You Must Choose a Side: Justice Demands It

You and I both know the tossed around phrase, "There's good people on both sides." We know from whence that phrase came. There's another phrase perhaps you've heard before, "Justice takes sides." Or maybe "justice is what love looks like out in the open," or something to that effect. Cornel West is fond of that last statement. 

I am also a fan of Dr. Jemar Tisby and his books, podcasts, and his words from substack. Here is one that struck me a day or so ago, so I've been turning it over and thinking of its applications. Do you do that at times yourself? This particular article has its background in the Montgomery Boycott in 1955, prompted by Rosa Parks and her determination to keep her seat, which led to a 381 day boycott of the bus system in Montgomery as Black Americans found alternate ways to work, shop, and to other events whereas prior they would get on the segregated bus and move to the back. 

One of the key decisions by the city's fathers and mothers was to find a new voice for the movement, and they found that voice in Martin Luther King, Jr., the new pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Other sisters had voiced protest against the segregated bus system, but it didn't stick like it did in 1955. 

Dr. King tells his version of those momentous days in his book, "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story." It is a riveting book. It's time for me to read it again and wonder out loud to myself why I underlined or starred or commented on certain paragraphs or sentences. 

In Dr. Tisby's substack article referenced above, there was a particular sentence that stuck with me. Without taking the world's opinion as to its orgin, I hunted through the entire book, and there it was, bracketed and underlined on page 51. Here is the quote: "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is cooperating with it." There is much more to that paragraph, but it'll wait for another day. 

So, while Dr. Tisby offers a well-articulated broad brush stroke for this riveting phrase, my mind, heart, and words go to a specific context: Black farmers, their oppressors, those doing the oppressing and those who idly stand by with a toothpick in their mouths, feigning ignorance or "not my problem." 

What the USDA/FSA  have done to Black farmers is indeed evil. "What evils do you recall?" Dr. Hinson, you might ask. Thanks for asking. I'll name a few. 

Selling land to a Black farmer, knowing that the land is over-priced and cannot produce the volume of cotton to make the payments on it, so your good friend can come along and buy it for a below market value price, that's #1.  Do you think others in that FSA office knew about these shenanigans? 

Foreclosing on a farmer because he got his loan too far into the planting season, that's # 1, and then when a disaster came, that is, too much rain, so that he could not get into the fields to harvest his crop, you don't offer him disaster relief, that's # 2, and then to settle his debt, you seize equipment that belongs to his parents, # 3. Or, when the farmer fills out paper work for the operating loan, you tell him to write it in pencil and you'll make it cash flow, and then in a depostion you lie about it, that's # 4, but your secretary says, "No. That's what he did." Do you think others in that FSA office knew about these shenanigans besides the secretary? At least she had courage to tell the truth. 

Farmers depend on operating loans long before the planting season draws near, but you, Mr. FSA guy, deny him loans, sending him again and again and again, demanding that he fill out his paper work differently, that's # 1. You deny them for so long, that his pigs actually die, # 2. Then, he appeals the decision up to the state level, and that office sides with Mr. Black farmer, but you take his check, place it in his file, and never tell him about it until it's too late, and his pigs were dead, # 3. Then, you force him and his ill wife out, sell the land at an open auction, and his neighbor, the white guy over there buys it for below market value, # 4. His wife dies and then he dies in an untimely manner. Do you think in a small office in rural America, that other people were standing idly by and watching it all unfurl? I think so. There are more than just four evil actions in this situation. There are too many to count, but they all have a common denominator. 

Those items listed above? Let's call them what they are. Acts of evil. Oppression is evil. Watching as it unfolds is evil. Call them what they are. EVIL. There are no innocent bystanders in this thing called racism. If you know, your guilty, as guilty as if you did the evil thing yourself. 

As an aside, I know of one farmer family in which an office person knew that such malfeasance was going on, so he pulled the farmer and wife in, laid out the materials and told them all that was going on, and they eventually won their case against USDA/FSA and the local bank. That employee was courageous, very courageous. 

There are more stories, but I think you can see the points I'm making. Some people intentionally make decisions that harm people. People in positions of power and influence decide that farmers who skin is Black should not have that much land, do not need to farm that much land, do not need to have that much money from their harvests, and do not need to have those expensive pieces of equipment. Those people are evil according to the quote from Dr. King. Other people who sit around and watch it happen, other office employees, other agents of the federal government, other powerful people in powerful positions are just as evil as they turn a blind eye, accepting evil behavior without protesting. They are just as complicit as it the person who signed the documents that led to the farmer's foreclosure on his property and way of life. 

Racism is evil. Turning a blind eye and saying nothing about racist behaviors is racism also. 

There's a lot of evil-doing these days as the plight of Black farmers is being ignored: Mr. President, Mr. USDA Ag Secretary, Mr. and Mrs. Senators, Mr. and Mrs. Congressionals. Mr. and Mrs. employees of the USDA, you who have your fingers on explosive information, but the Secretary says not to release it via the FOIA process because, "It'll make us look bad." 

Yes, there is a lot of evil going on over in the agriculture world these days. There is a lot of complicity going on. The people I know and respect will not look away. They and I are truthtellers. We are whistle blowers. We demand accountability and transparency. 

I hope you do, too. Call your senators and congressional folks and tell them what is going on. Feel free to use anything captured in any of the posts on this blog. 

