in America." Yes, that can happen in America. It has been happening all across the country. The people's department has become the department of the big and the rich.

Obama's 2010 budget includes a large sum of money to address these grievances. I don't think it'll be enough. Another contribution that the system at the USDA could make is firing those who discriminate against anyone. Why should someone stay in a position paid for by tax payer dollars when discrimination is evident. I'm with former congressman from Texas Charlie Stenholm, when he said on the record that they should be fired.

So, welcome to Tillery, Dr. Leonard. I am sorry that I'm not there to meet you. I care about these people and this movement. It is a blight on the conscience of the American people. It is a burdent on my soul. Until this issue is address, we will wear the stains of guilt and shame as a people for what some of our citizens and employees have done to other citizens of our country. I trust, Dr. Leonard, that there is indeed a new day dawning.

I am praying this afternoon, Dr. Leonard, that you will have eyes to see and hears to hear, and that your head and your heart, that your administrative and decision-making skills will be moved to action. I am also praying today for Gary and for Spencer, and for other members of the BFAA organization, and I'm praying for farmers who will stand before you, Dr. Leonard, and tell their stories. May you be moved, sir, at what you will see and hear.

And I pray to the Almighty, the Holy One of Israel, that this period of shame and degradation of our people will end, that justice will prevail.

Your job is clear, Dr. Leonard. I'm praying that you are up to the challenge. It is big, and I believe that you are.

Summit at Tillery

2009-05-14T05:22:00.006-05:00

Here's an event that I would really like to attend, but work demands here in Oklahoma are keeping me home this weekend. Gary Grant and BFAA are continuing to advocate for Black farmers who did not receive justice under the Pigford Class Action Suit. At last notice, there were approximately 67,000 "late claimants," who for various and sundry technicalities were disallowed from entering the class action suit.

Now that we have a new administration in the White House, new appointments are being made in the USDA Office of Civil Rights. One of those is Dr. Joe Leonard. There appears to be a legitimate effort to right the wrongs perpetrated upon Black farmers of our country.

One of those efforts will be a listening session in Tillery on Friday, May 15.

Here is what the schedule looks like.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Tillery Community Center
321 Community Center Road
Halifax (Tillery), NC 27839

12:30 – 2:00pm

LUNCH

The Resettlement Café
8311 Hwy 561
Tillery, NC 27839
252-826-4076

3:30 – 5:00 PM

Town Hall Meeting
Tillery Community Center
321 Community Center Road
Halifax, NC 27839

5:05 – 7:00 PM

Individual Meetings With Dr. Joe Leonard,

Assistant Secretary for Civil Right, United States Department of Agriculture

5:15 – 6:30pm: BFAA MEETING
Tour the Remembering Tillery History House

************************************************

Hosted by: Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association
And
Concerned Citizens of Tillery’s Land Loss Fund

Check out BFAA's web page for more information about these and other important concerns.

Southern Farmers and Their Stories

2009-05-09T18:03:00.004-05:00

Here is a book that I'd recommend to those who care about farming, its history, and racial concerns. The review was written for the Red River Valley Historical Journal, and appeared in 2007, volume 5, pages 147-149. The journal is edited by Dr. Vernon Williams, Department of History, Abilene Christian University. I appreciate his offer to review this volume. It carries with it a narrative theoretical orientation and dominant themes which will be familiar to the readers of these pages.

Here's the text of that review:

Melissa Walker, associate professor of history at Converse College, takes on a monumental task in Southern Farmers and Their Stories: Memory and Meaning in Oral History. An oral historian by training and a farmer’s daughter by birth, she explains the influence of a variety of sociologists and psychologists in developing her orientation toward “communities of memory” in the sense that her study “mapped the boundaries of their community of memory by telling stories about their shared rural past.” The author uses “memory as a category of cultural and historical analysis” as a means of gathering those experiences and their descriptions. At the outset, she intends to answer three questions: 1) “What experiences molded rural southerners’ sense of shared past?” 2) “How did they remember rural transformation?” and 3) “What does the shape of their stories about change tell us about how people use memories and knowledge of the past to make sense of the world in which they live today?”

In order to answer those questions, she assumes a narrative theoretical orientation in pouring over a massive amount of archival material which included the transcripts of 475 interviews, eight of which she conducted herself, with 531 people, held for the most part from 1975 to 1995. These transcripts of conversations with rural southerners from fourteen states varied enormously in terms of their purposes, i.e., Black life in the Jim Crow South, the Civil Rights Movement, southern industrialization, and rural life. While acknowledging the challenges of reading transcripts as compared to participating in the interviews, she asserts that the complexity of the purposes, interviewers, and time frames all allow her to achieve her purposes, that of uncovering themes of rural southerners. The diversity of the interviewees provides much richness to the pursuit of answers to her questions as the interviews criss-cross such diverse populations as landowners and non-landowners, men and women from different generations, black and white, those who had to endure racial discrimination and those who did not, and those who lost land and those who persevered and still own the land.

In addition to organizing the material into common and disparate themes that ultimately answered her questions, the author carefully develops the concept of “communities of memory,” which she describes as the shared past with its multiplicity of contrasts, the sense of “us” versus “them, ” “rural” versus “non-rural” people, and the past versus the present. She also nuances the notion of “collective memory,” that which is located in and spoken by the individual, which ultimately overlaps with memories of others in tracing themes that include the past, the present, and the future.

She contributes to the discourse of rural southerners and their struggles during the transformation of the south by providing a seventeen page summary of the manner in which the crisis of economics, government policy, technology, and structural changes in the economy of agriculture impacted farming and rural life. From there, she organizes her material into five chapters. Chapter one describes the lived experiences of three southern farmers, a White woman, an African American man, and a White man who owned land. Her nuancing their common and disparate themes such as the satisfying nature of farming, continuity with the past, identity, commitment to farming, hardships, friendships, and independence is very readable material. Chapter two uses the concept of memory in an attempt to understand rural southerners via dominant themes of self sufficiency, work ethic, mutual aid, love of the land, relative economic equality, differences between town and country, and rural identity and personal character. Chapter three contains descriptions from the stories of two groups of rural southerners: the pre-war generation and their views of the changes in the south, and the post-war’s generation and common themes of “get big or get out,” and the role of the federal government and its policies. Chapter four examines the concept of memory and the meaning of change via the complexities of several variables: gender; class; landless versus landowning pre-war whites; racial discrimination, government policy and reasons for leaving the land for African Americans; and post-war whites and their reasons for leaving the land.

In chapter five the author organizes her materials around the concept of how the past and its stories are shaped by the present via sub-themes of the blessing and curse of material improvements, views of today’s young people, changes in community life, cracks in the mythology of rural community, and critiques of contemporary life. In her conclusion she provides a nice, brief summary of the common threads of the entire book.

Valuable information is offered to the reader in the appendices for either informational purposes and/or further study. Appendix One contains demographic data, gender, state, purpose of interview, decade by birth, landowning status by race, and education level by number and percentage of the interviews. Appendix Two lists alphabetically all interviewees by state, gender, year of birth, landowning status, and level of education with a lengthy list of abbreviations for help in mastering the massive amount of content. Appendix Three contains 25 pages of archival sources for all of the interviews. Dr. Walker’s bibliographic essay is especially informative as she describes her academic use of specific sources and her way of thinking about specific points of inquiry: memory, public discourse, and oral history and the relationship between history and memory. Finally, notes for both comments and bibliographical sources are organized by chapter and are exceptionally thorough.

In short, Dr. Walker’s book is well worth placing on our shelves if we are interested in narrative theory, communities of memory, the rural south, transformations in the culture of farming, gender within the rural south within the context of farming, and racism in the south and agriculture policy. Her book is readable though challenging conceptually. She goes to great lengths to answer her key questions, and she does so both efficiently and thoroughly.

Step up President Obama

2009-04-24T06:35:00.003-05:00

In chasing a few rabbits on the struggle of the black farmer this morning on the web, I ran across this painting. I have not heard of the artist, but plan to find out more. It moves me in a variety of ways. What does it do to you?

There is quite a bit of rhetoric on various blog pages and others as well these days as to why President Obama is not supporting a movement that he endorsed when he was in congress. That perplexes me as well. $100 million set aside by congress was only a "starting point," and we all figured it would take more to address grievances of those who were disallowed from entering the Pigford Class Action Suit.

We'll see how it goes. I'm not encouraged. Neither are some of my other friends, those who work on both sides of the isle and those who skin is dark or light.

Meet Harry Young, Kentucky Farmer

2009-04-19T19:53:00.003-05:00

I haven't seen or heard from Mr. Young in some time. We participated in a protest march with him, some of his family, and some of his friends a year or so ago. Now, a friend says that he's been jailed. Family members are on their way. He's 81 years of age. He's got a tobacco crop growing on his brother's land. His land has been taken away from him. He has proof that he paid the indebtedness that the USDA says he owes, but they won't let him see the documentation they have against him.

There are several things about him on this blog. Search him out, please.

Please check out the July 8, 2008 post on Mr. Young. You'll be able to see a youtube video of him speaking in DC.

Here's what I wrote in 2007.

"Harry Young is a Black farmer in Kentucky. His land had been in his family for over 100 years. Now he's been evicted and his land sold, all because he did not repay loans he did not receive. I first heard his story at the First Annual Conference on the Black Farmer and Land Loss when Mr. Young and one of his sons spoke of their family's struggles. In a brief exchange, I said to the son, "Unbelievable!" His reply? "Believe it. It's true."

The Young story is chronicled here, here, here, and here.

It should make us stop and think, and wonder, and pray, and work and pray."

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Farmer

2009-04-15T06:30:00.002-05:00

This morning you came to mind as I read Psalm 103.

I was reminded of our conversation several months back as we sat in your kitchen there in your home not far from the Raleigh/Durham area. You were willing to talk with me, a researcher from a small west Texas university about your struggles with the USDA.

I knew I was an unwelcome guest when one of your sons came in asking "who is the clown" who parked in the middle of the drive way. My car was not in the middle of the drive way, Mr. and Mrs. Farmer, but that question served notice that there was an unwelcome guest in your home. That unwelcomed guest was me. I suspect he was trying to protect you from people who look like me. I am a white man, and I was a stranger to you and those who loved you.

I took no offense at the harshly tenored question. You were then elderly, and now even older, and an honorable son would not want his parents to be further wounded and disadvantaged by anyone. His tone and his words did put me on edge, and justifably so.

During those early moments of the interview, and even later toward the end of the interview, you commented Mr. Farmer, while Mrs. Farmer stood over against the refrigerator in the kitchen, that "He will take care of things. Pay day some day. God will take care of those who hurt people."

Then an older son came in. Mrs. Farmer, you had called him to notify him that the interviewer was there and wanted to talk to him as well. He challenged me left and right, didn't he? I personally had done no wrongs to you or to him, but "my people," those of us whose skin is white had harmed all of you. Those of us whose skin is white who live and work in positions of power and privilege had indeed harmed all of you.

You had lost your farm. You like other black farmers had been shoved to the back of the line in terms of programs and policies within the local county FSA office, a division of the USDA. Because your skin is darker than other folks, they saw you coming, ignored you, made you wait, altered your farm operation plans, and then gave you less than what you needed, and later than you could use. Then the unspeakable happened, a disaster year occurred, like it did to other farmers, yet they received disaster relief funds that saw them through, and you were not afforded the same opportunity.

There was a lot of hurt and anger, tears and sadness, and bitterness and rage that day. Some of your kin could have died. They have heart conditions. Yet they remain true to God.

