Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival, Panel on USDA, Documentary on Black Farmers

 Media Advisory

USDA Coalition of Minority Employees

Justice for Black Farmers Group

 July 25, 2021

The 9^th Annual Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival begins July 25 and ends August 1, 2021. Speeches, panel discussions, and films have been organized by Michael McCray and Marcel Reid, co-organizers. The Summit web page is here: https://www.whistleblowersummit.com/ The ACORN 8 and the Society of Professional Journalists (DC Chapter) are hosting this year’s Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival. The theme this year is “Salute to the 50th Anniversary of the Pentagon Papers and Rise of Investigative Journalism.” The event will include a keynote presentation by Daniel Ellsberg among others. 

A wide array of panel discussions will begin on Sunday, July 25.  The topics include global whistleblowing, student debt, immigration justice, and many more. The list of panel discussions can be found here:  https://www.whistleblowersummit.com/summit-schedule.  These events are free of charge, but registration is required

The USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, an organization that has been in existence since 1994, has played significant roles in addressing discrimination across the USDA including the Forestry Service and the Farm Service Administration. The Coalition’s website is found here: http://agcoalition.org. We are featured in this year’s Summit and Film Festival.

Members of the Coalition will present a panel on Thursday, July 29, at 10:00am EST. The panel is entitled, “Systemic Discrimination at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA Coalition of Minority Employees)” and will feature Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, as panel moderator; Tracy Lloyd McCurty, Founder and CEO of Black Belt Justice Center and Acres of Ancestry; Lesa Donnelly, Vice-President of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees; Lloyd Wright, Black farmer and former Director, USDA Office of Civil Rights (OCR); and Waymon Hinson, independent research, author, and film co-producer. Secretary Tom Vilsack and other USDA officials have received significant push-back along with the OCR and Farm Service Administration (FSA). Investigative reporting reveals numerous injustices and failures by him and the OCR. The panelists will present disturbing information which presses the need for systemic change within the Department, or as it is labeled, “THE LAST PLANTATION,” in order to eliminate racism, sexual abuse, retaliation, and other abuses against minority farmers, especially Black farmers, and employees. The panel website is here: https://filmfestivalflix.com/zoom-meetings/combating-systemic-discrimination-at-u-s-department-of-agriculture/

In conjunction with the panel addressing systemic discrimination at USDA, the Film Festival will screen “I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight USDA,” an award-winning film co-produced by Shoun Hill and Waymon Hinson. The film chronicles 9 Black farmers and families who prevailed against the USDA in the late 1990s as they tell their stories in their own words of the injustices perpetrated upon them by the USDA.

The film is located here: https://filmfestivalflix.com/whistleblower/purchase-tickets/ It premiers on July 27 at 1:00 pm EST, and is available for 72 hours thereafter.

For further information, contact the following:

Panel discussion, Lawrence Lucas, LawrLCL@aol.com,  856-910-23

Documentary, Waymon Hinson, Waymon.hinson@gmail.com, 903-271-4654

Dear Mr. Vilsack, Black Farmers and Employees are Waiting, July 23, 2021

July 23, 2021

Secretary Thomas Vilsack
Attention: Chief of Staff, Katherine Ferguson
                  Director, FSA, Zach Ducheneaux
                  Senior Advisor, Dewayne Goldmon
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
 
Secretary Vilsack:
 
As a follow-up to our letter of July 16 requesting a meeting with you and your staff, for our next meeting we submit the following.
 
The USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and the Justice for Black Farmers Group have long advocated for major changes to be made within the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Six months into your administration as Secretary, our concerns remain the same. Therein lies our challenges and, hopefully, many opportunities for you and your staff to partner with us to create change within USDA on behalf of minority farmers, especially Black farmers and USDA employees.
 
