Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock: Step, Stand, and Stay with Us, An Open Letter

February 25, 2024

The Honorable Raphael Warnock, Ph.D.
407 Auburn Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30312
 
416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
 
Dear Senator Warnock:
 
It is a pleasure to worship with Ebenezer each Sunday morning and especially today with the preaching of Olu Brown. Besides growing up in the same region of East Texas, he and I share in common a concern for the gospel and for people.
 
My “transition” to Ebenezer took place several months back when two things happened: 1) my physicians told me to stay out of crowds lest I contract a disease and die and 2) my growing discontent with a white church with a smattering of Black sisters and brothers and a growing shift to the right and a lack of interest in engaging important matters in our larger community.
 
Besides our mutual degrees in theology, you and I share a deep concern for all to be included at the table and all to be included in farming across this great land of ours. I understand that you have been instructed by the writings of James Cone and Howard Thurman. I have only come to embrace their writings and ways of thinking and living in my senior years. As you share inside information as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I share a deep concern for the mistreatment of Black farmers at the hands of USDA. Since 1995 I have listened to injustices perpetrated upon Black farmers, I have heard and heard again of the pain and suffering that farmers and their families experience at the malfeasance of USDA/FSA that lands squarely in their laps. As a board member of BFAA, Tillery, NC, and as a representative of the Justice for Black Farmers Group and as a co-laborer with Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, I have had the pleasure and the pain of advocating on behalf of Black farmers and families at a whole different level, one upon which you live, move, and breathe. My speeches, publications, blogposts, and even a documentary are easy enough to find.
 
In Reverend Brown’s sermon this morning, as he touched on the three actions of faith as exemplified by the Israelites there at the Jordan: Step, Stand, and Stay, I was convicted that such actions can easily apply to the Black Farmer Movement by the farmers themselves, by advocates like me, and by congressionals with power like you.
 
Those three actions exemplify the Black farmers and advocates. We stepped out in faith that their cause was a worthy cause, convinced that Black farmers had been kicked to the curb since the earliest days of USDA, and likewise convinced that the investigative reporting verified the horror stories that we had heard for decades. We have moved into standing. We would not be moved by a different administration. We were unmoved by the rhetoric of promises following by a display of inaction. We are unmoved by the cherry-picking of USDA and its debt relief while Black farmers lose their land. And we have stayed. We stay as our people die. One of my studies has been the impact of the micro and macro-aggressions of the county office on the health and well being of farmers and families. You have heard of the death of some: Eddie and Dorothy Wise and Eddie Slaughter, just to name three. While we have life and breath, we will stay in the struggle. While we have life and breath, we will stay until racism has been removed from USDA and until all of God’s children are treated with the same dignity, respect, and funding for farming.
 
We wrote you a letter on March 4, 2021. That letter is attached to this letter for your convenience. The tragedy is that much has stayed the same. Things have not changed for the better the last three years for Black farmers. In fact, we think things are actually worse and land loss and its tragedies happen right before our very eyes.
 
We are asking that you step, stand, and stay with us. We respectfully ask that you meet with us and discuss the current status of Black farmers and that you work with us to find avenues of remediation. Avenues and actions are there: the Justice for Black Farmers Act should be enacted, greater transparency and accountability should be mandated for the USDA, Black farmers should receive the same benefits as any farmer in terms of funding for farming and farm operating loans and other matters, loss of land and livelihood must cease, and the White House and USDA must declare and show with actions that Black farmers from New York, down through the South, across to Texas and then the Midwest, and across the Southwest, and even to California and the western states all matter, Black the same as white in all matters related to farming.
 
Thank you for reading this letter. We eagerly await your response and an opportunity to meet with you.
 
Respectfully,
 
----S----
 
Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.
www.letjusticering.blogspot.com
www.blackfarmersinsearchofjusticefilm.com
Psychologist/Marriage and Family Therapist
Advocate/Researcher
Representative for BFAA, Justice for Black Farmers Group, and
  USDA Coalition of Minority Employees
903-271-4654
Waymon.hinson@gmail.com
 
CC: Lawrence Lucas
       Corey Lea
       Michael Stovall

Call Me a Skeptic: USDA and Funding for Discrimination

Call me a skeptic if you wish. It seems that we have been down this road before. The terrain looks terribly familiar and the potholes, they look pretty much the same. 