They believe similar things as did the writer of Psalm 103.

I hope you all are right, that God will settle the score, that in the end things will work out right.

I only wish, Mr. and Mrs. Farmer, that you owned your land, and that your sons worked the land you and they owned.

I still remember that day in your home, Mr. and Mrs. Farmer. That day is indelibly printed in my mind and in my heart.

I still remember.

New blog, new challenge

2009-04-02T20:51:00.003-05:00

Take a couple of moments and look at this new blog. It's about a new blog, but even more than that, it's about a new challenge. The challenge is to help save a historic farm for a brave people. It's one illustration of Black land loss in our country.

More information will posted to it shortly.

Let us know what you think.

http://grantfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/

Amazing Grace, once more...

2009-03-18T20:06:00.000-05:00

Dear President Obama

2009-03-10T05:27:00.010-05:00

BLACK FARMERS & AGRICULTURALISTS ASSOCIATION

& THE LAND LOSS FUND
P.O. Box 61
Tillery, NC 27887

Ph. 252-826-2800 ax: (252) 826-3244 E-mail: tillery@aol.com

http://www.bfaa-us.org/

March 1, 2009

Via Fax: 202-456-2461

President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President.

The 11th National Black Land Loss Summit was held in the historic communities of the New Deal Tillery Resettlement Farm Community (Halifax County) and Franklinton Center at Bricks (Edgecombe County) North Carolina on February 20-21, 2009. Attendees from ten states and the District of Columbia voted unanimously that we write you with the following request.

We respectfully request that you issue an Executive Order for the following:

Eliminate all debt to the USDA among black farmers who are members of the Pigford Class. These farmers have already established that they were victims of discrimination. Much of the indebtedness is from interest charges.

Provide ample dollars to compensate those who are in any legal and or Administrative Process resulting from discrimination covering the same time period (January 1, 1981 – December 31, 1996).

Insure that the elimination of this debt will not be counted as income and is therefore not taxable. Again, the majority of this debt is accrued interest.

Restore the credit rating of all of these hard-working farm families.

In 1933, members of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union expressed concern with FDR’s utilization of the county committee system to administer programs such as those in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration created in his first hundred days through the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The STFU, a biracial union of sharecroppers based in the cotton South, argued then that such a system was akin to the fox guarding the hen house.

Since then, black and limited resource farmers have been victims of local bias in the administration of public resources. Confirming the auspicious concerns of the STFU, black farms have declined by nearly 98 percent since 1920 and their farmed acreage has decreased by approximately 50 percent. This decline is worse for black farms than white farms no matter how you look at it. Further, numerous government reports (CRAT, 1997; USOCR, 1982; USDA, 1997, 1998, 2002) have found reason for concern and discrimination on the part of Lincoln’s “the people’s department,” the US Department of Agriculture. It seems that the fox has grown mighty fat on its regular diet of black farms.

In response to the decades of inaction, black farmers successfully sued Secretary Glickman and the Department of Agriculture in the now historic Pigford v. Glickman 1997 suit. The result was the largest class-action civil rights settlement in the history of the country. Black farmers, long known as cornerstones of the 1950s and 1960s civil rights movement, have led again, this time challenging one of our largest public institutions, the USDA. Put another way, Pigford v. Glickman stands as a civil rights case of nearly the same magnitude as Brown v. Board of Education. While Brown v. Board of Education overturned the famous Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Pigford v. Glickman challenges a key component of the persistent wealth inequality between African Americans and Whites. Since 1865 the percent of total wealth in the country owned by African Americans has doubled from one half of one percent to one percent as of 1990. The loss of nearly eight million acres of farmland since 1920, while a small percentage of the total US farm acreage, is devastating to the African-American community.

You have correctly, to our minds, identified the need to protect the property investments of millions of Americans that are at risk due to the recent mortgage crisis and faltering economy. Your omission, however, is in abandoning the case of African-American farmers, who also were the “middle class” of rural black communities. These farmers need to also be included in any reasonable effort to protect the wealth base of our nation’s most vulnerable populations.

Further, we urge you to act with all deliberate speed to ward against the failures of any additional black farmers and sign this Executive Order such that it will go into effect by April 15th.

Like farmers everywhere, we hope for good weather and bountiful crops. Like you, Mr. President, we also hope and are working diligently for a future of fairness and equality that rewards us for our efforts, but does not punish us for the color of our skin.

We would also request a conversation in person with you about these important matters related to the survival of the Black farmer, landowner, and family.

Yours for the Survival of the Black Farmer and Landowner,

Gary R. Grant
President

Attachment: Statistics on Black Land Loss

STATISTICS THAT SPEAK WITH HISTORIC CLARITY: BLACK LAND LOSS

In 1920, 1 in every 7 farmers was Black.

In 1982, 1 in every 67 farmers was Black.

In 1910, black farmers owned 15.6 million acres of farmland nationally.

In 1982, Black farmers owned 3.1 million acres of farmland nationally.

In 1950, Black farmers in NC owned 1.2 million acres of land.

In 1982, Black farmers in NC owned only 400,000 acres.Between 1920 and 1992 the number of Black farmers in the U.S. declined from 925,710 to 18,816 or by 98 percent.

In 1984 and 1985, the USDA lent $1.3 billion to farmers nationwide to buy land. Of the almost 16,000 farmers who received those funds, only 209 were Black.

Almost half of all black-operated farms are smaller than 50 acres.

In the late 1980's, there were less than 200 African-American farmers in the United States under the age of 25.

In 1993, an Associated Press analysis found, Black farmers on average received $21,000 less than White borrowers from a Farmers Home Administration loan program.

In 1983, 1.3 percent of 1.45 million farmers were Black.

In 1996, 0.5 percent of 1.31 million farmers were Black. During the same period the percentages of females and Hispanic farmers increased.

In North Carolina there has been a 64% decline in African American farmers in the past 15 years, from 6, 996 farms in 1978 to 2, 498 farms in 1992.

Between 1992 and 1997, the percentage of Black or other none white full owner farmers in Halifax County dropped from 25.44% to 19.73%.

However, at the same time, the number of “part-owner” farmers in Halifax County increased by 17.86%. This is due primarily to Heir Property System.

A Few Candid Shots from the Summit

2009-03-04T17:25:00.013-06:00

Thanks to Spencer Wood, Ph.D., professor of sociology, Kansas State, for his photography. The conference was attended by farmers, spouses, activists, attorneys, professors, and government workers. Topics included sustainability efforts, biofuels, the impact of discrimination on the health and well being of farmers and family members, organic farming, and other topics.

It Took Place Here.....

2009-02-26T20:27:00.008-06:00

On these sacred grounds once walked.......Wiley, Ben, Jim, Pagan, Peter, Jake, Isaac, Ned, Madison, Little John, Big John, Reddick, Asa, Chester, Darb, Oliver, Dan, and Dennis, and thousands more. They were young, age 4 (?), age 8, or older (28 or 30). They are listed along with other property. They were human beings, yet they were bought and sold.

When I heard the pastor read their names at the welcome prior to lunch on Saturday, chill bumps ran up and down my spin. I was sitting on the very place where people by those names had once trod.

And so, it was on that holy ground that we met together for the 11th Annual Black Land Loss Summit Conference. It had once been a college and after that a place that has been transformative in the lives of people seeking after justice.

Prior to that, though, it was a place of violence, a place where slaves were brought and beaten into submission. A place that had once been about injustice now held a conference about justice.

The conference actually started the day before in Tillery. Who would want to forget about that historical place?

More to come.

11th National Black Land Loss Summit

2009-02-20T08:26:00.003-06:00

The Summit is here. Charla and I find it interesting to land in North Carolina once more. We'll be seeing old friends and making new friends. This is not a "family reunion" per se, but some of the attendees are indeed like family. There's family in the blood and there's family in the spirit. Some are tighter than others. A righteous cause brings together like-minded people in an effort o make a difference in the world.

We joined this righteous cause in an unsuspecting way in the early '90s. The stories of African American farmers captured us then and hold us now. We all get it that most, though not all(maybe "some" would be a better word), of Jim Crow's racist policies have ended, the more subtle forms of racism remain prevalent. Not only are they prevalent but they are pervasive and cut to the quick day in and day out for people of our land.

This summit will be shifting the focus to the future of Black farmers and their livelihood. A shift toward the future is a good thing, but we must never forget the past, especially if the past lives on in the present. The signs of white privilege are all around us. It catches us and holds us, even when we attempt to deny it. When we unpack our "invisible nap sack," so to speak, we can make a difference in the world. Some call it "unconscious habit," something we've acquired via being seduced into believing certain things about ourselves, or assuming certain things about ourselves that go unquestioned.

My contribution to the Summit will be modest at best, minimal in all probability. However, the Summit's contribution to my life and work will be immense. It will continue to fuel the passion for justice that flows through my veins.

The Summit brings together like-minded people.

This weekend I will miss more than I can say those good people from Abilene Christian University who formed Social Justice Teams I, II, III, and IV. They will be here in spirit. I am indebted to them for the influence they had and continue to have on my life and this Righteous Cause.

Pray for this noble event and how it will influence things in these parts and around the country.

11th National Black Land Loss Summit

2009-02-13T21:45:00.002-06:00

The Summit is around the corner.

Check out this link for details and for BFAA's new website.

Pray for this effort.

Hope to see you there.

11th National Black Land Loss Summit

2009-02-01T16:02:00.005-06:00

11th National Black Land Loss Summit

February 20-22, 2009

Tillery and Franklinton Center at Bricks, NC

Theme: A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

WHY A SUMMIT?

Prior to the now historic class action lawsuit brought by black farmers, Tim Pigford vs. Glickman, Secretary of USDA, African Americans had been losing nearly 9,000 acres of land per week for years. Yet, between the end of slavery and 1920, African Americans showed an impressive capacity for excellence by establishing nearly one million farms on approximately fifteen million acres. Since then, however, our farms and owned farmland have declined precipitously. Farm numbers have declined by roughly 98 percent and our owned farm acres have decreased by over 50 percent. Even recently, our farm numbers have continued to decline. Between 1982 and 1997 alone, the number of black-operated farms nationwide fell nearly 45 percent, while many southern states saw a decline of over 50 percent. In North Carolina, the home of the lead plaintiff in the Pigford case, black farms declined by a staggering 66 percent during the 1980s and 1990s. Today, new methods of counting small and disadvantaged farms make direct comparisons since 1997 difficult and should be viewed with caution. For those of us on the ground, things do not seem dramatically better. To add insult to injury, many rural southern communities endure environmental degradation, health risks and loss of economic vitality as part of nationwide environmental injustice and racism. This injustice is worsened by the loss of farmland and control of our communities. A national Black Land Loss Summit is an opportunity to jointly craft and rework our focus, perhaps returning to our original concerns about fairness and health in the countryside, in this post-Pigford era.

DISCRIMINATION and the USDA

The Pigford v. Glickman Consent Decree has failed miserably and the struggle for survival has become more crucial. In April 2009, it will have been eleven years since the Pigford Consent Decree was declared "a fair, adequate and reasonable settlement of the claims brought in the case" by Judge Paul Freidman, and yet so little progress has been made for black farmers.

