Dear VIce President Harris: Can We Talk?

October 24, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20050

We represent the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and the Justice for Black Farmers Group, and we have done so since our beginning with the United States Agriculture (USDA) in 1994 as we have advocated for Black farmers as well as for women within the institution who are being mistreated.

Our motivations for contacting you are simple. Vice President Harris, you have the President’s ear in these final days, and you have much influence with the American people and various subgroups want your support and for that, you get their votes.

We have had two in-depth conversations/interviews with Drs. Cornel West and Jill Stein. As you know, they are candidates for the presidency in 2024. We just talked a few weeks ago to Dr. Stein in Philadelphia regarding widespread abuses at the USDA. Both of them expressed a deep concern about the lack of leadership, accountability, transparency, oversight, and justice which are lacking at the USDA. We wish to hear the same from the two of you.

We recognize within a few short weeks that the people will have spoken and you, VP Harris, stand an excellent chance at being our next president. In these unprecedented times, much is demanded of our public servants, perhaps more than at most any time in the history of our country. This letter, then, will provide the justification for our list of asks.

Black farmers’ skepticism of President Biden remains entrenched and as his VP, some of that follows you. And, our opposition to the President appointing Vilsack goes back to the very beginning.

As we wrote in our most recent letter to you and President Biden on August 16, 2024, our message has been consistent since our inception in 1994 as the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees. From the earlies stages of our communications with Vilsack in 2011, the White House, staffers, and others, our message has been clear and our list of concerns lengthy and legitimate. In fact, a lengthier list is found in correspondence with President Biden in 2022 in which we advocated for systemic change.

We have previously chronicled some crucial historical points, beginning with Senator Elizabeth Warren during her campaign for the presidency, and the development of her policy to address Black land loss, racism, USDA’s failures, and a myriad of other matters in a document that became the standard bearer for the promotion of justice for Black farmers.

Several senators including Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Raphael Warnock succeeded in writing and submitting to the Senate an important piece of legislation, The Justice for Black Farmers Act.  It marked the significance of historical issues and mistreatment of Black farmers.

We have found the White House and the USDA to be closed systems, closed to us in particular in our efforts to address the concerns noted above to the officials who have the influence to take corrective measures. Secretary Vilsack ignored us except for one unsatisfactory meeting via technology as has President Biden. Only Cedric Richmond and William T. McIntee, in the Office of Public Engagement gave us a fair hearing.

We participated with the agriculture transition team, learned that it was steered by Tom Vilsack, and were informed eventually that what we were seeking was unconstitutional. Next came the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) that brought about the banking industry’s complaints and a slow walking process by Secretary Vilsack that allowed twelve frivolous and racist lawsuits to be filed by white farmers alleging reverse discrimination. See those details here.

With the passage of the ARPA, we celebrated with Senators Warnock, Warren, and Booker and numerous Black farmers and members of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and the Justice for Black Farmers group, but our celebration was short lived and the courts and the white farmer cases stymied our progress.

Senators Raphael Warnock and Cory Booker have in the past shown their interest and concerns regarding the continued abuse at USDA; however, in the past few years because of their busy schedules and political obligations, they have been prevented from doing what is really needed at USDA…..to put the Department into “receivership.” The reason is that USDA is not properly carrying out or implementing its own rules and regulations. The decades of failures regarding Black farmers and abuse of women employees at the US Forest Service, has been long documented at USDA, in the Congress, and nationwide.

Next, Congress passed the race neutral Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which allocated $3.1B for “distressed borrowers” who could be of any race or gender and their debts would be brought to zero. Additionally, a sum of $2.2B was allocated for farmers who could prove that they had experienced discrimination, regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, and gender. We critiqued this bill and its outcomes quite intensely in a letter to the President. The process proved to be laborious but ultimately approximately $1.76B was allocated to Black farmers and the remainder to others.

The process was laborious and complicated, some farmers died before they could see any benefits from the lengthy chain of events and entities. Relatively few of our friends received any benefits as it appears that the few who did were hand-picked by the USDA.

So, that is where we are with regard to finances. However, the saga continues with other matters, and we would like to outline them for you.

We know of zero Black farmers meeting with the President though we do know of a few who have met with FSA Director, Zach Ducheneaux. Their voices are important and unheard.

A significant piece of research found that between 1910 and 1997, Black farmers losses amounted to approximately $326B. Those losses will never be made up. In terms of the pandemic relief funding of billions of dollars, only 0.1% went to Black farmers. This is one example of the many burdens placed upon our Black farmers in rural America.

