Questions About the Pigford II Settlement?

Black Farmers Case
Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation, Case No. 08-mc-0511 (PLF) (D.D.C).
If you have questions about the Pigford II Settlement signed by President Barack Obama on Wednesday, December 8, 2010, you can go to:

www.blackfarmercase.com or call 1-866-950-5547. This web site and toll free number have been established to help people understand what this bill does.

If you have questions after that, please feel free to contact the BFAA office in Tillery, NC.

Under the Cloak of Darkness

December 10, 2010 PRESS RELEASE Contact: Gary R. Grant, President at (252) 826-2800 UNDER THE CLOAK OF DARKNESS, PIGFORD II IS SIGNED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA Tillery, NC Under the cloak of darkness in the South Court Auditorium of the White House, December 8, 2010, the first Black president of the United States signed into law H. R. 4783 which may be the very instrument that will once and for all seal the fate in exterminating Black farmers in America. Against a back drop of the American flag, with several government officials standing behind him and approximately 100 on lookers, including elected officials, Black farmers and Native Americans from several states enjoined in the Cobell Settlement case, the general mood in the room was one of "elation and excitement." As I personally witnessed this historic occasion, feeling extremely emotional about how overwhelmed my parents, the late Matthew and Florenza Moore Grant (deceased 2001 six months apart), would be to know that their years of civil rights struggles helped lead to the reality of an elected African American president, I thought too, of the horror of the hardships and heart break of my late parents, who filed their discrimination suit against their USDA local office more than 30 years ago, yet have never received their compensation for their settlement through the Administrative Process (1996), and other Black farmers who have died never having had closure to their discrimination claims against the USDA. I also thought about my late brother Richard D. Grant (deceased 2004), a farmer and Viet Nam Veteran who died way to early from the stress of twenty-five plus years of struggle to get justice for discrimination against him. There can be no doubt about President Obama's commitment to complete this historic legislation, since he was the Senator who introduced a bill when he was the only black Senator in the U. S. Senate. After his statement to the group and signing the bill, President Obama seemed more eager to shake the hands of the legislative members present than those hard working, suffering farmers and advocates for Pigford and seemed to lack a warm connection to the lowly farmer. Perhaps he should take Shirley Sherrod up on her invitation, and I offer the same, come out to rural America and meet some real struggling citizens. Since I have been privileged to meet with two other presidents on this issue, the noted difference is that President Clinton took the time to pose with each Black farmer as he entered the room. President Bush did not rush from the room after addressing the "black leaders" and allowed time for photographs to be taken, including candid shots. And certainly, Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS), John Lewis (D-GA) Maxine Waters (D-CA), and many others must be given credit for their many years of hard work and standing firmly behind the scenes working to make both Pigford I and now Pigford II possible. Entering the White House on Wednesday, December 8, 2010 was reminiscent of my first opportunity to meet a sitting president, Bill Clinton, on a cold and frigid December (1997) night that I also term "under the cloak of darkness," when a meeting with Black farmers had to be changed to an integrated meeting with "small family farmers" so that the tenor of the meeting would be "politically correct," even though it was only just Black farmers who had filed a class action against the USDA in August of 1997. Or the fact that President George Bush met with some three hundred "Black leaders" and held a private meeting with a couple of Republican Black farmers from Georgia who had supported the ouster of a great Black representative, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (GA), as some source of political commensurate payment for the struggle of Black farmers. Seemingly forgotten in the process are those Black farmers who are in the Administrative Process or have outstanding court claims, like my parents, not to mention those who filed Civil Rights claims during the "Bush years" who are now threatened with loss of their claims because of the Statutes of Limitations being used against them since the Bush Administration did pretty much as the Reagan Administration by stripping the office of Civil Rights and not following up on filed claims. Interestingly and conspicuously forgotten on this occasion was Tim Pigford for whom the class action is named, although Elouise Cobell, a Blackfoot nation member, and former USDA Secretary Dan Glickman were present. So all in all, we close a chapter, but the story is far from being completed as the evil and recalcitrant agents of the government never lost their employment, and are now preparing for rich retirements with many benefits from having stolen the land, the livelihood, the health and for causing all manner of family destruction in the lives of so many Black farmers. To add insult to injury, to have two current Republican U S Congressional Representatives to refer to the Pigford lawsuit as "fraud" and as a form of "reparations" while they insist on a windfall of unjust tax cuts for the wealthiest two per cent boggles the senses and reminds us once again that there is little honor bestowed on an elected Black President, and that racism threatens and is still sustainable for future generations of black and other children of color, and will be staggeringly costly for all Americans. Want to help or learn more? Just contact the BFAA office at bfaausnow@aol.com or tillery@aol.com or visit the BFAA web site, www.bfaa-us.org. Please consider making a donation to assist our efforts to keep you updated and speak the truth. PayPal is available at the web site. © 2010 BFAA ©2010 BFAA | P.O. Box 61, Tillery, NC 27887