Contained in President Biden’s plan for rural America in his Build Back Better initiative, there is an assertion that the Obama Administration created improvements in civil rights at USDA and a new chapter had begun, and that the previous administration (referring to Trump) slid backwards in these areas. One of the most significant lines in the policy is this: “Under Obama-Biden, the USDA sought to address both the structural and cultural causes of systemic inequality that had in prior generations been reproduced by the policies and practices of the agency.” A recent Washington Post article captures the complicity of the OCR during your administration, “Even as USDA suggested that a civil rights renaissance had occurred during the Obama administration, the department persisted in ignoring race discrimination complaints. It ran out the clock on complaints bound by a two-year statute of limitations, and foreclosed on many farmers of color with pending complaints.” The complete article is found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/06/28/black-farmers-debt-forgiveness-constitutional/
 
We see little evidence of change. That is precisely what we want to work with you on….rooting out systemic racism and inequality for farmers and employees.
 
We began corresponding with the Biden/Harris Campaign and meeting with the Biden Transition Team in early 2020 followed by a host of communications with you and your team, none of which have resulted in the substance and clarity that we are seeking.
 
Our complaints remain as follows:
 
·         The historical mistreatment of Black farmers and related systemic factors;
·         The institutional organizational structure that allows for a devolution of 

        responsibility;
·         The failures of the County Committee system;
·         The failures of the OCR;
·         The intrenchment of the Office of General Counsel (OGC) in the affairs of the OCR;
·         An environment that lacks "accountability;”
·         Inequities of Pigford I and Pigford II with regard to both denials and debt relief;
·         The absence of utilization of the USDA's land bank by Black farmers;
·         The incompetent manner in which Census of Agricultural data is misused by the 

        USDA;
·         A complete organizational evaluation and set of changes to insure equitable 

       treatment;
·         The endorsement of a program of reparations for Black farmers;
·         Review and update the Endangered Black Farmer Act of 2007;
·         Conduct a series of meetings with key persons to assess systemic racism in programs

       and services;
·         Greater institutional and programmatic support for urban farmers and urban 

       communities; and
·         Discussion regarding the Commodity Credit Corporation and how it can benefit 

       Black farmers and others.

 
The above list is not new. Senator Elizabeth Warren found our issues and concern to be compelling. She addressed them in her plan during her presidential campaign. Our opinion is that 90% of the changes we recommend are found in The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2021 and that they could be enacted with the stroke of your pen.
 
Investigative reporting supports our assertions that your policies during your first two terms led to even further disenfranchisement of Black farmers and others. Unless you move swiftly and thoroughly, things will continue to deteriorate under your leadership. One of the things that is most troubling for us is what we heard from a member of the President Biden Transition Team on July 31, 2020. We were told that what we were asking, debt relief for Black farmers, was “unconstitutional.” Surprisingly, we are now hearing that term in the white farmer lawsuits which have derailed the historic debt relief for Black farmers and others.
 
For our issues and concerns, listening sessions are by far not the cure. USDA knows their internal and external problems and solutions. So, let’s get on with the business of fixing the systemic problems at USDA. For instance, USDA already has all it needs in terms of information about the problems. You have the Civil Rights Action Team report (February, 1997), the Civil Rights Implementation Team Report (March, 1998), the Harvard Brief, the $10M Jackson Lewis Report, the Office of Inspector General reports, the General Accounting Office Reports, and a host of other reports and research, just to name a few. Many of the recommendations found in these reports can solve the systemic racism problems at USDA. The Clinton/Glickman Administration established the framework for all future administrations to follow in order to correct systemic racism and the administration and processing of civil rights complaints for the future. The Vilsack/Leonard administration refused to use these reports and processes as benchmarks. The Senator Warren Plan and The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2021 have many of the resolutions to the systemic problems at USDA.  USDA does not have to reinvent the wheel.
 
We are obviously concerned about debt relief and how the numbers of Black farmers and others eligible for relief continue to change. We remain disturbed about your process, one that is well beyond 134 days, which is prolonging the economic suffering of Black farmers. Former President Trump was able with a stroke of the pen to provide relief for predominantly white farmers in 12 to 14 days via the Market Facilitation Program without congressional approval.  President Biden could do the same. If USDA has the records to abruptly foreclose on Black farmers, you could have paid off the debts with similar speed. This is an added political miscalculation.
 
More importantly, and painfully, we can count over 40 Black farmers who have died waiting for justice. How many more Black farmers must die waiting for justice from USDA?
 
