Black Farmers Take Mule, Tractors to D.C.

Aug. 23, 2002 — -- When John Boyd is not tending to his chickens, tobacco, grain and cattle at home in Mecklenberg County, Va., he's often working at his other job — fighting for the survival of the disappearing American black farmer.

His crusade might have ended three years ago when a class of black farmers settled with the federal government in what was widely considered a milestone civil rights lawsuit. But the 1999 settlement was not the lifeline many struggling farmers thought it would be.

Thousands have had their claims rejected, payments are slow in coming, and as black farmers struggle to pay bills and stay in business, their numbers continue to dwindle.

Boyd, also the head of the National Black Farmers Association, led the charge of 60 other black farmers who came in buses and trucks from as far away as Mississippi — along with two tractors, two goats and a mule — on Thursday to Washington, D.C., where they protested in front of the U.S. Department of Agriculture building. The farmers demanded a moratorium on foreclosures, a speedier payment system under the 1999 settlement, and an end to the discriminatory lending practices they say continue.

"We are bringing our mules and livestock so people will see the lives they are affecting," Boyd said in an interview before the rally. "We're going to turn them loose in Washington because they're taking our farms. We don't have anywhere to put them."

For sure, American farmers of all races have decreased in number over the years, but none as dramatically as black farmers, who now comprise only 1 percent of the nation's nearly two million farmers, according to U.S. Census figures.

Blacks' first occupation in America was farming, Boyd pointed out. "It's going to be the first occupation to become extinct for black people," he added.

As black farmers see it, the culprit in their struggles has roots as deep as their connection to the land: discrimination. When thousands of farmers joined the class-action lawsuit against the USDA in 1997, they claimed that years of racial bias kept them from getting many of the crucial government loans and subsidies that go primarily to white farmers.

Two years later, when the USDA agreed to settle the case, the agency under then-President Bill Clinton admitted that discrimination against black farmers spanned decades. Under the terms of the settlement, every black farmer who suffered discrimination would have debts forgiven, receive $50,000 tax-free, and get priority for new loans.

But the deal was not that simple.

Black farmers did not automatically qualify for payments, they had to submit claims to independent reviewers outside the USDA. Many have been rejected, thousands missed filing deadlines, and others say their claims are not processed fast enough.

So far, the government has paid 12,597 farmers more than $629 million in claims and has forgiven at least $17.2 million in outstanding loans, according to USDA statistics.

Under a consent decree, there were two tracks for the farmers' claims. Those who choose Track A must prove they tried and failed to borrow money between 1981 and 1996, that they had filed a complaint about their loan denial, and that white farmers in similar situations received loan money. Most of the approximately 22,000 farmers in the class chose this option, believing they could easily satisfy requirements.

As it turned out, thousands more farmers than anticipated filed claims, making their lawyers' work more cumbersome, and records of the USDA and white farmers were difficult to come by. Further, the USDA challenged nearly every claim that came in.

Complicating matters even further, the black farmers grew disenchanted with their lawyers and are trying to have one removed as their counsel. In a sign of how the class-action suit got off track, the lead plaintiff withdrew from the case.

Of the farmers who filed Track A claims, 8,490 lost.

Those farmers who took the slower option, Track B, to prove more grave discrimination, have had an even worse track record. Of 181 farmers, about 50 have settled out of court, but the USDA has won 15 of 25 cases it has tried before an adjudicator and is appealing nine of the 10 it lost.

More cases are pending, and the USDA says it is working to help expedite the farmers' claims as quickly as possible, although the agency points out that the court-appointed reviewers are not under the USDA's control.

"We are looking for ways that we can speed up the claims process even more," said USDA press secretary Alisa Harrison.

As if the hassle over the 1999 settlement was not bad enough, black farmers say they still face the kind of discrimination that inspired the lawsuit in the first place. Many local farm agency workers who discriminated against black farmers are still in their jobs, or just shifted to another office, they say.

Gary Grant, another black farmer-turned-activist in Tillery, N.C., describes a biased system that takes three times as long to process loan applications from black farmers as from whites. The longer a farmer goes without needed loan money, the more time passes before he can plant seeds or do other critical work.

Of course, a slow loan is better than none at all. When black farmers are consistently rejected for loans, it makes it even more difficult to get loans in the future, he said.

"If you have not loaned me money in five years, you have notified all creditors that you are foreclosing on me and I have to operate the farm the best way I can to feed my family, why would I have a positive cash flow [to qualify for a loan]?" Grant said. "It's your fault I don't have it."

When black farmers are approved for loans, it is often for less money to operate the same acreage as whites, Grant said. Further, blacks are often approved for "supervised status" loans, he said, which means the money does not go directly into a checking account.

Under a supervised loan, each time the farmer needs money he must leave his operation and go to the local farm agency with an estimate of what he needs to request a check. That can take a farmer away from his land all day — an expensive loss of time.

It's no wonder that the average age of the black farmer is 60 years old, Grant said. The next generation is turning away from farming, and Grant can't blame them. "If you had to witness your parents going through what the USDA put their parents through, would you?" he said. "Why would you want everything being done to prevent you from making a living?"

Grant watched his own parents, Matthew and Florenza, struggle through 44 years of farming their land — first with discrimination, then with the federal government. Both of his parents died before they saw money from their discrimination claim. "We say the USDA killed them," Grant said.

Grant, the head of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, did not attend Thursday's rally, but led his own sit-in with 300 farmers last July in a Brownsville, Tenn., USDA office. Grant hopes to convince Congress to establish a lending agency specifically for black farm borrowers.

Later that month, Grant and other farmers met with President Bush's Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman in Washington, but said not one of the issues they discussed has been settled yet.

After the meeting, Veneman said: "Let me assure you of my personal commitment to ensuring dignity, respect and fairness throughout this Department and to all the constituents we serve. If something is wrong, we need to fix it. If our employees need more training, then we intend to give it to them. If we need to help cut the red tape and bureaucracy to better serve our constituents, then we intend to do it."

Veneman's spokeswoman said the USDA has continued working toward settling outstanding issues with black farmers.

"We have been meeting regularly with various black farmers organizations over the last 18 months," Harrison said. "Some have been productive, and we're making progress on a lot of issues. The secretary's priority is to find a continued dialogue and find those areas where we can find common ground."