Finally, Summit Photos

The 10th Annual Black Land Loss Summit was held February 15-17, 2008 in Tillery, NC at the Community Center and in Whitakers, NC at Franklinton Center at Bricks. It was an interesting gathering of people from across the nation who care about land loss, Black farmers, and justice.

The team from Abilene Christian University poses in front of the dormitory with Gary Grant, BFAA President. Left to right are Sarah Hugman, Rebecca Culver, Kimberly Cherry, Gary Grant, Ty Mansfield, Ruquyyah Samia, Charla Hinson, and Waymon Hinson

Gary Grant and Waymon Hinson entertain questions following Hinson's presentation on the impact of discrimination on the health and well being of farmers and families.

Scott Mexic, Director of External Affairs, Office of Civil Rights, USDA, converses with Gary Grant.

Lloyd Wright, former Director, Office of Civil Rights, USDA, and Hinson talk about racial discrimination and Black farmers.

Michael Watts, Acting Director, Office of Adjudication and Compliance, USDA, speaks to the assembly.

Spencer Wood, Ph.D., professor at Kansas State University, receives the "Man Called Matthew Award" from the Grant family for substantial contributions to the cause of Black farmers in America.

Cary White, President of the Concerned Citizens of Tillery, with ACU Social Justice Team members Ruquyya Samia and Rebecca Culver.

A summit attendee talks with ACU's MFT Social Justice Team.

Gary Grant, BFAA President, and Sherie Henry, Associate Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, USDA, talk during a break between sessions.

GaryGrant and The Watermelon Man, Vern Switzer, show his children's books.

Some people want to know

There's apparently quite of a bit of controversy in DC the last few days over a squabble related to Civil Rights complaints in the USDA Earlier this week the Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Agriculture, ordered auditors from the General Accountability Office to leave its offices. Though the office had apparently been cooperating for months on an audit of Civil Rights complaints, Michael Watts, Acting Director, Office of Adjudication, wrote via email to employees telling them, "You are hereby instructed not to meet with any member of the GAO today, or until this matter is resolved," per the Associated Press. Apparently at issue here is whether or not the Civil Rights office had been providing false information about the progress of things. J. Michael Kelly, Agriculture's deputy general counsel, reported that the GAO investigators were intending to speak to specific employees, that the GAO is a wing of Congress and not criminal investigators with authority to investigate legal matters.

Lawrence Lucas, president of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, told the press service that GAO had several people willing to talk to the "independent, nonpartisan investigative
office."

Several from Congress have entered the fray: John Conyers, Bennie Thompson, Artur Davis, Bobby Scott, G. K. Butterfield, and Barack Obama, all Democrats, and all involved in various ways in efforts to fix the controversial outcomes of the Pigford Consent Decree as more than 70.000 Black farmers missed filing deadlines. The lawmakers are accusing the USDA of failing to address these serious complaints of discrimination.

Interesting times and interesting people. Justice Team members and I have met some of these folks, Lawrence Lucas, in Memphis at a land loss conference in Memphis, in January, 2006, and Michael Watts in Whitakers, NC a few weeks back.

Interesting, more than interesting, and these events make the team and me sit back and wonder.......

Here are some links with more information. Try this one. Or, this one. I'm just looking forward to reading the letter.

Memorable quotes from a memorable Summit

"The Watermelon Man can sure tell a story."

“Make our friends bigger and our enemies smaller.”

“You kicked some serious butt this morning.....I thought I was just telling the truth.”

“Trust will never come without addressing the imbalance of power.”

“I could feel the energy in the room.”

“We’re still in the kitchen.”

“I’m a farmer.”

“If you get to where you’ve been, you’ll get back to where you were.”

“Can we move from proving discrimination to exploring privilege of whites?"

“Net metering”

“It's barely 7:30......Your 7:30 lasts eight minutes.”

“How much courage did it take to call me by my first name?”

“The feels like a family vacation.”

“Johnny Rivers, South Carolina, $46K, $3 million”

“We want to earn your trust and your respect.”

“Competency, communications, customer focus, integrity”

“Spend some time to get to know us.”

“Almost over”

“65,000 denied”

“Potential cause of action”

“Right to file a new lawsuit, not to get you into Pigford”

“No reason to believe it will be like Pigford”

“Approved comments”

“We don’t do what we do very well.”

“Olive branch”

“Senior guidance”

“Hand hold you over to the right program”

“Limited, socially disadvantaged, minority, Black”

“I want to believe what I’m hearing.”

“Partition sale, nefarious, complicated, speculator, location of heirs, I’ll buy, co-equal tenant, auction, land lost”

“Stops the bleeding”

“A necessary class action”

“Glickman admitted”

“Floor….if income is below $15, then you don’t qualify for these programs.”

“Didn’t impact the rich but did the poor”

“Truth”

“There's healing in the telling”

“Faithful witness to the telling of your stories in places you can’t or won’t go”

“Acknowledgment of wrong-doing”

“Remediation, reparations, compensation for harm”

“Policy makers versus implementers”

“We can reconcile only if you the victims remain the victims.”

“I want my cow back, and the calf she bore.”

“What’s comparable to the cow?”

“The perpetrators do not get to set the rules for reconciliation and forgiveness.”

“James Cone says that the cross and the lynching tree must be placed side by side.”

If you find yourself curious about the context of these quotes, feel free to write and ask. My students and I will be happy to discuss these things with our readers.