As noted above, we continue to be especially disturbed about the OCR and Deputy Assistant Secretary, Monica Rainge, and her conflicting remarks with regard to how many cases remain unresolved/backlogged. This does not explain the enormous number of civil rights complaints that have been in Deputy Assistant Secretary Monica Rainge’s office for decades. As we stated, historically OCR has been called “a closing machine” and “dysfunctional.” We have no evidence to suggest to the contrary. In fact, several farmers on our recent call with you have ongoing cases within OCR. We are led to believe, then, that Monica Rainge was providing us false information. Based on her response, we are also not convinced that there is indeed a “fire-wall” between OGC and OCR as she stated. This needs to be explained to us with clarity. This cannot be accomplished with everyone rushing off the Zoom call to attend other meetings after only a half hour of discussion.
 
We remained troubled by the decades of systemic discrimination at USDA that harms especially Black farmers and USDA employees. Many of the items that were offered during our previous meeting with you did not get to the solution/resolution (told after 30 minutes the meeting would end) of the many systemic concerns that we had previously addressed in our communications. Again, recent reports and investigative news articles confirm our allegations of the continued widespread racism and other abuses at USDA. Also, we clearly expressed our concerns regarding the county committee system that still inflicts pain and suffering on Black farmers and remains central to the marginalization of Black farmers and others. Nothing has been done by this administration to correct it.
 
By way of summary, accountability, transparency, independent oversight, and rooting out systemic racism are vitally important to us all. Guilty officials are able to act with impunity.
 
When we met with you and your team in late May, we found the meeting to be unsatisfactory in terms of the amount of time we had allocated and the lack of attention to the substantive issues that we brought to the table. In short, the meeting left us frustrated, disappointed, and insulted. We have voiced our displeasure by your mistreatment and you have been unresponsive.
 
We look forward to meeting with you and your staff in the next few weeks toward a better outcome. The people we serve (approximately 100 urban and rural farm groups and advocates around the country) deserve better.
 
Until then, silence is not an option.
 
Respectfully,
 
 
 
Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus
USDA Coalition of Minority Employees
Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group
www.agcoalition.org
LawrLCL@aol.com
856-910-2399

Dear Secretary Vilsack, July 16, 2021

July 16, 2021

Secretary Thomas Vilsack
Attention: Chief of Staff, Katherine Ferguson
                 Director, FSA, Zach Ducheneaux
                 Senior Advisor, Dewayne Goldmon
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250

Secretary Vilsack:

We wish to acknowledge the meeting with you and your staff on May 28 which included Katherine Ferguson, Dewayne Goldmon, Monica Rainge, and the Office of General Counsel.

We had hoped that meeting would be the first of an ongoing series of meetings between you, your staff, and representatives from the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and the Justice for Black Farmers Group.  While we have not heard from your office regarding a follow-up with us, we will continue to persist on behalf of people who are important to us, Black farmers and employees of USDA.

Frankly, at that meeting, we were dismayed, frustrated, and disappointed by several things: we were not informed as to the length of the meeting; we were informed of the mode of technology at the last minute; the shift in confusing technology which proved problematic for some of our rural farmers; we did not have sufficient time to ask our questions nor have our questions answered; and misleading information was provided by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.

We have long advocated for major changes to be made within USDA. Six months into your administration as Secretary, our concerns remain the same. Therein lies our challenges and, hopefully, many opportunities for you and your staff to partner with us to create change within USDA on behalf of minority farmers, especially Black farmers and USDA employees.

Therefore, we respectfully request that you and your staff meet with us expeditiously. We prefer a Zoom-type call. We also request that the meeting last not less than an hour and a half.

We anticipate a speedy and early response to our request.

Respectfully,

Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus
USDA Coalition of Minority Employees
Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group
www.agcoalition.org
LawrLCL@aol.com
856-910-2399

President Joe Biden's Plan for Rural America

You can read the entirety of President Biden's plan for rural America here. 

Here is one key paragraph that I am watching carefully. Will he do what he says he would do? 