PROPOSED AGENDA

FRIDAY – February 20, 2009

2:00pm – Registration Opens – Tillery Community Center, Tillery, NC

3:00 – BFAA Board Meets

Select a recommended slate of officers
Vision and Mission Statements
Transition from Pigford Education and Advocacy
Black Family Farmers ARE Middle Class

Research

Family farms vs. industrial operations
Local food vs. corporate
Health & community vs. greed
BFAA as leadership in the Black farm movement
Partnering with Agriculturalists
Commitment to the organization
Going from chapters to state representatives
Plan of Action
One or two primary agenda items for the year
Relationship with other organization
What organizations do we want to partner with
Establishing BFAA with International Land Groups
Other items

5:30 – Dinner – The Resettlement Café

7:00 – Head to Franklinton Center for the nights stay

SATURDAY – February 21, 2009

8:00am Breakfast

9:00 Workshop – Bio Mass

10:00 Break

10:15 Workshop – Risk Management

11:30 Local Foods – Dorothy Barker, Spring Plant (Invited)

12:30 Lunch

2:00 White Privilege and the Costs to African American Farmers -
Waymon Hinson, PhD

3:00 Workshop – Farm Bill 2008 – Lloyd Wright and Quintin Robinson

4:30pm Continue BFAA Board Meeting

Vote on Board Officers
Action Items for 2009

5:00pm Adjourn

Contact BFAA for more information including registration fees, registration, locations, etc.

Let Us Pray

2009-01-22T17:53:00.005-06:00

Here it is in one more place, a moving prayer.

So, once more, let us pray.

Here's another link to this grand warrior in this righteous cause of Justice.

And, here is the text of the prayer.

If you want a good summary....

2009-01-21T20:08:00.003-06:00

If you want a good summary of the issues that Black farmers have faced and are still facing, check out this article in Colorlines by Jessica Hoffman. It's a real story about real people facing real challenges.

Save the date! 11th Annual Black Land Loss Summit, Tillery and Whitakers, North Carolina, February 20-22, 2008. More information to come!

I Was There...

2009-01-20T20:30:00.004-06:00

I was there...watching on television, actually two televisions, in a crowded room at the Health Care Authority, reciting the Lord's Prayer with others, marveling at the moment of the Oath of Office, and reveling in what this says about America. This was history in the making. Had been for a couple of years.

I was there...not in person but in spirit. Mall. DC.

I was there...during the days of the Jim Crow South, when the n-word dripped like slime from the lips of myself, friends, and family. When there were separate bathrooms, separate drinking fountains. When there were separate entrances to the small movie theater in town, just off Main. When the Klan was out and about but only in secrecy behind masks. When color of skin clearly defined where one lived, worked, worshipped.

I was there...when a father exclaimed, "No son of mine will ever go to school with no n*****!" When a father's black friend at work sat on the front porch and drank iced tea but never came in the house. When we'd feed the "hobo's" coming up and down the line.

I was there...when we "invited" our black brothers and sisters in Christ to a gospel meeting only to have them sit in the "colored" section of that little country church. That only after much debate.

I was there...when my friends called me "n*****-lover" because a black teacher believed in me and encouraged me to reach my potential. That at a time when he was a man without a people to whom to belong. Ostracized by the white community while he taught at the "white" and now integrated school, but not really fitting any more into his black community. A man driven, so I'm told to drink. He gave me the ingenuity award on several occasions. That I still value.

I was there...when the phone rang and the attorney on the other end of the line wanted me to consult with him on behalf of black farmers.

I was there...in Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Carolina. Listening to farmers' stories of discrimination.

I was there...when students said, "I want to study with you." Four teams were formed. All making different contributions.

I was there...when the tests and trials came from people who wondered why I'd want to be there. Got flipped off. Only white face for days on end. Tormented by what I saw and heard. Still am. To this day.

I was there...when the USDA and DOJ tormented those people. Tantalizing them with hopes of a settlement and justice.

I was there...at the tomb of fallen warriors. In the rain. Holding hands. Sharing hearts. Molded by a cause. A righteous cause.

I was there...at the Land Loss Summit. Telling USDA officials and others what systemic racism does to people. They seemed surprised. I wasn't surprised that they were surprised.

I was there...today in Tillery. Friend was snowed in. Texts flying back and forth. Sent the words, "thinking of you and those you love and the cause for which you lay down your very life." Said he had a towel to dry his tears. Mine were shed more last night than today. Today was one of awe. No, I wasn't there, but I was "there." Reveling in the moment with him. Curious and amazed at what this inaugural moment must mean for him. Yearning to look at things through his eyes. And her eyes in Florida. And his eyes in Georgia. Their eyes in Dawson. There are a lot of "hims" and "hers" in the world.

I was there...in OKC, only Lincoln Blvd., with a bunch of other people who care about making the world a better place. Their tears, shouts, and emotions showed that they were "there" as well.

I will be there...praying for President Obama, First Lady Michelle, and for the First Children, Malia and Shasha. For wisdom. For courage. Stamina. For things that matter to the Lord and to me. For justice to reign. For God's Kingdom to come and for His will to be done. For the economic crisis to end. For wars to end. For jobs. Equality. An end to ceilings. Racism. Hatred.

A Grandfather's Story on Martin Luther King Day

2009-01-19T20:16:00.006-06:00

The day started average enough. We gathered our things, drove a few miles south and east and arrived at their house. The women worked inside on things that had to do with lunch. I've not asked what their conversation was about. On the outside, the men and the grandsons grilled domestic buffalo and venison from the fall's harvest. The wind blew, and we shivered as we talked about gameboys, imaginary things, and today's political scene.

Lunch was quite a spread. A wonderful grandson's prayer, nicely grilled food, and the extras were there. The conversation was lively and interesting as it always is at that house.

Then, we moved from the dining table to the living room, and I was told, "Read this book." I knew I was in trouble. The book, Martin's Big Words, was suddenly in my hand and a lump was in my throat. Grandparents sat on the couch with grandchildren sandwiched between us. Parents observed from an adjacent chair. I turned to the first page, began to read, and then the lump in throat and tears came, and the words, "I can't read this; here, you read it." Their grandmother read the book as the boys looked on. Afterwards, for a few moments, parents and grandparents chatted with the young about the man in the book.

Then, we shifted back to the dining room table for a wonderful experience of "I Have a Dream," complete with paper, crayons, a stapler that wouldn't work correctly, and words and ideas unleashed. For me, the dream was building with the help of God and many others that for which the Chickasaw Nation had brought me here. For my wife, these childrens' grandmother, the dream was about building a Christ-like home. We all completed our dreams project. Ours are hanging on the doors open into this study.

Then, the oldest grandson was dispatched to another room to bring back the speech, not just any speech, but the words of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech from the March on Washington, 1963, words which have stirred me and countless other over the last forty-five years. The young lad sat there in his seat, just to my right, reading the words I've heard many times before. I'd never heard him read them. He's so young. He reads so well, and he's reading well, words spoken that day on the Mall in DC. The tears rolled once more. Afterwards, we talked more about tears and stories and justice, and other things about making the world a better place.

So, what started out to be an amazing day honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., became an even more amazing day in one small corner of the universe. We discussed things of substance, told stories of significance, and amazed at the wisdom and creativity of the young.

Yes, Dr. King, I, too, have a dream, that someday my grandchildren's children and "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers," and that all of God's children, every color dark or light, will know that they are loved and that their dreams can come true as well.

A Day to Remember, With Much to Be Done

2009-01-19T09:25:00.002-06:00

Many of my friends are pausing to reflect today on where we are, where we've been, and where we must go as a Church, a People, and a Nation. Some of my friends are simply enjoying a day off. There are many who are choosing to make this a day of service.

These are moving times in which we live. Tomorrow we'll have a new president, a man who does not "look" like me or many of us, but a man who does indeed "look" like many of us. He is our president, and so I encourage us to pray mightily and boldly for him, the new First Lady, and the new First Children.

Here again are snippets of that marvelous and moving speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King. May it remind us of what this day is all about. May it stir us once more to eradicating racism in all of its forms and in all of its places and spaces.

Meet James Joseph

2009-01-17T20:34:00.004-06:00

James Joseph has been working on the greening of America for a long, long time. In particular, his wish was to help Black farmers develop various means of making a living, one of which was to reduce the miles from the fields to the dining room.

He's done it and won an award for it.

There's much to say about his work.

Check out this page.

Check out this video.

Here's his web page.

I'd like to meet him some day.

Completely missed it

2009-01-11T09:59:00.005-06:00

I completely missed what looks to be an important research piece in the disparities between white farmers and black farmers. Here is a summary paragraph or two from a CRS Report for Congress entitled, "The Pigford Case: USDA Settlement of a Discrimination Suite by Black Farmers," writtern by legislative attorney Stephen R. Vina, and Tadlock Cowan, Analyst in Rural and Regional Development Policy, updated December 6, 2005.

"USDA Commissioned Study. In 1994, the USDA commissioned D.J. Miller & Associates, an Atlanta consulting firm, to analyze the treatment of minorities and women in Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs and payments. The study examined conditions from 1990 to 1995 and looked primarily at crop payments and disaster payment programs and Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) loans. The final report found that from 1990 to 1995, minority participation in FSA programs was very low and minorities received less than their fair share of USDA money for crop payments, disaster payments, and loans. According to the commissioned study, few appeals were made by minority complainants because of the slowness of the process, the lack of confidence in the decision makers, the lack of knowledge about the rules, and the significant bureaucracy involved in the process. Other findings showed that (a) the largest USDA loans (top 1%) went to corporations (65%) and white male farmers (25%); (b) loans to black males averaged $4,000 (or 25%) less than those given to white males; (c) 97% of disaster payments went to white farmers, while less than l% went to black farmers. The study reported that the reasons for discrepancies in treatment between black and white farmers could not be easily determined due to “gross deficiencies” in USDA data collection and handling (p. 2)."

I am looking for the full report and am attempting to contact one of the authors. If anyone has it, please forward it to me.

Just Wanted to Say Thanks

2009-01-10T08:17:00.005-06:00

Sometimes it's a good idea to pause and to say thanks to folks who've blessed your life. This post has been on my heart for some time, so now, here it is. These folks and their pages are over just to the right of this post. I'd encourage you to check them out as you have time.

Thanks to those amazing and gifted students from ACU who formed Social Justice Teams:

Team I: Sara, Laura, Jacob, Josh, Ashley, and Liz because you laid the foundation for all that has followed. That work with stories of women who are both African American and of Indian ancestry and African Americans reared in a white cultural context was excellent.

Team II: Kelsie, Josh, Bryanna, Tim, and David Todd because you walked in places and spaces that no one had walked before. Yes, I know we're still waiting for action from DOJ. Hopefully we'll not have to wait forever. And, your contribution at the conference in King of Prussia, PA was important and timely.

Team III: Michelle, Kimberly, Rebecca, Scott, Sarah, Brian, and Heather, your conceptual work and presentations in larger academic contexts was among the first for this work. Heather, I'd still like to see some of your amazing art work.

Team IV: Daniel, Ruqayyah, and Ty, your work in the area of white privilege which is coming up here in a few days at TAMFT will make a difference.

Abilene Christian University, the Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, and its founders, Paul Faulkner and Tom Milholland, along with amazing faculty, staff, and students, gave me the context to grow as a person, professional, and advocate for justice. It's the best MFT program in the country.

Big Country Family Therapy Associates, now owned by a loyal and faithful friend and co-worker, provided a context for serving struggling people. Dave in particular, his wife, and our Sunday morning Bible class provided another context in which to engage justice and the Word of God. They heard my stories, and they told their own. There's not a better therapist in Abilene than the man who's on the fifth floor of the Compass Bank Building, downtown Abilene.