Various studies from within the federal government have validated what we believe, that inadequacies impact all of us. In November, 2023, the General Accounting Office (GAO) provided a scathing rebuke of the internal tracking system for complaints. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reported in September, 2021 that the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights was failing to process complaints in a timely manner and potential circumvention of the law. A recent doctoral dissertation provided a negative evaluation of the county committee system, one which continues to be protected by Secretary Vilsack.

Secretary Vilsack refuses to provide information about loans and services by race, asserting that to do so would be illegal, despite two Farm Bills that demand the collection and dispersal of this information. We know globally but not specifically these numbers.

Various investigative reports “The Machine that Eats up Black Farmland,” by Joyce, Rosenberg, and Stucki; ”Forced Off Their Land,” by Holloway; and “How USDA Distorted Data to Conceal Decades of Discrimination Against Black Farmers,” by Rosenberg and Stucki; and numerous internal and external reports, accumulated by the Environmental Working Group, all tell the tragedies of white farmers being advantaged in all areas by comparison to Black farmers. These matters of racism and injustice have been occurring under the current administration as well as that of Obama, Bush, Clinton, and previous administrations for decades. The USDA acts as if it is a law to themselves and fails at too many levels to display transparency, accountability, and a commitment to removing racism from its halls and offices. The Equity Commission of Vilsack and the failures of the County Committee system are two that are most obvious to us.

While this is merely the tip of the iceberg for us as advocates, we have not been silent nor invisible. We have written numerous letters to the White House, the USDA, and to others. We have published many letters in various open forums. Perhaps you know that on March 1, 2023, a large number of us demonstrated in front of the White House with placards, signs, and megaphones.  

We, therefore, have several asks of you, Vice President Harris. We hear you say that you are not afraid of good ideas and that you will not shy away from them. Here, therefore, are our issues to discuss with you and/or your top advisors.

Work together with us and meet with us as have Drs. West and Stein;

Place USDA at the top of your list of priorities and create practical options for rural America and Black farmers;

Hear and validate the pain and suffering of Black farmers and families; 

Address the problems within the Office of Civil Rights and compel the office to settle complaints of Black farmers that are languishing there;

Appoint a new Secretary within your administration, one with the trust of Black farmers and other advocates;

Compel USDA to develop a course of action that eliminates sexism and sexual assaults and other abuses experienced by women in the forestry division, Western Region; 

Compel USDA to develop a course of action that eliminates racism and unfair practices that disadvantage Black farmers and favor white farmers; 

Compel USDA to develop processes that create justice, accountability, and transparency throughout the Department; and 

Require the leadership within USDA address the area in which most discrimination occurs, the Farm Service Administration at the county committee level. 

Many African Americans in urban America are only one or two generations away from the farm in rural America and it is important to know the deep connections between the two. Some of us feel forgotten because of the extensive focus on urban America. To begin to address these matters even prior to the election would make a dramatic statement to our people. Black farmers and families are rural America.

 

We follow you and your campaign closely and appreciate the town halls that you have been in including the one on CNN last night. We understand your time constraints as you travel and speak over the next two weeks. Therefore, we request an immediate conversation with one of your closest advisors, Cedric Richmond, to discuss our issues and concerns relative to Black and minority farmers and abused women within USDA and larger systemic issues.  

We stand available to answer any and all of your questions and assist you in this regard. Many Black farmers and their advocates feel abandoned by our Black leadership in Washington and in rural America. We are “the voice of the voiceless.”

Respectfully,

---S---

Lawrence Lucas
President Emeritus, USDA Coalition for Minority Employees
Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064681597169
www.blackmeninAmerica.com
LawrLCL@aol.com
856-910-2399 

 ---S---

Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.
Representative, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees
Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group
www.letjusticering.blogspot.com
Psychologist
Waymon.hinson@gmail.com
903-271-4654

 

 

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

Dear Mr. President, On Behalf of Black Farmers

September 28, 2022

President Joe Biden 
The White House
1600 West Pennsylvania, NW
Washington DC 20050

Dear Mr. President:

Congratulations upon the successful passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). It will prove to be a benefit to many Americans and our economy. You and your team are to be congratulated on successfully averting the railway strike recently. Your efforts in other areas are notable and appreciated.

We are certain that you are aware of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its sordid history of discrimination against Black farmers, other farmers of color, USDA employees, and women. We are concerned about the need for systemic change in the administration and processing of civil rights complaints and also in programs and services across USDA.

As you perhaps know, our engagement on behalf of Black farmers began with our relationship with Senator Elizabeth Warren. She mistakenly believed that Black land loss was a result of heirs property issues, but she changed her mind when we brought the evidence to her. From there, she developed a comprehensive policy of debt relief and returning Black farmers to the land. She paved the way in many, many ways that have led to where we are today.