• "Advance fairness, accountability, and transparency at the United States Department of Agriculture As President, Biden will appoint officials at every level of the USDA who have a demonstrated commitment to supporting Black, Brown and Native farmers. Biden will also eliminate the USDA’s backlog of civil rights complaints, streamline and expedite the complaints process, permit appeals, and reinstate a foreclosure moratorium for those whose complaints remain unsettled. Biden will direct the USDA to fully enforce whistleblower protections and investigate reports of retaliation and interference from the Office of General Counsel. In addition, Biden will demand transparency and oversight in all aspects of USDA’s operations. Further, Biden will call on the agency’s Economic Research Service to include farmworkers and farmers of color more prominently in their research."

Let Justice Ring: References for You to Explore: The Black Farmer ve...

Let Justice Ring: References for You to Explore: The Black Farmer ve...: The Environmental Working Group does an amazing job chronicling the sordid history of mistreatment at the hands of the USDA and its infamous...

My Ambivalent Relationship with America

In my other life as a marriage and family therapist, I worked with a lot of couples, those who were committed to each, those who weren't, and those who were betwixt and between. Over a bunch of years, several groups at Abilene Christian University's MFT program worked with me to develop an inventory that measured these things. For those who are insanely curious, here is that inventory. 

That frame, ambivalence, pre-ambivalence, and post-ambivalence, applies to a bunch of different things, relationships, employment settings, and even working in the yard. 

It fits my relationship with America, and today, July the 4th, I am feeling it deeply. At one point, I was deeply committed to the US of A. Frankly, that was when I was younger and when I was deeply imbedded within my white world. Things were simpler then: we were the best, we did no wrong, we saved the world from itself, and our leaders were all good people through and though. 

Then I woke up one day and realized that there were so many things I did not know about our country. I did not know much if anything about slavery, the real origins of the Civil War, Reconstruction, the roots of Jim Crow, red-lining, racism, health disparities between whites and Blacks, institutional racism, white supremacy, and how America was built on the backs of the enslaved whose enslavers profited enormously. 

Therein lies my ambivalence. 

Then, I began to remember my childhood and all of the contradictions there around race and relationships. 

Then, I began to interview Black farmers across the South, and represented them before the big people in USDA and DOJ. Then, I listened more and more and more. 

One of the first on site interviews took place in Colfax, Louisiana. My teachers never told me about the horrors of reconstruction, how the Supreme Court undermined freedoms that the formerly enslaved people had come to enjoy, their own employment, freedom to travel, and then to vote their conscience. One of the most horrific massacres took place there in 1873. Check it out. 

I interviewed a large number of people who celebrate June 19 as their day of freedom, and not July 4. July the 4th, I was told, was the white peoples' holiday, not theirs. Since then, I have respectfully joined them. 

I feel a lot of emotions about June 19 and how long it took to get that word to Texas, and now we pretty much know that the enslavers were given a free reign of terror on the enslaved in order to have one more harvest season. 

Therein lies my ambivalence. 

Explore Black Codes under Jim Crow, forced labor via the penal system, and you'll know what I mean.

Therein lies my ambivalence.  

So, I believe that democracy is a grand experiment. It is a noble experiment. Democracy has been good to me. I am a white guy, a member of the race group defined by its whiteness. 

Therein lies my ambivalence. 

Democracy has not been good to all of the people that I care about. The color of white creeps into so many areas of our lives. Look at the devastation to Black farmers that has come from the bowels of white USDA. Laws and policies and programs should be color blind, but those who administrate them are not. That's why Black farmers have lost so much land and generational wealth. 

Therein lies my ambivalence. 

So, I think America is still trying to work it out. We tried when we voted Obama into office, two times. We then had a white last and elected his antithesis. Then, we came around and rebounded once more and voted in Biden. We are still suffering from the four trump years. We will for a while. 

Therein lies my ambivalence. 

Still, I am glad to live in America, the only place I've ever lived. I do not believe in American exceptionalism, and I do not buy into Manifest Destiny, the notion that gave white people permission to rape and pillage and steal land from whomever was in the way. 

Therein lies my ambivalence. 

I think we can be better. We can do better. We can live better. We can treat people better. Everyone's vote should count, and all Americans should have the freedom to vote, without onerous burdens placed upon them. 

Therein lies my ambivalence. 

Yes, I think democracy is a grand experiment. It is an experiment that we are still engaged in. You and I are part of the experiment. We are those being experimented upon. 

