Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Dear President Obama
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
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:
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.
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A Few Candid Shots from the Summit
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.
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