Gary Grant, President, and the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association along with the Concerned Citizens of Tillery, provided the legitimacy that was foundational for engaging black farmers, hearing their stories, and telling them on these pages and in other contexts. Gary is a visionary, a man of principle and passion, and a man who has become a friend in this righteous struggle. Gary's engagement of Justice Team III and IV last year was an amazing thing to watch. His influence extends far beyond North Carolina.

Dionne, senior administrator of the Department of MFT at ACU, and entrepreneur, is a woman of immense talents who gave of her means to support traveling students on their way to a black land loss summit last year. Check her and her efforts out.

Greg Kendall-Ball, staff member in the Graduate School of Theology, ACU, and I have dreamed big dreams. He's a gifted photographer. Only funding is holding us back from making what we think will be an enormous contribution to the telling of the stories of black farmers of our land.

Larry James of Central Dallas Ministries and I crossed paths back in Memphis at the Harding Graduate School of Religion in the early '70s. His heart and his bright mind were evident then and now. His words on his blog are daily reads. He points people to the Kingdom and to justice in this world, two things that cannot be disconnected.

Micah P. Hinson is a young singer/songwriter who has caught the vision of the plight of the black farmer. One who has always had a heart oriented toward the disenfranchised, he and I have collaborated on a song about black farmers. Only funding is keeping this effort from becoming a "proper release," a video, and the making of the video, a venture that will also engage the choir from Tillery, NC. This and the photojournalism effort would be firsts and would tell the story in contexts not utilized before. There's another effort that deserves to be heard, one co-authored musically and lyrically by Ben Clinard, student at ACU/MFT.

John Boyd president of the National Black Farmers Association and I crossed paths in Memphis in January, 2006. His proximity to DC allows him to operate on large political stage. His efforts in spotlighting the plight of the black farmer are important contributions to this righteous cause.

Dr. Spencer Wood, sociology professor at Kansas State University, and I first met via email around some pivotal things he'd written about black land loss. Then, last year at the 10th Annual Black Land Loss Summit, Tillery and Whitakers, NC, we met face to face. He is a good man who is making significant contributions to this cause. He's a leader and I am simply a follower.

Vern Switzer, or "The Watermelon Man," has an amazing story. He, too, was a farmer who was involved in the Pigford Class Action Suit, and while still farming, he has now begun to reach out via books and stories to engage children and farming. He is a great story teller who can keep elementary students' attention for an hour at a time.

There are more. We need more. Racism and discrimination are not going to go away any time soon. Listen to our daily conversations. Tune in to what others are saying, and how folks are treating others, and it's there.

There's much to be done. Who are the activists that you know? What are their links, their contexts, their efforts?

Out with 2008; In with 2009

2009-01-01T12:15:00.004-06:00

So, what actually happened with the good people who have been a part of this venture over the last twelve months. Until justice comes in all of its boldness, there is always room to do more; on the other hand, I think we are only called upon to do what we can do in our own small corners of the universe. I think there will forever be this restlessness within me until Jesus comes in all of His glory. Until then, we'll just do the best we can.

In February, we traveled to Tillery and Whitakers, NC to take part in the 10th Annual Black Land Loss Summit Conference sponsored by the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.
At that conference Justice Teams III and IV met movers and shakers in the Black farmer movement as well as some key officials in the USDA, some of whom had their names in the papers not long afterwards. Interesting for us all. Posts from February and March of this year on this blog will give you pictures, memorable moments, and memorable quotes from that amazing trip. That one is etched forever in my head and heart.

In the Spring, Justice Team III members spoke at the annual conference of the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. This link summarizes that important presentation.

We continued to collaborate with various advocates around the country, some writing articles and some writing books. All of which, we pray, will be used to tell the story of Black farmers in new places and spaces.

During the Spring, Summer, and Fall, Justice Team III lobbied with a variety of congress persons and presidential candidates on behalf of the Black farmer and family. We mailed letters and sent emails to a lot of offices, and, we even got some responses back.

Justice Team III ventured out a bit into the world of white farmers, interviewing a few and comparing and contrasting the lived experiences of white farmers versus black farmers. Were there differences. No doubt about it.

In the Spring, we recruited Justice Team IV, and those good people began to meet to formulate ideas around the notion of white privilege and how it impacts the lives of people of color, especially Black farmers.

We were able to publish a piece in a refereed journal that chronicles the larger sociopolitical historical background of the Black farmer. That was a labor of love with a competent ACU professor.

In the November, current and former students from Teams II, III and IV presented a poster at the national conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy in Memphis, Tennessee. A great visual was created with the assistance of professionals from the Chickasaw Nation as we attempted to compare and contrast what we called "community narratives" of Black farmers and Chickasaw Nation citizens.

In the fall, members of Justice Team IV traveled from Abilene, TX to Ada, OK to prepare for the AAMFT poster presentation. What a grand time that was.

Justice Team IV members are now preparing for a three hour workshop at the 2009 annual conference of the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

There were some wonderful times of collaboration between us and two talented musicians and one talented photojournalist. Those labors have yet to come to fruition, but I'll comment more on them in the next post. All we need there is funding to bring those efforts out into the public eye. I think they are worthy efforts because they use the gifts of quality people, telling the stories of Black farmers via photographs and music.

So, is this a time for boasting? Of course not. What in the world would we be boasting about?

Is time a time to evaluate and dream and scheme for 2009. Of course. There's always room for planning, praying, and humbling ourselves before God's mighty hand for His direction and guidance.

That's my prayer for our meager efforts for 2009.

Dear President Elect Obama

2008-12-28T18:43:00.007-06:00

The Honorable Barack Obama
President-Elect, United States of America
Chicago, IL

Dear Mr. Obama:

Congratulations on your recent resounding victory in the presidential campaign. The people of America, young and old, black and white, rich and poor, male and female, have heard your theme of change.

Most of America is sitting and watching your appointments. While some are saying that it looks like President Clinton all over again, as you commented on national television in recent weeks, the real difference is in who is leading. So, my prayers continue to be with you, Mr. Obama.

My concerns are certainly with the economy and the war. More specifically, however, I am concerned about what has been going on historically in the United States Department of Agriculture. Much has been written on these and other pages, in the media of various forms, as to the "good old boy" circumstances and policies by which the USDA is run. My wish is that the Honorable Tom Vilsack will prove to be a worthy nomination as Secretary, USDA. Much is to be done in terms of the Farm Bill, renewable energy, small family farms, and other issues. While he is not without controversy, he also has his supporters.

Even more to the point, Mr. Obama, is that you charge Secretary Vilsack with adjudicating the massive number of civil rights complaints within the USDA. Congress did a notable thing a while back in agreeing that late claimants to the Pigford Suit could reapply for possible financial considerations, but the amount of money set aside is embarrassingly low. Please reconsider that sum of money that would go to black farmers of our land who have been mistreated by the USDA.

I would also encourage you, Mr. Obama, to appoint some people who could see that state and federal USDA offices function in a nondiscriminatory manner. While the law is color blind, people are not, and unfortunately, over the years, too many government employees and state and local officials have made decisions based on the color of a person's skin rather than on merit. I specifically recommend for your consideration Gary Grant, President of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, as a man of principle who has a keen grasp on the circumstances surrounding the plight of the black farmer. He could serve you well in Washington or within a state FSA office. Secondly, I would recommend for the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights within the USDA position another man of principle, a man who has indeed served in that position before, Mr. Lloyd Wright. He knows Washington, he knows farmer issues, and he has an excellent record with the USDA Office of Civil Rights. He's stayed involved in farming and related issues since his departure from office.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these matters.

The people of our great land are praying for you, your wife, and your children.

Respectfully,

Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.
Activist

Merry Christmas, May Peace and Justice Reign

2008-12-25T11:29:00.004-06:00

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. -- Isaiah 9:6-8

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. -- Micah 5:2

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. -- Isaiah 7:14

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. -- Luke 2:6,7

Time to read

2008-12-21T20:06:00.005-06:00

Here are some of the books on my to-read list:

Black on White: Black Writers on What It Means to Be White (1998), edited by David R. Roediger

White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism (2005), Paula S. Rothenberg

Understanding White Privilege: Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race (2006), Frances E. Kendall

Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues (1983), Donn Rogosin

Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson's First Spring Training (2004), Chris Lamb

I can feel the holidays coming. Time to read.

What's on your book list? Let me know.

"A Prayer for the Nations"

2008-11-28T08:37:00.007-06:00

The following is entitled "A Prayer for the Nations," and was penned and prayed in 1918 by Walter Henderson Brooks.

As of old Jehovah's working
Out of his will, in every land,
And it runs through all the ages,
Like a weaver's hidden strand.

Centuries with God are moments,
And a thousand years a day;
Kingdoms rise and wane and perish,
Others come and pass away.

'Tis not wealth alone, nor numbers,
Justice makes a people strong,
Righteousness exalts a nation,
Victories to God belong.

Give us then, O God, thy blessing!
We rely upon thy might,
Gird our men, and make them heroes,
Glorify the Cause of Right.

From Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans, by James Melvin Washington, Ph.D.

Meeting Up In Memphis at AAMFT

2008-11-26T15:00:00.015-06:00

Several of us from Teams II, III, and IV met up in Memphis, Tennessee recently at the annual conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. These young women and men are either graduates of the COAMFTE-approved training program in marriage and family therapy at ACU, or they hope to be come August, 2009.

The poster session, "From Therapy to Advocacy, Principles to Practice: A Story of Two Groups," is actually a work in progress of several of these social justice teams from ACU. So, within a "poster" context at AAMFT in which attendees walk past, take a look, stop to converse, and then move on to the next poster, we were able to talk to some people about the efforts that we have often talked about on these pages.

In this one, we engaged creative people, Aaron Long and Joshua Hinson of Ada, Oklahoma and the Chickasaw Nation, to help us to construct a meaningful poster that compares and contrasts narratives of African American farmers and the people of the Chickasaw Nation. While there are striking differences, there are some striking similarities, especially around devotion to the land and land loss.

Here are some of the people who helped put this together, Tim Parker, Michelle Finley, Kimberly Cherry, Rebecca Culver, Ruqayyah Samia, Ty Mansfield, and Daniel Haile. Let us know if you have questions about the poster or this event.

We must start with the young

2008-11-11T09:58:00.003-06:00

We were just sitting at his dining room table, having a friendly conversation about things that matter to him. Many times things that matter to him come by way of the question, "Poppie, what about.......?" I love those questions. I can see his young mind working.

On this particular day the conversation was about baseball, and not just baseball, but about the Negro leagues. The conversation darted in all sorts of directions. He wanted to know. He wanted to know why Black baseball players were excluded from the same game as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and others.

Over on his family's dining room table was the book, "We are the Ship." He nodded in that direction, and we talked about the great athletes of old and how they played the game under difficult circumstances. He doesn't understand "Jim Crow," and lynching is way too harsh for his gentle heart, but he knows it happened.

Still he wanted to know why. He wanted to know how Josh Gibson would compare with Babe Ruth, or Hank Aaron, or Barry Bonds, or Mark McGwire. He is fascinated by what he knows of Satchel Paige and how he'd have done if he played all of his career in the major leagues.

He wants to know why it took baseball so long to integrate and how hard it must have been for Jackie Robinson.

For this young lad, it's about baseball and the love of the game, but it's also about justice and what is right.

I love those conversations. Now that we live in the same town, there may be more. I hope so. He and kids his age are the hope for tomorrow for our country. He has a younger brother, and I hope we'll have similar grandfather/grandson chats about things that matter.