I long for the day when it is "liberty and justice for all," not "liberty and justice for some."

Therein lies my ambivalence. 

That's a long story. Enough for today. 

References for You to Explore: The Black Farmer versus USDA

The Environmental Working Group does an amazing job chronicling the sordid history of mistreatment at the hands of the USDA and its infamous county committee system. The judges have ruled in Wisconsin and Florida that the USDA debt relief plan is misguided. Maybe it is misguided against the other groups of Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers, but the history is not in doubt relative to African American farmers. For those who eyes to see and ears to hear, I invite you into this journey of materials and stories. 

This article discusses the length, the depth, and the breadth of the history of farming while Black in America. Yes, I am the author of this article, but I am not ashamed to place it in this list of references. The narrative extends from the shores of Africa, through the horrendous Middle Passage, standing on the auction block, purchased and living on plantations as enslaved people owned by the enslavers, Freedom, the challenges of Reconstruction, the indignities of Jim Crow south, and the stories of land acquisition against all odds and then the land losses at the hands of USDA and others, but especially USDA, powers that continue unabated to this very day. 

This hour long conversation takes place between the radio host, Marti Oakley, the program host; Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and Representative of the Justice for Black Farmers Group; Tracy Lloyd McCurty, attorney and Director of the Black Belt Justice Center; and Lloyd Wright, Black farmer and former Director, Office of Civil Rights at USDA. They discuss the depth and breadth of the lawsuits by white farmers that are blocking the debt relief process of socially disadvantaged farmers and what might be potential solutions. They will discuss at length the challenges around accurate counts for Black farmers and other groups as the numbers move quite often. They also hit on the notion that the Black farmer litigation called "the Pigford Class Action Suit, or Pigford I," legitimizes the case for Black farmers while other cases for other farmer groups were never formalized. The numbers indicate that Black farmer groups are fighting for relief of all minority groups while other minority groups are seemingly stationed along the sidelines. 

This article is one of several that explain the background and details of The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 which was signed into law by President Biden. The ARPA includes section 1005 and 1006. Section 1006 prescribes debt relief for socially disadvantaged farmers. Section 1006 delineates funding via various programs and initiatives that benefit farmers. This article chronicles the law suits filed by various white farmer groups as they holler that they have experienced reverse discrimination with the major focus placed on the Florida judge and her decision. The readers can decide for themselves, but I have waded into this issue in other posts on this blog. They will be listed below. 

This is another column that chronicles the narrative of debt relief, the law suits, and the current status of things. Written by a writer working for Progressive Farmer, the article includes comments by Ag Secretary Vilsack about how things will likely be in court for a while. This is a well written article regardless of where you land on these issues. 

This article highlights the background issues and one of the principles in the fight for justice for Black farmers. Her voice was heard on the radio program above. The article leads up to an important zoom conversation with Senator Warren, Booker, and Warnock, but this was before the temporary restraining order from the judge in Wisconsin and the preliminary injunction by the judge in Florida. You'll see one of our group, Corey Lea, Tennessee advocate, with one of his horses at the beginning of this article. 

This article includes the larger background while at the same time asserting what many of us fear, that it is too little too late, or rather what we know, that it is too little too late. The most heartrending part of this article is the story of Bernard Bates and how he was driven from farming in the area of NW Kansas named "Nicodemus," the site where a large number of African Americans lived and farmed until they were driven away. I'd encourage folks to read this article because it drives the point home even harder through the narratives of one community and one family. 

For those who are willing to read a few more words that I've written, here are two specifically that address the ridiculous assertions of the white farmers. There will one more coming over the next few days. One thing that I point out in these pieces is that the first set of farmers who screamed discrimination actually benefited in three program areas to the tune of $523,000 and that the counties in which those farmers lived benefited in those same three program areas to the tune of $1.2B. Yes, that's what I said, $1,200,000,000. That's a lot of zeroes. 

Here is the first article. It's called "Dear White People." 

Here is the second article. It's called "Dear White People Part Two."

Yes, there are a lot of words and several articles noted here. I hope you'll take the time to check them out and join up with us to fight for Black farmers.