Many of us are familiar with the machinations of Pigford I and then Pigford II. Though Pigford I was  class action suit back in 1999 under the direction of Judge Friedman, it contained a lot of money, a lot of lawyers, and restrictions that made things maddening for Black farmers. For instance, class counsel on the one hand waived discovery, but yet made off like a bandit in terms of money for their services. Again, the demand for Black farmers was to find a "similarly situated" white farmer with whom to compare and contrast so that racism could be proved. Whoever heard and that and who would ever agree to such a requirement? Billions of dollars were paid out to lawyers and to farmers. Most farmers I know wanted debt relief, not the promise of the $50K plus tax relief if settled under Track A or an undetermined amount if settled under Track B. What they wanted was to be relieved from the onerous burden of debt which had been demanded of them despite it being the fault of someone else. Only 371 Black farmers out of 16K actually received debt relief. 

Yes, we've been down this road before. 

Back a few years ago, we thought all was to be settled under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. I wrote about that. You can check that out here. No need to repeat the same words. The promise of 100% of debt relief plus 20% for taxes was halted in two courts across the land as a result of white farmers saying that they deserved some of that money, too. The key here is "slow walking" and big bank involvement. There is a lawsuit in federal court about these matters. 

Then, President Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Again, I wrote a few words about that to President Biden, complete with political satire. You can find them here. No need to repeat them here. Bottom line? White farmers got debt relief as did Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans, but not Black farmers. That was to have been done out of the $3.1B congress appropriated. We know of eleven or so Black farmers who were relieved of their debts. Eleven out of some 2,900 who have loans with USDA? We have moved from Black to Socially Disadvantaged and now to "distressed producers." Who would not qualify? 

Now comes the final focus. Precisely $2.2B has been allocated to those who can prove that they have been discriminated against. I have attended three Zoom calls with the USDA and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. Here is a brief summation. 

The web page is now up and running. Check in here for complete details here for the announcement and check in here for next steps. 

Here are a few points of summary:  1) prove you have been discriminated against by filling out required or optional forms, or by supplying them to the hub; 2) a national entity is in charge of it all (is this even legal?); 3) work via one of two hubs in whichever region you reside (they are found in the links above); 4) feel free to get free advise from one of eight "cooperators" that are also found above; 5) this is a free process, so do not go and hire an attorney, but if you do, their fees are your responsibility; 6) the documents may be submitted via portal or copies at a local FSA office; 7) the list of documents required and/or requested is quite lengthy, so get started now; the deadline for submission is October 31; 8) this is not a first come first serve process; 9) all documents of all those who submit will be evaluated and the entity in charge will decide how much you are to receive; 10) the limit for payments is $500K; 11) per the Zoom calls, do not expect anything close to that; 12) the final word is the final word, i.e., there is no appeals process as what you receive is what you receive; 13) this is not a lawsuit process but a compensation model; 14) there are several law firms out in cyberspace wanting your business, for a fee of course, and 15) white farmers' claims have diluted the pool of potential funding. 

There are several potholes in this process. First, if you trust the USDA, do not get legal counsel, but if you do not trust USDA, you might get legal counsel, or you might consider trusting one of the "cooperator" groups, if you see one that you trust, or if you know someone affiliated with them that you trust. 

The most eggregious aspect of the process is that there is no appeals process. Coupled with that, an outside entity decides what your compensation will be. What is offered is the bottom line. Accept it or reject it. I have yet to hear of a complicated process like this that does not have an embedded appezls process. 

I have reviewed the materials. It all looks complicated to me. It is described as a simple do it yourself model. Perhaps it will be simple for many. 

The biggest grief I have with the process is that it was designed back in the day to attempt to level the playing field, one in which white farmers had all of the advantages and Black farmers received less than they deserved. How level is the playing field when Black farmers have lost land and productivity on the land from 1920 to 1997 to the tune of $326B? 

So, the world is changing. The Supreme Court has ruled out affirmative action. It looks like similar processes are playing out at USDA. 

And, they ask us to trust them? 

I think we've been down this road before. 

Meeting with Vilsack to the California Reparations Task Force: News Travels Fast

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?"