Here is a drawing of one of his favorite players, Satchel Paige, posted here with his permission and the permission of his parents. It hangs on the wall in our office at the house. I hope you enjoy it.

GAO Report Says, "Significant Deficiencies"

2008-11-07T05:25:00.003-06:00

According to this article out of Senator Tom Harkins' office, the General Accounting Office, the wing of Congress that investigates things says that Civil Rights efforts under the responsibility of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the USDA are pitiful. Not their word, but mine.

Tracking, adjudicating, failing to keep accurate data, and inadequately undertaking plans to address civil rights matters in the USDA are all deficiencies. Requested by senators on both sides of the isle, the report shows failures since 2002.

Here is a direct quote from the release:

"The Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights has not achieved its goal of preventing backlogs of pending civil rights complaints, with some complaints still pending from the early 2000s.

In addition, GAO found that progress report from the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights regarding the extent of and resolution of complaints have been inconsistent.

The reports published by the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, required by law, regarding minority participation in USDA programs are unreliable and of limited usefulness. Furthermore, USDA has not taken the steps necessary to improve the reliability of the data.

The strategic planning of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights has not included the necessary steps to 'provide fair and equitable services to all customers and uphold the civil rights of its employees.'"

Here are the recommendations:

"A statutory performance agreement containing measurable goals and expectations in key performance areas.

An independent and empowered civil rights oversight board tasked with approving, monitoring, and evaluating USDA civil rights activities.

An effective ombudsperson, 'independent, impartial, and fully capable of conducting meaningful investigations of USDA actions.'"

Don't you think it's time for the USDA to get these things right? Maybe? Finally?

We voted, Mr. Obama. We voted.

2008-11-05T06:07:00.005-06:00

We did, Mr. Obama. The trust of the majority of the people of this land is in your hands. Your grass roots effort is like nothing our country has ever seen before. At some point, we'll want to see you move from rhetoric to reality, from promises made to promises kept. You are the hope of a new generation.

We voted for you, every color dark or light, young or old, rich or poor, male or female, well educated or less so.

Now, Mr. Obama, what will you do for the Black farmers of our land? They are waiting. We are waiting. Many are old. They are dying as we speak. Their children and grandchildren doubt that they'll be treated any better by the USDA than were their parents and grandparents.

Is your election a sign of a new day for the people across the country? Has indeed the racial divide been bridged? Eradicated? Or the edges smoothed?

What about racism and drawing distinctions based on color in the halls of our hallowed institutions? Can we hope for change there? I hope so, Mr. Obama. We hope so.

We voted, Mr. Obama. We voted.

They came, they worked, they produced

2008-11-04T05:20:00.007-06:00

Several weeks back on this blog I wrote with much enthusiasm about Ruqayyah, Ty, and Daniel coming to Ada. It's a 4 1/2 trip from Abilene, Texas to Ada, Oklahoma, but somehow they managed it with busy schedules, clients to see, things to read, papers to write, and their other obligations to manage. It was a packed weekend. We stayed up late, laughed, talked, and, of course, we had to show them the community and have them meet some of the people here in this community.

After a morning run for Ty, Daniel, and me, one of my wife's world famous breakfast casseroles, and a tour of the key spots of the city, we settled into an afternoon of thinking out loud. We all wanted to stay with the essential ideas of developing a conceptual model that engages structural and narrative theory, work of previous teams, and ideas related to racism in its various forms that emerge from institutions of power and privilege upon the lived experiences of people.

We were able later to engage the expertise of two professionals here in Ada, Aaron Long and Joshua Hinson, in putting together a poster that speaks to the ideas and concepts that we consider to be germane to the topic at hand. We expanded it a bit by adding a second group alongside Black farmers for the purposes of comparing and contrasting. We are of the opinion that it gives us something to think about, and something that should continue to stir us to action.

At the end of the day, institutions of power and privilege are still amongst us. Racism still is ever present. Decisions are made as to worth on the basis of skin color, and other de-personalizing things, and our world is the poorer for it.

Though I'm no longer at ACU, and no longer teaching in the MFT program there, I am pleased, very pleased, that these students opted to continue the work of Teams I, II, and III.

Here is what this group of MFT students at ACU produced.

Debates: "You Can Vote However You Like"

2008-10-26T06:39:00.003-05:00

Debates of various sorts are all around here, some substantive and some just airing the same old thing. In the arena where I work these days, we don't debate, but on Friday mornings over doughnuts and "pigs in the blankets," or "kolaches," whatever you wish to call them, we talk about things that matter. I would much rather sit and discuss from all angles things that matter.

Here, however, is the most unique debate you'll ever see. It is a refreshing thing to watch in these most interesting times. Thanks to Larry James of http://www.larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com/ and his friends for letting us know about. Here it is from youtube. What energy, enthusiasm, passion! I love it, and hope you do, too.

"Significant Deficiencies" Found

2008-10-25T09:35:00.003-05:00

Copyright 2008 Congressional Quarterly, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Congressional Press Releases

October 22, 2008 Wednesday

PRESS RELEASE

967 words

GAO REPORT AGAIN FINDS "SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCIES" IN CIVIL RIGHTS AT USDA

CHARLES GRASSLEY, SENATOR, SENATE

For Immediate Release

GAO Report Again Finds "Significant Deficiencies" In Civil Rights At USDA

Contact: Jennifer Mullin 202-224-3254

October 22, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A report released today by the independent investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), says that the civil rights efforts overseen by Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are marked by "significant deficiencies" and recommends new accountability structures to correct ongoing failures.

Specifically, GAO found that USDA fails to track and adjudicate civil rights complaints, fails to provide accurate data regarding minority participation in USDA programs, and fails to adequately undertake strategic planning with respect to civil rights. The report was conducted at the request of U.S. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and U.S. Representatives Joe Baca (D-CA) and Edolphus Towns (D-NY). The lawmakers asked the GAO to focus especially on the performance of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, a position created in the 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act and tasked with directing civil rights efforts across USDA.

Earlier this year, the lawmakers protested directly to USDA when reports surfaced that the Department obstructed and temporarily shut down the GAO investigation. According to GAO, USDA officials delayed providing information and, in some cases, instructed USDA employees not to comply with GAO.

"I am disheartened to learn that, despite Congressional direction, USDA continues to fail in its civil rights performance," said Harkin. "And even more disappointed by USDA's rejection of key recommendations offered by GAO. It's time for a new approach on this issue, and I'm grateful to GAO for providing a set of specific recommendations for the consideration of the committee."

"More of the same from USDA in the area of civil rights is not acceptable," Grassley said. "The new report from GAO validates and even expands what other assessments have found about decades- long problems. The leadership of the Department of Agriculture needs to make the GAO recommendations a priority and do everything in the agency's power to make measureable improvements to the way it handles civil rights issues."

"After we held hearings on this matter in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Congress created the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the USDA and tasked that position with resolving long standing discrimination concerns. In 2006 we asked the GAO to provide us with an objective analysis. The findings of this report are troubling. After six years, improvements still have not been good enough," Lugar said.

USDA has a long history of failing to enforce civil rights laws and to ensure that minority farmers and ranchers are able to access assistance and benefits under USDA programs. In the 2002 farm bill, Congress included several initiatives to strengthen civil rights enforcement and to assist minority farmers and ranchers. First, to create new accountability for civil rights compliance across USDA programs and offices, Congress created the position of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, tasked by statute with "ensuring compliance with all civil rights and related laws....coordinating administration of civil rights laws within the Department....and ensuring that necessary and appropriate civil rights components are properly integrated into all strategic initiatives of the Department and agencies of the Department (7 U.S.C. 6918(d))." Second, to track progress over time, Congress also required the Department of Agriculture to report annually on the participation rate of minority farmers and ranchers in Department of Agriculture Programs.

To determine whether, as a result of this legislation, the Department of Agriculture has improved its civil rights performance, Senators Harkin, Lugar, and Grassley, as well as Representatives Baca and Towns, asked GAO to investigate USDA civil rights actions since the 2002 farm bill, including the actions of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in 1) resolving discrimination complaints, 2) reporting on minority participation in USDA programs and, 3) strategic planning for ensuring USDA's services and benefits are provided fairly and equitably.

A copy of the GAO report is available by clicking here <http://harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/GAOReportUSDA.pdf> .

Key GAO Findings

-- The Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights has not achieved its goal of preventing backlogs of pending civil rights complaints, with some complaints still pending from the early 2000s. In addition, GAO found that progress report from the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights regarding the extent of and resolution of complaints have been inconsistent.

-- The reports published by the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, required by law, regarding minority participation in USDA programs are unreliable and of limited usefulness. Furthermore, USDA has not taken the steps necessary to improve the reliability of the data.

-- The strategic planning of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights has not included the necessary steps to "provide fair and equitable services to all customers and uphold the civil rights of its employees."

To remedy the lack of civil rights compliance at USDA, GAO recommended three possible actions.

-- A statutory performance agreement containing measurable goals and expectations in key performance areas.

-- An independent and empowered civil rights oversight board tasked with approving, monitoring, and evaluating USDA civil rights activities.

-- An effective ombudsperson, "independent, impartial, and fully capable of conducting
meaningful investigations of USDA actions."

October 22, 2008

Somebody else is blogging

2008-10-23T18:17:00.003-05:00

Somebody else out there is blogging about the USDA's history of ignoring civil rights complaints of Black farmers.

Check out this link.

And, read further on this blog as a variety of writers write about concerns for rural America. I'm living in rural America and am beginning to hear more of what worries people in small-town USA.

Coming to Town

2008-10-16T21:28:00.004-05:00

One of the most difficult things about transitioning from academic life to life in Oklahoma has to do with students. Yesterday I walked across the campus at the university here in town, not as a faculty member, but as a visitor, but it all felt familiar, all of the energy, the passion, the conversations, the ideas, and on and on we could go.

So, it is with much enthusiasm that my wife and I approach this weekend. It's that way because Social Justice Team IV is coming to town. Perhaps that is an odd way of "labeling" these three good people, but, indeed, they do form Team IV: Ruqayyah Samia, Daniel Haile, and Ty Mansfield, all students in the COAMFTE-approved marriage and family therapy program at Abilene Christian University. All such programs do a good job of teaching bright students how to become good marriage and family therapists. ACU is a bit different in that it engages the best and the brightest, not just to become good therapists, but to do so for the sake of the Kingdom. Along the way, several of them over the past four years have allowed their hearts to lead them to join the social justice team work, work that is explained in the header up to your right from this page. I'm proud of those students, present and past, because they are indeed advocating for good in a lot of places around the country these days.

So, this weekend will be a sweet one, and it'll end too quickly. We'll show them around the city, eat some good food, catch up a bit, and then we'll jump into what we'll do in Memphis at AAMFT, and hopefully in Ft. Worth at TAMFT in January, and especially what we'll do as we continue to study white privilege in the area of farming. Is it there? I think it is. We'll see. We'll let you know what we come up with on these pages.

New Farmer Options

2008-10-13T21:16:00.005-05:00

The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service of the USDA is holding one last listening session in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 22 at the Risk Management Agency. The 2008 Farm Bill is making available $18 million in fiscal year 2009 for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program via a competitive grant process. See this link for details.

The USDA acknowledges that small farms are an "important sector of U.S. agriculture," and that in 2003, "small-scale enterprises make up 91 percent of all farms and ranches in the United States, hold 70 percent of total farm and ranchland, and produce 27 percent of our food and fiber.In addition, more than half the hay and tobacco, and more than 30 percent of cash grains, dairy products and beef cattle come from small farms and ranches." See this link for more details.