A Real Look at the Pigford vs. Glickman

It has been my intention for some time to find a way to bring to the attention of the general public who believe that the Black farmers in America have been paid, through the now historic Pigford vs. Glickman, Secretary of the USDA, for years of discrimination. The law suit was filed in August of 1998 and was deemed closed on April 4, 1999 after a “fairness” hearing. Quickly, the law suit was (1) a Class Action; (2) it had two “Tracks”- A for minimal proof, and B for a “preponderance of evidence;” (3) three of the most damning requirements were a) the naming of a “similarly situated White farmer” who was funded at the same time the Black farmer was denied; and b) the Adjudicator would receive challenges from the very officers and offices that had discriminated against the farmer; (3) that in settlement or debt write off would be counted as income to the farmer and reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

What the American public failed to realize is that the “Class” had an average age of 60. Therefore, the very people seeking justice were those who had survived Jim Crow, and many cases real plantation life, especially the deeper you went into the South. So these farmers had not only been denied access to loans and government programs, they had been denied access to education and basic rights of being able to register to vote, and then would have to have some extraordinary courage to actually go the polls and vote. Fortunately for me, my father and mother were one of the few farmers who had completed high school, could read and write, had educated his children “to get a better job,” but not educated away from the farm and the land.

During the struggle to save our farmland, Dad would often remind us that “the only legacy the Black farmer had to leave his children was the land.” What a profound statement. A people who had amassed more than sixteen million acres of land through some of the most treacherous times in America’s history, those who were the “middle class” in many of the Black communities building churches and schools and owners of small businesses that employed other Blacks, and though most of my generation would say the work was pure hell, these independent business people provided summer employment for many teenagers (please let us not debate this issue) too, and genuinely believed that their government would protect them.

The Black farmer and landowner and the small independent business men and women were actually major sustainers of the Civil Rights Movement in the South by being able to put up there land to bail the demonstrators out house and feed them with real food from home grown gardens and pasture raised meat. However, this “little” contribution has paled in comparison to the stories of the northern dollars that came to pay travel and other expenses for the freedom riders.

So a group of the least expected citizens of the United States; those who were least educated formally, and those who truly trusted their government to do right by them settled the largest Civil Rights claim against the government in history. Now, isn’t it interesting that in 1996 when the first African American was appointed Secretary of the USDA, that there was a law passed to tax all Civil Rights Awards and Settlements with the government.

Each day, the national office of the Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association (BFAA) receives from five to seven calls regarding the Pigford Class. Forty per cent of them are members of the class still trying to get their case through Adjudicator and/or the Monitor. Fifty percent are those who have been fooled along the way by a break-a-way group from BFAA who took people for a ride by taking money from them through a scheme that the people believed would get them into the Pigford Class. And the other ten percent are actually claimants that have tracking numbers and may have an opportunity to pursue their claims under the Black farmer section of the 2008 Farm Bill.

Periodically, I will send short stories here that will help people know that the Black farmer is still struggling and still attempting to seek justice from a government that actually allowed racism and discrimination to be part of its laws. Hopefully, sensitive people will understand that you cannot deny an entire population to be denied its rights and expect that same population to come forth without questioning a government that continues to allow these practices to rule.