It is apparent that news travels fast, either good news of bad news. Indeed, at times news of justice efforts likewise travel fast. My wish is that as news of justice-related matters move at warp speed, that justice itself would similarly move at warp speed. Sadly, that is not the case. Here are some moments in time that connect the dots in some radical ways.
On May 28, 2021, a group from the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and the Justice for Black Farmers Group met with Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack, his chief of staff, Ms. Ferguson, his appointee for equity matters, Dr. Dewayne Goldmon, and a host of others. We had requested time to discuss our ongoing concerns. What we got was a presentation by the secretary followed by a few moments with Ms. Ferguson and Dr. Goldmon with an admonition to submit our queries by email.
We were grossly dissatisfied with that meeting and many things related to it. We articulated those concerns in a follow-up letter to him on June 2, 2021. That letter under the signature of President Emeritus, Lawrence Lucas, is found here. I hope you will read it.
We continued our advocacy in a number of directions, and then, on September 13, 2021, Yvette Carnell, noted podcaster and activist conducted an entire podcast on the plight of the Black farmer. She entitled it, "The Dept of Agriculture Set Black Farmers Up to Fail. Again." Here is the link to her podcast. It is excellent, and I hope you'll find time to watch it. You will see in the podcast that she plays off of our letter to Secretary Vilsack. She doesn't use all of it, but rather significant pieces of it. She also references other folks we follow with much interest, good people who are good investigative reporters.
Then, a person who works for the Department of Justice in California who was watching the podcast contacted Lawrence Lucas and invited him to provide testimony for the California Reparations Task Force. On October 13, 2021, Lawrence provided testimony in both written and spoke form. Here is his spoken testimony. Please scroll forward to 15:00 for the beginning of his presentation. Here is his written testimony. If you want to read just what he presented, scroll down to page 307 and you'll learn a lot about the history of Black land theft at the hands of the USDA and its egregious policies; however, there are other pieces of compelling testimony that might interest you as well.
So, packed into this brief post is a timeline of May 28, 2021; June 2, 2021; September 13, 2021; and, finally, October 13, 2021. This time-line moves swiftly.
Also, packed within this brief post are significant pieces of information in our fight for Black farmers: the meeting with Secretary Vilsack and his team; our summary letter, dissatisfaction with the meeting, and key points that we want to discuss with him further; the brilliant podcast of Ms. Carnell playing off of the letter to Vilsack that some how or other landed in her lap; and then Lawrence Lucas' engaging testimony and written statement about the long term history of Black land theft at the hands of the USDA and other related matters.
As Lawrence Lucas says on many occasions, "If not now.......when? If not now.......why?"