This site goes on to say: "Small-scale producers come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Some families have been working on the land for generations; others are new to the business. Some families depend on small-scale production as their principal means of economic support; others choose it primarily as a lifestyle. Underlying this diversity, however, small-scale farmers and ranchers share characteristics that make them a valuable resource for the United States over and above to the crops and livestock they produce: a commitment to agriculture, strong links to local communities, and a need to love and care for the land."

Small-scale farmers, especially "socially disadvantaged farmers" are encouraged to pursue these opportunities. This is a small opportunity for adult children of farmers who have struggled to hold on to their land to get back into farming and ranching.

My only regret is that there is so much red tape involved, and it looks like the process is complicated, but those are simply signs of the times in which we live.

So, encourage any small-scale farmer, or family farmer, that you know to look into these options. I can think of some folks I plan to call.

Charlie Wilson and Me

2008-09-27T10:39:00.005-05:00

Charlie Wilson and I have a few things in common. No, maybe we have three things in common. We're both from smalltown USA, Trinity, Texas, and graduates of Trinity High School. Yes, we both are even listed as "Tiger Heroes." See this page if you're unconvinced. Yes, a bit ostentatious, but it'll make the point. The book about him was a heavy read, so it was simply a case of wait until the movie comes out to see what he did. Even as a kid growing up in East Texas, he was a larger than life character, but not one whose paths ever crossed with mine.

In the movie, Tom Hanks portrays him in "Charlie Wilson's War" as a complex and passionate man who is moved by what he sees when he goes to Afghanistan and visits with children whose arms have been blown off by the atrocities of the Russian army in their attempt to overtake the land and its people. That was a moving scene in the movie as the two children with the translator talk to Wilson. From that point on, Wilson was committed as long as he had breath in his body and a member of Congress, that he would fight for these people.

In a similar way, I still recall the interviews with farmers in Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia in the mid-90s. As I've said on several occasions, "I was not prepared for what I saw, felt, and heard." On the other hand, when those experiences come up with people of color, their response is typically, "Of course! What did you expect?!" How naive I was, how out of touch I was, with what had been happening on the farms and in the communities where African American farmers came face to face with the racist implications of policies for farming loans, etc. that should have been made for a playing field in which all farmers, every color dark or light, could negotiate.

So, in those days, the images of strokes, kidney failure, loss of life and farm land and farming and family, blindness, and on and on and on, moved me deeply, and they still do today.

The story has not been completely written, that of what will happen to the black farmers of our land. Like the line in the Wilson movie relative to Afghanistan, "the ball keeps bouncing and bouncing," and where will it stop bouncing for farmers. Will the 2008 farm bill and its economics and policies which address the issues for socially disadvantaged farmers work? Will the opportunity for those farmers shoved aside under Pigford actually make a difference, efforts for those 70,000 black farmers left in the dust of red tape as "late filers?"

Anyway, I admire Charlie Wilson's passion for righting wrongs. He saw children with arms blown off. I saw farmers who'd lost much of their health, livelihood, and trust in the system.

I'm just wondering. Did Charlie Wilson ever meet any Black farmers in his district? Maybe

our paths will cross some day and we can talk about that.

Another good video that captures the struggle

2008-09-21T17:00:00.002-05:00

Important message from the Rural Coalition

2008-09-06T05:43:00.003-05:00

URGENT: USDA Sign-On Letter

The Farm and Food Policy Diversity Initiative and the Sustainable Ag Coalition are circulating the following sign-on letter to Agriculture Secretary Schafer regarding the new Office of Advocacy and Outreach created in Section 14013 of the 2008 Farm Bill. The Office of Advocacy and Outreach will be responsible for ensuring that small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers have access to USDA programs. In general, it will also ensure coordination between, monitoring of, and goal-setting for all USDA programs that address small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged producers. USDA has yet to establish the new office and there is concern that they may not place it within executive operations under the Secretary or transfer programs from the Office of Civil Rights, despite the clear statutory directive to do so.

What to do:

The deadline for sign-on is COB this Thursday, September 4. Please email your organization name, city and state and a contact person to Lpicciano@ruralco.org if your organization would like to sign on.

For further information contact: Ferd Hoefner, Sustainable Agriculture Coalition at fhoefner@sustainableagriculturecoalition.org, Traci Bruckner, Center for Rural Affairs, at tracib@cfra.org, or Lorette Picciano, Farm and Food Policy Diversity Initiative atlpicciano@ruralco.org.

The Honorable Ed Schafer
Secretary of Agriculture
200-A Jamie L Whitten Building
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Secretary Schafer,

As you move forward with the implementation of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, we the undersigned believe it is critical that the newly created Office of Advocacy and Outreach (section 14013) be implemented in a manner that allows it to best achieve its important mission. In creating this office, Congress identified the clear need to place direct emphasis on small farms and beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. In order to achieve the mission of assuring access for these emerging sectors of US agriculture to USDA programs, coordination and accountability across all USDA mission areas is critical. It is therefore essential that this office be placed at the Departmental level, as Congress provided, directly reporting to you, the Secretary of Agriculture. In this and other sections of the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress also recognized the need to make special provisions for the often similar needs small, beginning and socially disadvantaged producers face in achieving viability and profitability. As such, two separate but very much related groups were established within the Office, each adding new functions while continuing and expanding previous work of significant but previously unrelated entities:

1. The Socially Disadvantaged Farmers group includes the new Advisory Committee on Minority Farmers established under Section 14009, and the Farmworker Coordinator established in Section 14013. The existing functions of the current Office of Outreach and Diversity which serves socially disadvantaged producers and minority serving institutions are also transferred to the Office of Advocacy and Outreach from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, thereby allowing the ASCR to focus solely on the critical tasks of assuring USDA compliance with civil rights laws and addressing the many unresolved civil rights cases and issues. This transfer allows the functions of the current Office of Outreach and Diversity to be separated from the issues of program and service discrimination and folded into a special group that focuses on building a better present and future in agriculture for socially disadvantaged producers.

2. The Small and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers group is given responsibility for continuing and building upon the functions for the existing Office of Small Farms Coordination, the Small Farms and Beginning Farmer and Rancher Council, and the Advisory Committee for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, plus a consultative role on the administration of the Beginning Farmer and Ranchers Development Program administered by CSREES.

No less important than providing a new home and enhanced responsibilities for these ongoing programs and functions is the new law's wider vision of the duties of the new office, including establishing departmental goals and objectives, measuring outcomes, and providing input into programmatic and policy decisions. These new functions require office location outside of any agency or mission area. In the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress also adopted a wide variety of special provisions to address the needs of both socially disadvantaged and beginning farmers. Implementation of these provisions also underscores the urgent need for a separate office at the Departmental level that coordinates and monitors outreach and services across all mission areas to assure access to new programs and to measure and report results.

For these reasons, the legislation purposely includes specific language that ensures this office would be created at the Department level. Section 14013 states, "Secretary shall establish within the executive operations of the Department an office to be known as the 'Office of Advocacy and Outreach.'" There can be no other meaning to this language than as to create this office as a separate office directly under and reporting to the Secretary, rather than under or through any other office, mission area, Assistant Secretary, or Under Secretary. We urge you to move forward with this office as a clearly separate office, equal to other Executive Operations offices in a timely manner.

As regulations to establish the Office of Advocacy and Outreach are created, it is essential this office and its two branches be rooted in and enhance relationships to the many agencies of the Department through the existing networks of Outreach and Small Farm Coordinators. The implementation team and the new directors and staff of the office must include Coordinators and others with significant experience working with small farms and with beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and deep understanding of the current and emerging programs of the Department.

The Department's focus on small farms and beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as a key sector of agriculture has been sporadic and fractured to the detriment of the producers. The USDA should make full use of this new authority to devote the full front-and-center attention that will allow this sector to flourish to the benefit of rural communities and our food system.

Sincerely,

Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural, Washington, DC
Intertribal Agriculture Council, Billings, MT
And more.

Cc: Sen. Tom Harkin
Rep. Collin Peterson
Sen. Russ Feingold

Storm-Beaten (1908)

2008-08-29T08:10:00.007-05:00

Here is a prayer written and prayed by Clara Ann Thompson, published in James Melvin Washington's Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans.

Storm-Beaten

Weary, worn, and sorrow-laden

Jesus, I have come to Thee;

Shield me from the darts of Satan;

Set my fettered spirit free.

Hearken to my plea for guidance,

As I kneel before thy throne;

Cheer me with Thy Holy Presence,

When I feel I'm all alone.

Struggling with the cares that press me,

Falling, when I fain would stand,

Thou alone, canst guide and keep me,

Take, oh take my trembling hand!

Pity Thou my many failings!

Strengthen Thou my falt'ring trust;

Keep me, 'mid the wind's loud wailing,

Thou, the Pitiful and Just!

What's in your iPod?

2008-08-28T19:28:00.004-05:00

Early mornings these days continue to be filled with an attempt to regain some sense of normalcy. The early hours of the day are filled with the routine of getting out to the track at ECU here in Ada, Oklahoma, jogging a few miles, rehydrating with Gatorade, and all the while listening to tunes via the shuffle mode on my iPod. After several years of running without music to listen to and run to, it was time to make that change.

One of the most interesting albums on my playlist is "Wade in the Water," released in 2005 by the Joyful Sound Gospel Choir in Tillery, NC. The members of the choir come from the Tillery Resettlement community and are committed to raising funds to give back to that community.

The CD was recorded live at the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, Highway 561, Tillery, NC on March 25, 2005. Proceeds go to the work of the Concerned Citizens of Tillery. In fact, if you write CCT, PO Box 61, Tillery, NC 27887, they'll probably sell you a copy.

The list of songs? All amazing. Sung with passion and energy. Here's the list: Precious Memories, Fly Away, Heaven On My Mind, Walk with Me, I Shall Not Be Moved, In the Valley, Oh! Freedom, Amazing Grace, Ship of Zion, Steal Away, I Know I Been Changed, Get Aboard,
Wade in the Water, and Amen.

Check out this link for how it was used to spotlight the documentary, "We Shall Not Be Moved."

Your playlist is incomplete with this CD.

Words of a former student

2008-08-26T20:40:00.002-05:00

Here is the text written by a student of mine, Michelle Finley, who is now studying MFT at Purdue University. The article was originally written for a local Christian newspaper there in Abilene. I think you'll appreciate her reflections.

"In the blink of an eye a life can be saved by a simple act of empathy and an informed, not-knowing stance. My own life’s joys and sufferings have shaped how I perceive the experience of others and empathize with them. At the same time I have a great amount of curiosity about each person’s unique journey. We all have experiences or events in our lives potentially providing a framework from which to serve others and help bring justice to someone’s life. I do not mean a heroic, valiant pursuit of justice in some mythic superhero legend, but rather a deceptively small act that ameliorates suffering simply by choosing love and the way of Christ.

During my training as a marriage and family therapist I encounter an array of opportunities to-in some way-help others who are oppressed in their relationships and in their communities. So often, as Christians, we galvanize ourselves by striving to know exactly what God’s plan or will is for our lives, yet all around us are moments begging us to display God’s love to others. How do we display God’s love? To answer this question I humbly venture into my journey through the world of marriage and family therapy and the unexpected places I have been as a result.

