LETTER TO THE BIDEN/HARRIS CAMPAIGN

 LETTER TO THE BIDEN/HARRIS CAMPAIGN

September 16, 2020

Subject: Discovery of Significant Information

Only days after we released our “Open Letter to Vice President Joe Biden,” September 6, 2020, we received a copy of the letter from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law dated January 9, 2009. We were shocked that this letter affirms the legitimacy of the work that we have been trying to accomplish with the Biden/Harris campaign for months.

 This letter clearly highlights a legacy of discriminatory actions by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). These include areas of farm loans and benefit programs along with “outright displays of bias against minorities and minorities and women, especially in the county-level offices of USDA.” Given this legacy within the USDA and its challenges, the committee made four recommendations: “(1) a moratorium on foreclosures against minority and women farmers with pending complaints, (2) a requirement that county office interactions with farmers be documented; (3) a mandate to generate better data on socially disadvantaged farmers: and (4) establishment of a minority farmer advisory committee,” all of which were spelled out in the 2008 farm bill. If the administrations had followed the edicts of the farm bill, many of the problems of USDA civil rights would have been resolved.

The author of the letter concludes, “It is appalling that any American today should still face the kind of entrenched discrimination at the hands of a Federal government agency that minorities and women face when dealing with the USDA.” The author predicts that “unless the foreclosure moratorium is implemented immediately, more of these farmers will lose their farms.”

The problem is we have too many sitting in a room planning the destruction of other peoples’ lives instead of improving them. Where was the rush to fix the problems addressed in this letter....by the Vilsack administration?

We absolutely agree with the Lawyers’ Committee addressing key strategies for changing the systemic racial and gender inequality at the USDA. History tells us that their appeal landed on deaf ears. President after president, congress after congress, secretary after secretary, and lastly, election after election, civil rights at USDA remains dysfunctional. Our demands for justice at USDA are further justified as a result of this letter.

We appealed to the Biden/Harris Campaign to adopt the civil rights fixes in the Warren and Sanders plans. However, after many months of meetings this recommendation was not taken seriously. To add salt to the wound, you stated that our request to address Black farmer issues was unconstitutional.

The Biden/Harris Campaign shows an unwillingness to address issues that could change the course of USDA. Warren and Sanders listened to Black farmers, urban farmers, and their advocates and produced comprehensive strategies that would fix USDA civil rights once and for all. They seemed to have understood the gravity of the injustices done to Black farmers. They understood the need for systemic changes at USDA…. not putting a band-aid on a cancer.

We want the Biden/Harris Campaign to implement the recommendations per the Lawyers’ Committee as well as the Warren and Sanders Plans.

That said:

·         What actions will you be taking regarding this newly surfaced letter from the Lawyers Committee?

·         What is the relevance/connection in USDA 2009 and today’s USDA’s civil rights?

·         What impact, if any, does the Lawyers Committee letter have on your “plan” for fixing systemic discrimination at USDA?

This widespread racism and sexism have become a social justice issue which cannot be side-stepped with your sudden silence. Is your silence the punishment for speaking the truth regarding USDA civil rights?

This is our appeal for justice, dignity, and respect. This is for the living and for those who died waiting for justice from USDA.

Black Lives Matter,

Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus

USDA Coalition of Minority Employees

www.agcoalition.org

Justice for Black Farmers

justice4bf@gmail.com

856-910-2399

CC: Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

        Others