Putting black land loss in its proper context

I just posted the following to the gofundme.com site. I think it is important enough to repost here.

Thanks to the authors for allowing this.

The following excerpt from the pens of Drs. Spencer Wood and Cheryl Ragar and their article, "Grass Tops Democracy: Institutional Discrimination in the Civil Rights Violations of Black Farmers" (2012), captures the importance of land for the Black community.

The Grant place has its own conflicted history. Stepping out of Gary’s front door and looking east, you see, with a little imagination, a once-thriving agricultural enterprise surrounding Matthew and Florenza’s (deceased 2001) house. The house, now occupied by Evangeline, Gary’s sister and eldest daughter of the family, is a “project house” built around 1935, during the New Deal Resettlement Administration’s experiment in land reform and active involvement in the area. The machinery, in sheds filled with the trappings of farm life, sits unattended as do the out buildings and garden. A glance northwest toward the timeless Roanoke reveals an innocuous brushy wood lying in the middle of a farm field, unkempt and untilled. The indentations scattered throughout the wood are the sunken graves of the former enslaved who once worked the plantation that has since been partitioned to yield part of the Grant farm.

The cemetery of the enslaved stands as a poignant reminder of the area’s slave-holding past, connecting the struggles of the Grant family to a much larger and more inimical tradition of racism and racial inequality. The Grant family farm stands, listing for the time being, in staunch defiance of the persistent mechanisms used to maintain racial inequality. It represents emancipation, equality, and opportunity. Sharing physical and cultural space along a continuum from bondage to freedom the farm and cemetery symbolically encapsulate the colonial origins of global racism and nearly five hundred years of struggle.

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

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."

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

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

A Very Brief Overview, One Farmer Mississippi

Deeply Moved

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

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

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

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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.