For the past year I have embarked on a journey in my internship at the Marriage and Family Institute to be among a chorus of voices seeking justice among African-American farmers facing discrimination at the hands of the USDA and local county officials. Simple and small, yet vastly profound implications for the lives affected simply from caring to ask, caring to research, and caring to speak. I am currently working with my professor and mentor, Dr. Waymon Hinson, and a team of six other students in hearing the stories of black farmers and the discrimination they face while dealing with the USDA. Because of skin color these farmers have experienced financial hardships and diminished livelihood from USDA workers refusing to honor these farmers for their work in providing this country with much of its food supply.

As a marriage and family therapy intern, I learn and apply theoretical models of how to “do therapy” as I work with individuals, couples, and families striving to better their lives. Many of these models’ objectives are to help people find paths to better, healthier living. My faith in God and my awe for the words, actions, and love made manifest in the life of Christ fuel my passion and desire to help carve out new paths for people to break free from oppression and injustice. Therapy, for me, is an obvious profession to channel the love of Christ. What fascinated me most about Dr. Hinson’s research with black farmers is how various therapy modalities can be applied to larger human systems in addition to individuals, couples, and families. I liken this scenario of applying therapy to larger human systems to how Christians employ both discipleship and missions in bringing salvation and relationship with God to other people across the globe. How rewarding to extend my skills as an intern to a world of hurting people in need for someone to hear, for someone to care, and for someone to help facilitate healing from injustice!

Advocacy evolves out of listening, observing, and addressing points of injustice. Psychology and marriage and family therapy alike point to the role of the therapist as an advocate for the oppressed. As a therapist I hear stories of domestic violence and subsequently connect persons to resources liberating them from the abuse. I listen to the dreams and hurts of a teenager and helping that teen uncover his true identity. I utilize my training in systems theory to address the emotional, physical, and social impact discrimination has on black farmers."

Words to the graduates

2008-08-15T17:36:00.037-05:00

These are the words that I spoke over the MFT/ACU graduates on Thursday night, August 7. In that audience were seven members of Justice Team III and three members of Justice Team IV.

The work of these teams has always been a "co-curricular" thing. While the students do take a research course in which they explore via quantitative and qualitative methodologies these things that we write about here, the experiences of travel and interviews and all have been above and beyond the curriculum. They are going to make a huge difference in the world. Already has started.

We Serve a God of Extravagance

MFT Department Graduation Banquet

August 7, 2008

There is a time and a place to speak of extravagance, not in the ostentatious sense of the word, but in the God-intended sense of the word. As I see it, we serve an extravagant God who creates extravagantly, a God who loves extravagantly, a God who gifts extravagantly, and a God who calls us to extravagant living and loving out of our giftedness.

So we come to this place to honor those who wish to honor their calling. I think it is something like this. And then there was a star on the horizon, just as there is every evening as the sunlight fades. Then there is a second, a third, a fourth. Some show signs of brightness, but soon they burn out; perhaps they're not stars but meteors that only exist temporarily. Others find a different orbit than the rest. Some travel widely across the sky and for longer periods of time than the rest of us, Jeff Holland and Gretchen Etheredge, while others are a bit younger, Sarah or Kimberly or Rebecca. Others take rather circuitous routes to reach us, Ruqayyah or Kristi or Carlos or Ty, while others are a little more direct, Jordan, Mindy, or Daniel.

Whatever the path, we wind up in the same place and the same space for a span of time. We don't feel like stars, and we certainly don't always feel terribly gifted, but there are those moments when our calling is clear. It may be after moments of terror with either a professor or a client, but then the chosen and the choosing merge into something meaningful.

It's clear that we're not always in charge of our paths, that obstacles are placed in front of us, to challenge us or to refine our faith as of by fire, or to encourage us to continue in our calling. Back when I was in graduate school, one of my professors who intimidated me immensely, Dr. Jack P. Lewis, coined the phrase "ministry of study," and that, I think is what you do here, while practicing on people, so as to reach that incredible balance of understanding how theory does indeed drive practice and within that context of the therapy room, that intimate, lived moment, we actually get to see attitudes and behaviors change.

It's also clear that someone is in charge of "seasons" of our lives, and that it's not us. The teacher of old wrote, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."

And so, there's a time to be born and a time to die;

a time to think about MFT and a time to accept the invitation;

a time to plant and a time to uproot;

a time to receive the scholarship offer and a time to ask more from Dr. Halstead;

a time to kill and a time to heal;

a time to wonder if Abilene is the right place and a time to drive away from it nostalgically;

a time to tear down and a time to build;

a time to sit in your first lecture with Milholland and a time to hear Goff for the last time;

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to put the first letter on the first page of your first paper and a time to put the period at the end of your last reference page;

a time to mourn and a time to dance;

a time to watch Hinson interview a family and a time to say,"I can do that, too;"

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them;

a time to feel the anxiety of the client hour #1 and a time to experience the emotional tug of the last hour, whatever the number;

a time to embrace and a time to refrain;

a time to be reluctantly supervised and a time to welcome the coaching;

a time to search and a time to give up;

a time to wonder if you'll ever be worth what folks will pay you and a time to realize that a laborer is worthy of his or her hire;

a time to keep and a time to throw away;

a time to buy those books on bestbookbuys.com and a time to sell them to incoming, unsuspecting first years;

a time to tear down and a time to mend; and

a time to doubt your calling and a time to embrace it tenaciously.

So, how do you put God, extravagance, MFT, stardom, your sitting here tonight, and your calling together? I think it goes like this, and just a little further on in that particular section of Biblical text. In that section, rewritten tonight, is "He has also set eternity in the hearts of people; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

My prayer for you is that you will embrace the eternity within you, that you will live out your calling extravagantly, and that you will inch ever so closer to fathoming what extravagant things God has done and is doing through you, and by doing so you will both honor your amazing giftedness and make the world a better place.

And, a PS to the social justice team graduates:

A time to consider joining and a time to jump onto the team after much prayer;

a time to ponder the overwhelming injustices in the world and a time to decide that 'I can do a little something about them' in my corner of the universe;

a time to read of the plight of the Black farmer and a time to hear Hinson tell their stories and a time to go and talk to them directly;

a time to write letters to the President of the US and the secretary of the USDA and

a time to read their letters of response;

a time to grieve at the injustices wrought upon Black farmers of our land and a time to be astounded at their resiliencies;

a time to read about the plight of the Black farmer and a time to listen to the interviews;

a time to wonder how you'll be received if you tell your family and friends what you're up to and a time to get in the mail an article from an aunt or an uncle who is now aware of the struggle; and

a time to pray, 'Lord will these meager efforts ever make a difference,' and a time to do them again, and again, and again.

Well worth the time to watch and listen

2008-08-01T18:21:00.002-05:00

Here's an Iowa Public Television documentary on the Black farmer issue. I think it's worth the time to look and listen.

I've met folks who did not hear of the Pigford Consent Decree, and others who in other ways were denied access to the consent decree.

In the present, looking at the past, peering into the future

2008-07-24T11:02:00.005-05:00

It was an interesting Sunday evening that consisted of Charla's world famous breakfast casserole for dinner, lively conversation, and "The Great Debaters."

We watched the movie as the evening light faded, a good thing because it allowed all of us to hide our emotions at the intense moments of the movie, and there were several. For me the first was when the young woman from Wiley College spoke passionately to the audience about integration, that the time "is always now," out in the middle of of the pasture with the church's tent shielding the listeners from the sun. The second one was the lynching scene. Too unspeakable to attempt to describe. The third was young Farmers' presentation in the hall on the Harvard Campus.

We laughed at lot because one of our number has numerous friends and acquaintances who were extras in the movie, and her college band played in the sound track of the movie.

For all of us, it was a riveting look back at Jim Crow, lynchings, racism, and people of immense courage. The prof who was a teacher and coach by day and an activist for the Southern Tenants Farmers Union by night, risking life and limb for a cause. The students who slowly grabbed hold of the idea that they could and should stand up, speak up, and shout out words of freedom and liberation before audiences large and small.

For me, it was a retrospective into the things I've been reading and studying, teaching, and writing about over the last few years.

For me also was the realization that three of the next generation of activists were sitting in our living room......

Now that stirs me deeply, more deeply than I have words to express.

Story from Arkansas

2008-07-22T10:42:00.001-05:00

Check out this video:

Living life in post-Pigford

2008-07-15T09:08:00.003-05:00

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.

Here they are.....Team IV

2008-07-10T08:30:00.004-05:00

Here are the good people who have formed Social Justice Team IV here at Abilene Christian University and the Department of Marriage and Family Therapy. Justice is important to them, matters of faith course through their veins, and making the world a better place for all is what they hang their hats on. A little hyperbolic? Likely, but, frankly, I'm excited about the ideas that are being tossed about these days by this group of students, and pleased to be walking alongside them. So, here are Ty, Ruqayyah, and Daniel. You may remember that Ruqayyah and Ty attended the Black Land Loss Summit in Whitakers and Tillery, NC back in February, 2008. More will be posted about them under justice teams over the next few days along with the direction of our work. Thanks to Jeff Emery for the photography.

Meet Harry Young

2008-07-08T10:38:00.004-05:00

Several years ago I met Harry Young at a black land loss conference in Memphis. Then, in November, 2007, my wife and I ventured up to Frankfort, Kentucky to march on his behalf. Just a few weeks back, he spoke at a national whistleblower conference in Washington, DC.

Here is Mr. Young in his own words:

I Just Wonder.....

2008-07-01T08:48:00.003-05:00

Over the last two or three years I've read some interesting accounts by authors who have pursued their lineage that led back ultimately to the plantations of this country and the intersection of blacks and whites, of slaves and masters. One, Slaves in the Family, was especially intriguing, and another, The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, was good as well. Would recommend both.

Over the weekend, I watched an interesting documentary of the same sort. David Wilson, an African American from a rough city background goes off in search of his ancestry, and along the way meets David Wilson, Caucasian BBQ entrepreneur from North Carolina. Each can trace his roots back to the Wilson plantation. They meet talk, discuss race, reparations, slavery, and current views on these matters. Here's the link to it.

For several years now, in a personal way, I've wondered similar things. What would it be like to meet people of color that my people once owned. Several sides of my family are as vanilla as vanilla can get, but on one particular side, there was at least what looks like an "upper middle class" family during the early to mid-1800s in the South. This particular family owned property, farmed, and preached. And, they owned several slaves, persons whose names are in my family ancestry files. While my last name is not the same as the slave-owning folks' surname, still, the lineage is unmistakably there.

So, I've often fantasized about meeting African Americans whose name rings throughout my family tree. I wonder what it would be like to meet Black Jeffcoats who could trace their history back to Swansea, Orangeburg County, South Carolina. I wonder what those conversations would sound like. Would there be "leftovers" that would have to be deconstructed. Would there be rage of some sort? Would there be tears?

There are indeed Jeffcoats who are African American, and they come from that area of the country.

Any of you have these experiences? If so, I'd like to hear from you.

I do hope to meet them some day. Until then, I'll just wonder.

Seems like yesterday....

2008-06-30T08:59:00.004-05:00

At the end of December, 2004, when the snow had made the area in Abilene where I live a winter play land, while out jogging one morning, I made a decision to write my grandsons each day, to reflect on things like running, life events, relationships, etc. That commitment was something I kept religiously. Here, then, is a part of a letter written on June 28, 2005 (hopefully they won't mind this one peek into their letters), one of the most memorable days of walking alongside advocates and farmers in this righteous cause. So, three years later, here are the words I penned to two children that day.

"We arrived in Raleigh, NC on Monday night after leaving you in Ada early Monday morning. We drove to OKC, took a flight to KC, MO, and then much to our surprise, we had to fly to Baltimore, MD in order to get down to NC. That was long, long, long, long. Then we found our way to the hotel, a nice one by the way, and then had dinner and bought a potted plant for the grave of a deceased farmer and his wife.