We later supported your efforts to win the presidency, worked with your team on developing a policy for Black farmers, one that we ultimately found all too brief, narrowly focused, and omitting the crucial element of debt cancellation. Literally hidden at the end of other policy statements, this section entitled “Address Longstanding Inequities in Agriculture,” ignores Vilsack’s abysmal track record during his first two terms as Secretary and other matters important to us.

As you won the election, we continued to work with your transition team. We knew that Tom Vilsack, your Agriculture nominee, was in charge of the agriculture transition team. Especially damning was when a newly appointed attorney joined our conversation. At her last meeting with us, she declared that what we were asking for was “unconstitutional.” That, Mr. President, has come to be a self-fulling prophecy of Tom Vilsack as you look at what has happened with the America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 and now the IRA of 2022.

Investigative reports over the last few years confirm USDA malfeasance at several different levels, from the county level to the headquarters in DC. We have attempted to impress upon  Secretary Vilsack and you, Mr. President, that the abhorrent history of USDA is chronicled in a myriad of documents all the way back to the 1920s. It is a blight on America that we have yet to escape our racist past when it comes to fair and equitable treatment of Black farmers. In terms of farming, all advantages go to white farmers, specifically, loans, acreage, subsidies, coronavirus relief funds, trade war subsidies, and more. Black farmers have lost land at an alarming rate. In fact, economists estimate that conservatively the loss of the value of the land plus the productivity of the land amounts to $326B. There is much, much more to this reprehensible historical record.  

We are most concerned today regarding the two provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and how these provisions are currently being managed by Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack. As you know well, Secretary Vilsack was not our choice for leadership in USDA given his less than sterling history toward Black farmers.  We along with Black farmers, their advocates, and others have voiced our discontent on numerous occasions. We understood you to say give Vilsack time. We indeed have given him time. His time in office under your administration continues to remind us of his failed leadership during the Obama administration. Recently, he used words like “complicated” and “process” to describe the current status of debt cancellation. We have heard those words before.

We are of the opinion that he “slow-walked” everything related to debt cancellation for Black farmers.  If Secretary Vilsack had acted more expeditiously, well before court filings and bank association complaints, Black farmers would now experience debt forgiveness instead of hanging on to their farms by a very thin thread. Secretary Vilsack could have paid Black farmers the way he has paid white farmers. It should not have taken more than 110 days to design a process. Black farmers across the country received notices from the Farm Service Agency. Farmers then received yet another document that specified the amount they owed, in what category it was owed, and how delinquent or current they were. Secretary Vilsack, FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux, and their staff have ready access to the indebtedness of Black farmers. There was no need to wait when a simple command on the keyboard could have executed payments to Black farmers.

Under the IRA of 2022, we see Secretary Vilsack moving in the same way. We fear that he will stretch out the process and give white farmers and ranchers sufficient time to scrutinize the two provisions of the Bill, find them at fault, file frivolous and racist lawsuits once more, and derail debt cancellation. One section, as you know, commits $3.1B for aiding “at risk” farmers. The second provision of $2.2B will provide monetary compensation up to $500K for farmers who evidence discrimination. Some farmers are anxiously watching to see if the foreclosure moratorium will be lifted. Please assure us that the moratorium will remain in effect.

The Alcorn State University Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Policy Research Center has developed policies for assisting “at-risk operations” and settling cases in which discrimination has occurred. As the IRA of 2022 is written, USDA must secure the services of one or more non-governmental agencies to manage these processes pertaining to the discrimination cases. Time will tell as to whether Secretary Vilsack’s favorite organizations will benefit yet again or if he will have a transparent process that does not unjustly favor some preferentially, as his history indicates. Secretary Vilsack may at his discretion define and provide aid quickly for “at-risk operations.” We will indeed know if he develops an open, transparent, and accountable process, including one that is devoid of conflict of interests…..receiving money and serving in an official capacity for USDA.  Ethically, we question those serving in an official capacity for USDA now receiving USDA funding.

We appreciate the depth and breadth of concerns as evidenced by correspondence from Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Reverend Raphael Warnock, and Bernie Sanders to Secretary Vilsack on June 2, 2022. Their eight major concerns, in our opinion, were not adequately addressed in Secretary Vilsack’s response on July 13. Their eight concerns dealt specifically with recommendations of the OIG report in September, 2021; civil rights complaints and processes; authority or lack thereof of the Equity Commission; processing time of civil rights complaints; establishment of an oversight board to supervision OASCR’s handling of complaints; establishment of a civil rights ombudsperson; continuation of the foreclosure moratorium; and the removal of OGC officials from interference in complaint resolution.

