Here I Sit

Here I sit, pondering it all, making sense of it all.  That has been one of my life-long attributes for good or for it, making sense of it all. Perhaps you can understand by the time this post is completed.

Our interviewing and filming trip to the DC area was quite good, not perfect, but generally quite good. We captured somewhere in the vicinity of 12 hours of conversation with three gentlemen who have made marks on the civil rights world. We are committed to protecting their anonymity until the documentary comes out. Then, folks will know them all. But for now, there is one photograph that I am putting out there.  It is simply a dining room table, the interviewee’s notes on his side of the table, and lovely artwork in the background.

Hidden in the depths of my files has been a schematic that I drew in late September, 1997 at a mediation hearing before the Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture.  My presence there was not welcomed by the appointee from Justice, Michael Sitcov.  He and legal counsel wrangled over me for a few minutes until the mediators decided I could stay and speak. At some time during that day, I flipped the cover page of my written presentation over and drew the large conference table and who was sitting where both around the table and along the back wall. Legal counsel, farmers, and me on the left side of the table, mediators at the end of the table, representatives for DOJ and USDA on the right side of the table, and attorneys for the Office of General Counsel along the back wall. For some reason, I thought this was going to be a big deal, so I wanted to chronicle it via sketching that little schematic.

Here we are some twenty-two years later. The farmers have been interviewed for the documentary. Legal counsel has been interviewed. The appointee for the DOJ refused to be interviewed by us. One USDA civil rights employee has transitioned into the other life.  One USDA civil rights office employee interviewed with us. I remembered his being there.  He remembered some things about that mediation session, but not sure if he remembered me being there.  It was a big deal or all of them would not have been there.

From that day until now, several around that table remain committed to justice for Black farmers.  They have helped with names, dates, towns, and states in our pursuit of locating all of the farmers whose cases were settled via administrative processes. We have that list.  We have interviewed some and we will interview others.  Some have met their maker, but their stories are chronicled in local newspapers here and there.

I get it that I am not the dominant thread in this story.  I am only a small thread in the tapestry of what we trying to do.

However, it is with deep, deep emotions that I experience in looking at that drawing and re-reading that September day in 1997. To ponder who was there then and who is playing major roles in the development of the Black farmer documentary is intense.

On two other pages are notes from the first two rounds of the mediation. They do not paint a benevolent picture of the mediation process. The farmer and his wife are burdened by the process. The civil rights folks are seriously wanting this to be settled well on behalf of the farmers. The DOJ, however, has a client, and that client is the United States of America and the DOJ.  They are bearing down hard on the farmer and spouse, they are grinding them emotionally, and they are protecting the government well. At that moment the people do not matter.  The institution matters. Yes, I said it.  The institution matters.

A couple of quotes from Mrs. Farmer and their legal counsel sum up the day.  Their words are written there in my handwriting at the bottom of the page:  this is a “dark cloud,” and “let us go. Release us from this.” 

This went on that day. Land loss is ongoing for Black farmers. The battle is not over.  The battle will not be over until justice is served and until the USDA recognizes that it has perpetuated racism by its aggressive and passive efforts.  Those guilty of racism and discriminative actions toward Black farmers did not lose their jobs.  In some instances, they even got promoted. Even when discrimination was proved, employees kept their jobs.  This lack of accountability is just plain wrong.

There is much more to be told.