Then, yesterday morning, we were up and out early, something like up at 5:00 am our time and out to drive to Tillery, NC at 6:00 our time. We go there in plenty of time and just drove through the area.

Then at 10:30 things began to pop. We met the Black Farmer president, heard the history of the Tillery community, watched a video of the group that meets in the community center, met several kids and a bunch of adults, and then set off on an amazing lunch meeting. We sang, prayed, and read scripture like it was church, except that all the participants, and all the people at the meeting, except for your Mema and Poppie, were African Americans. We were the only white faces we saw all day long.

We had a great lunch, did a silly exercise led by an elderly, retired teacher, and then the farmer president asked Poppie and Mema to speak. That’s called an impromptu speech. Mema was amazing, and I’d called mine 'adequate,' but she’d give it higher marks. Mema had the crowd crying about her story of interviewing a Black soldier who fought in WWII. She was on, definitely on.

They gave us a cake for our 35th anniversary and sang over us.

We then talked and visited until thunder clouds came up, so we moved our activities out to the farm and the place where a farmer couple is buried. I had asked for permission to place flowers at the grave site, and the farmer president and his family said yes, and several community people came. It was raining, but we all had umbrellas, and we sang, said some words, quoted some scripture, and took a lot of photos. A lot of people spoke kind thoughts toward Mema and Poppie, and about the deceased farmer and his wife.

Grandchildren, I cannot begin to speak to you of how deeply moving that experience was. To say a few words over the fallen warriors who fought the good fight for the freedom to farm the land, to place flowers at their tomb, and to be received graciously by their family and friends all speak to the generosity of people who come together for a common cause.

Afterwards, we went to the farmer couple’s house, talked, ate, drank water or cokes, and sat under the awning and laughed and told stories. I really liked Gary, the young man who’s graduated with a degree in English from ECU; PJ, the tall, tall, tall young man who’s just graduated and going to school in RI to study cryogenics; Raymond, the retired police officer who came home to Tillery, who may be related to me through our common Cherokee heritage from Orangeburg; Gary Grant, the NBFAA president; and his extended family.

So, this morning as I sit in the semi-dark at the motel in Rocky Mount, I am filled with awe, wonder, and praise. It’s a long, long way from West Texas to Tillery, NC, but the human spirit of grace and peace connects them both. In the words of John Denver, 'In the eyes of all the people, the look is much the same; the first one is the last one when you play a deadly game.' He was talking about nuclear war, but the 'deadly game' I’m talking about is racism, a game that destroys all of us, those doing it and those receiving it."

Yes, that was an amazing day with an amazing group of people. Thanks for reading these words as I've attempted to describe it.

A Great Day to Celebrate

2008-06-19T10:21:00.003-05:00

Any day is a good day to celebrate. Today it's even more so the case. Today marks the anniversary of that amazing day, June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger stepped ashore at Galveston, Texas and declared that the slaves were free. The good news was obviously late arriving since the Emancipation Proclamation had become official January 1, 1863.

There were a lot of reasons not to tell the slaves that they were free such as one last harvest at their expense, or good news travels slowly, or the boundaries between the north and the south, or any number of other reasons, perhaps all or part true.

General Order Number 3 read this way:

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

What must that news have been like? Rejoicing, jubilation, "thank God Almighty, I'm free at last," confusion, or what?

Who stayed and worked, and under what conditions? Who took their few possessions and left?

So, out of that grand announcement came the annual celebration, "Juneteenth," with all of its rich history and tradition, festivities, and food.

So, today is a time of looking back and honoring those who have fallen in the battle for freedom and equality. It's also a time of looking forward to the day when "righteousness rules this land," and all are free, free indeed.

Here are a few sites for more information: here, here, and here.

A Familiar Prayer

2008-06-17T09:53:00.005-05:00

Oh Lord, we come this morning knee bowed and body bent before thy throne of grace. We come this morning Lord, like empty pitchers before a full fountain, realizing that many who are better by nature than we are by practice, have passed into the great beyond and yet you have allowed us your humble servants to plod along just a few days longer here in this howling wilderness. We thank thee Lord that when we arose this morning, our bed was not a cooling board, and our sheet was not a winding shroud. We are not gathered here for form or fashion, but we come in our humble way to serve thee. We thank thee Lord that we are clothed in our right mind--Bless the sick and afflicted--those who are absent through no fault of their own. And when I have done prayed my last prayer and sung my last song, and when I'm done climbing the rough side of the mountain, when I come down to tread the steep and prickly banks of Jordan, meet me with thy rod and they staff and bear me safely over. All these things I ask in Jesus' name, world without end, Amen.

Prayer of J. G. St. Clair Drake (1940) from James Melvin Washington, Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans.

Moving but not going anywhere

2008-06-10T08:46:00.004-05:00

Twenty-four years is a long time to live in one place. For me, that's been Abilene, Abilene Christian University, Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, our church home, the Highland Church of Christ, and our private practice group, Big Country Family Therapy Associates. According to the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes, God is the author of change, and that seasons come and seasons go.

This particular season in Abilene will come to an end mid-August. Another season of my professional life will begin September 1 when I begin work with the Chickasaw Nation. That work, curiously enough, will be similar to what we've written about, and what we've done, as reflected in these pages. I will serve as Director, Office of Strong Family Development, and I will work in conjunction with faculty from the University of Oklahoma in developing both an "idea and a location," the Family Resource Center.

While the Chickasaw Nation quietly but relentlessly pursued me, I put several "obstacles" in their way, that if the answer was otherwise, it would be "no deal." Hopefully that does not come across as arrogant, but just the statement of a man who is passionate about these matters. The first was the statement, "I want to continue advocacy efforts on behalf of the Black farmers of our country," to which my administrator replied, "Not a problem. That work is at the heart of what we do in this division."

There were others. One that cuts to the very heart of what I want to do with my life is to develop the next generation of advocates. So, how could that be done if I move away from ACU? Moving away from ACU was not an option unless the work and relationships could continue. Many ideas and possibilities are there: stay in touch with ACU/MFT students, develop similar relationships at East Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma Baptist, create connections with various departments on the OU campus, and connect with college students at the various churches in Ada and the surrounding community. Above all, figure out ways to stay connected via this blog and facebook and other means. Then, when various opportunities come up for advocacy or research, we can meet at points betwixt and between.

So, while I'm moving from Abilene, Texas to Ada, Oklahoma, the work can and will continue.

In terms of what I'll be doing in Oklahoma, it'll mean advocating for families within the Chickasaw Nation, bridging the gap between behavioral health and the medical community, writing policy and creating programs designed to strengthen individuals, couples, and families within the Nation. It'll mean collaborating with OU to create the Family Resource Center, to establish policy as to what will happen there in terms of best practices and programs that will enrich those who will in turn engage the Chickasaw community. It'll mean developing resources and hiring people who will staff regional centers that will deliver services to the people.

Transitions are torturous because there's no reason to leave the work here. These are good people, faculty, staff, and students. These folks are busy changing the world, one client hour, one family system at a time.

No, there's no reason to leave here, but there's every reason to go to Oklahoma. There I'll be able to put into practice what I've preached for several years now, that of engaging institutions of power and privilege and creating change so that the needs of the people are met, so that voices of the people can be heard, so that the Kingdom will come in both small and substantial ways.

There is much to be done: music projects, a photojournalism project, articles, books, consults with farmers entering litigation, speaking out on matters of policy, informing our readership, developing new teams, and others. The work must go on.

So, yes, I'm moving come August, but I'm not going anywhere. This work that we write about on these pages and these people are home. In the words of a dear friend, these are "my people."

New class action suit: Kimbrough, et.al., v. Schafer

2008-06-03T17:10:00.003-05:00

Three attorneys, J. L. Chestnut, David Frantz, and Phil Fraas, have filed a class action lawsuit against the USDA on behalf of the 63,000 or so Black farmers who fall under the category of "late filers." This group of farmers were ruled ineligible for inclusion in the Pigford Consent Decree. Per the web page of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, this move is in response to the latest farm bill that includes a provision for seeking justice for those who missed the initial deadline under Pigford.

The FSC is urging caution in the face of attorneys who might promise more than they can deliver. Up front money should not be required to be a part of this effort.

The action is entitled "Kimbrough, et.al., v. Schafer," and the lead counselors are drawing attention to the limited resources allocated in the bill. Only $100,000,000 is allocated now, but there are hopes that Congress will appropriate more funds later.

Counsel is waiting for the Secretary of Agriculture to file an answer.

Reminds me of a "chance encounter," if there is such a thing, with a gentleman in a local restaurant yesterday. As we stood in line at the cash register, I commented to him, "Nice shirt." The words on the t-shirt read "Pray Until Something Happens." His comment? "It's been a hard day." I wish I'd continued the conversation. He lives in the area. I hope our paths cross again. I won't let the conversation die again. I promise.

This situation with the farm bill and the allocation for addressing grievances is one of those "pray until something happens" times. Pray and work, work and pray, until, in the words of the song, "righteousness rules this land."

Race and community

2008-05-27T16:42:00.004-05:00

Couldn't have said it better than Larry James, so here are his precise words, lifted from his blog at www.larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com. Hope he's ok with the lift I've done of his words.

Whenever I address the subject of race or racial prejudice here, I brace myself. I always get negative feedback, some of which suggests that I should leave the subject alone. The assumption of many of my critics is that race and racism are no longer problems in our society.

Oh, the bliss of wishful thinking.

Last week I attended the first few minutes of a seminar dealing with property values in neighborhoods as an index for determining "livability" or more comprehensive measures of community health. The presenters were accomplished academics, people who really knew their stuff. I'm sure the seminar was brilliant and full of at least some useful insights.

But, I left after the first twenty minutes.

One of the presenters made this statement about real estate values in South Dallas, "We controlled for many factors in our comparisons between this part of Dallas and other more affluent parts of the city. We were surprised to discover that race is still a significant factor affecting property values."

Say what?

"Surprised to discover that race is still a significant factor affecting property values"--are you kidding me? Anyone who is surprised by that fact of life in the inner city has just lost the ability to command my presence for the remainder of the presentation. Thus, my early departure.

Race and racism remain powerful forces and factors in the dynamics of life, economics, opportunity, hope and justice in every inner city in the United States.

The entire ugly reality reminded me of a story I ran across recently. It seems a white preacher visited a black congregation and, during his sermon, suggested that in heaven there must be a Jim Crow partition that separated the white saints on one side from the black saints on the other. At the end of the service, one of the church's deacons led the congregation in a closing prayer that went like this:

". . .O Lord, we thank thee for the brother preacher who has spoke to us,--we thank thee for heaven,--we thank thee that we kin all go to heaven,--but as to that partition, O Lord, we thank thee that we'se a shoutin' people--we thank thee that we kin shout so hard in heaven that we will break down that partition an' spread all over heaven,--an' we thank thee that if the white fokes can't stand it, they can git out of heaven an' go to elsewhere!"

I think the deacon knew more than the academic who came to town last week. How about you?

John Ficara is at it again...."Forty Acres and A Dream"

2008-05-25T15:17:00.004-05:00

John Ficara is at it again. Previously, he published his perspectives of the plight of the Black farmer in book and video formats.

Now, two new releases, part I and part II of what you'll see below, reveal in a more in depth fashion the struggle of the Black farmer via the stories of people you'll see him interviewing.