The wheels of justice grind slowly and along the way, those wheels and those sitting in powerful postions all the way from the local level to the highest offices in our land, they are responsible for the grind that destroys our people. Two of our people have met their ancestors the last few weeks. We grieve and we mourn, but we do not give up. 

He was There at the Beginning, and Now He is with the Ancestors

The first time I ever heard James Myart's voice I did not know if he was an aristocrat or what. I knew he was an attorney, but I seriously could not tell if he was white or Black. It was a Friday afternoon in the Spring of 1994, and I was home after a week of teaching, supervising, and doing therapy. The phone rang, and he told me that my friend, Tom Milholland, had sent him to me. 

We talked. He asked a lot of questions. I answered them, and then he said, "Dr.  Hinson I think I have failed to communicate to you the seriousness of our concerns," to which I replied, "Obviously I don't so tell me about your concerns. 

For the next fifteen or twenty minutes or so he rifted about the injustices done to Black farmers. 

It was there that he snagged me. A few weeks later, he strolled into my office with a gentleman from another state who had been screwed over by the county committee of the FSA/USDA. Game on. Tell me what I need to know. 

James was a powerhouse of a human being. Short in stature but powerful in personality and demeanor. 

What I learned later, which James actually tells in the documentary is that a farmer and his wife were watching television and on the news channel out of Abilene was a Black attorney representing a white couple who had been fostering a Black child, who now wanted to adopt him. Against all odds, James won that case. The farmer couple talked to the attorney and said, we want you to be our attorney, but that required money that they did not have. James never expected to hear from them, but a few days later, a certified check came in the mail. 

My friend told James to call me, and that's how it all started, and I've never looked back, and I have James Myart, attorney, San Antonio, Texas, to thank for that. 

James required reports that had to be filed with the federal government. I complied and wrote and took notes on hundreds of pages. I went from Texas to Louisiana to Georgia. He opened the door by simply telling Black farmers, "you can trust him. He's one of us." And they did. 

Collaborating with James meant suiting up and showing up at a mediation hearing in DC in August, 1997. He was settling their cases via the Administrative Law Procedure, but damages had to be negotiated. That mediation hearing was intense. The representative for the Department of Justice did not want me there, but James argued for my presence. I spoke while the attorney for Justice played taps on the glass table top with his sharpened pencil. Just a few minutes before that, James and this attorney for Justice had almost come to blows. On that day, I knew that what we were up to was huge, so I drew in pencil the table, who sat where, what the relationships were like, and who sat along the back wall. It was a serious event that I'd been invited to. I knew what my role was because James had defined it well. That's a story for another occasion. 

From then on, my office and I were in contact with James often. He needed updated reports or he needed an updated statement of charges. 

Then, after a while I lost track of him. He would appear periodically with ideas he'd run by me. I was always moved by how he'd stay in touch with me and the speed with which he could voice his ideas. 

Simply put, there would not be a Black Farmer Movement without James Myart. I have believed that for several years, and heard it from another advocate just last week. Between 1997 and 1999 fifteen cases of Black farmers were settled with the USDA/DOJ. I don't recall exactly how many had James as their attorney. I worked with him as psychological consultant on four of the fifteen, four of the first that settled with the USDA/DOJ, but he represented more. 

Later, when the Pigford v. Glickman class action suit was filed, I was in touch with James again. We talked on several occasions about how the case had turned out. I think he felt some deep remorse that he did not do more for farmers. On the other hand, I sensed in him a deep rage and resentment that another attorney had taken his work and had made millions of dollars off of the farmers. 

Over the last year, James came into my life again. He had big dreams. He wanted a "do-over" on some things that he'd left undone and he asked for my help along the way. Some things I could do and other things I could not do. 

And then, two months after having talked to him the last time, I was asked a painful question, "Did you know that James Myart has passed?" I had intended to call and catch up with him, but, to my regret, I did not. In the meantime, apparently, his health challenges got the best of him. 

I do not know how he died. Maybe I want to know and maybe I don't want to know. 

His death, however, took the wind out of our sails, several of us. When a warrior goes down in battle, regardless of  our divergent opinions on various matters, it hurts. It leaves a hole in our hearts. 

So, without James Myart there would be no Black Farmer Movement. I am very thankful that he allowed Shoun and me to interview him there in San Antonio a few years back. He does indeed play a pivotal role in the documentary. Whether via film, his friends, or his family, his story will be told for generations. 

I miss him and will for a long time. Without his invitation, I never would have become a part of the Black Farmer Movement. I'm deeply indebted to him and will remain so until my time on earth comes to an end. 

Rest in Power, James, until we meet again. 

The Price Exacted by USDA for Farming While Black in America

The saga continues. Details have been written in numerous places, that white farmers have the advantages in terms of total farms, total acreage, ability to keep their farms, and likelihood of obtaining loans in an appropriate time frame so as to plant. For Black farmers, the mantra is too little too late, and when the note comes due, the land is sold. There are many stories of collusions between white farmers, bankers, and FSA, and even at times the local implement dealer. The following trailer puts human faces on the whole, complicated issue. And, it'll continue until the occupant of the White House has the moral courage to do something about racism in the halls and offices of the USDA and FSA. This trailer is from the Hill and Hinson film, "I'm Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against USDA," an award winning film that tells the truth about farming while Black in America.