Similarly, we respect the efforts made by Senators Chuck Grassley and Ben Ray Lujan to Secretary Vilsack on May 5, 2022 relative to the Office of the Inspector General’s audit of the Office of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR) released in September, 2021. Again, we found Secretary Vilsack’s response of July 6 to be inadequate.

We are not interested in meeting with Secretary Vilsack. We did that on May 28, 2021, and it was a most insulting and unproductive exercise. You can do better by Black farmers than has your appointed secretary at USDA. Therefore, we ask you to meet with us face to face and hear Black farmer stories………in order to fully understand the gravity of this injustice against Black farmers and USDA employees.

The NCAACP Legal Defense Fund delivered a letter to Secretary Vilsack on September 12, 2022. This letter is supported by thirty-three organizations that support concerns that mirror ours: expeditious debt relief, support for Black farmers, removal of OGC from civil rights processes, strengthening the capabilities of the Office of Civil Rights, assurance and confirmation via research data that Black farmers are treated fairly and equitably, and funding for and oversight of the county committee system, and others. Many are deeply aware and troubled at the malfeasance going on within USDA. This correspondence from NAACPLDF, then, addresses internal changes that need to be made as well as debt relief.

Our concerns are not new. Since the beginning of your administration, we have a written number over 21 letters combined to both the White House and to Secretary Vilsack at USDA. While we have addressed the urgency of debt cancellation for Black farmers, we have also spoken to the need for systemic change within USDA and for transparency and accountability. We are not in any way optimistic that USDA’s Equity Commission given its limited authority, and control by Secretary Vilsack, will bring about the change that is desired. Without addressing internal, systemic issues, sexual discrimination and abuse within USDA with its employees and discrimination in its programs and services will continue.

Secretary Vilsack’s announcement about the $2.8B funding for climate-smart agriculture advantages large white organizations and encourages little to no involvement with BIPOC organizations and systems except in the second tier with less money and more loans. There is an obvious inequity between the funding levels and the additional $1.8B went to the first funding pool. It is especially noteworthy that major corporations that in our opinion contribute to climate problems are now appointed to lead the way in addressing the need and solutions for climate change. These include: PepsiCo, Cargill, Target, and many others. We note that the timing of this announcement is curiously close to mid-term elections. We believe, therefore, that this is straight out of former president Donald Trump’s re-election “playbook.” We can see through Secretary Vilsack’s actions, as can many in Black America.

We strongly support the contention of Tracy Lloyd McCurty, Esq., Executive Director of the Black Belt Justice Center that Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack has a

“divide and conquer strategy of awarding BlPOC community-based organizations and ‘allied’ nonprofits with millions of dollars in cooperative agreements and grants in exchange for their silence on Vilsack’s abysmal civil rights record and refusal to provide reparative justice to Black legacy farmers through full debt cancellation, monetary compensation, land, and a perpetual allocation in the Commodity Credit Corporation Fund to restore the Black agricultural land base (personal correspondence).”

In our May 11, 2020 letter to you when the campaign was ongoing, we listed sixteen areas of concern for us. That list remains the same for us today: Given these matters, we encourage you to meet with us to discuss the following and more:

• The historical mistreatment of minority farmers and systemic factors that allow this to be an ongoing problem;
• The institutional organizational structure that allows for a devolution of responsibility such that an absence of accountability exists;
• The failures of the County Committee system in that people vote their prejudices such that few if any minority farmers and ranchers are found on these committees which wield such power at the local level;
• The failures of the Office of Civil Rights to fully engage in its mission to protect the civil rights of members of the USDA and those whom it serves;
• The entrenchment of the Office of General Counsel (OGC) in the affairs of the USDA Office of Civil Rights such that the OGC has the outright propensity to control decisions made on behalf of employees and constituents whose civil rights have been denied or violated;
• An environment that lacks "accountability" such that if and when an employee violates the civil rights of employees or customers, that the employee receives appropriate discipline including being removed or fired;
• An increase in funding for HBCUs that have agriculture departments;
• An inquiry into the inequities within Pigford I and Pigford II relative to denials;
• An inquiry into the inequities of Pigford I and Pigford II relative to debt relief;
• An inquiry into the absence of utilization of the USDA's land bank by minority farmers;
• An inquiry into the incompetent manner in which Census of Agricultural data is misused by the USDA;
•  A complete organizational evaluation and set of changes created and implemented by a task force under your leadership;
• Endorse a program of reparations for Black Americans who have had their land taken away;
• Review and update the Endangered Black Farmer Act of 2007 and its subpoints relative to conservation, credit, and persistent discrimination;
• Conduct a series of meetings in which Black farmers, their advocates, USDA abused employees, and other persons can speak openly as to their challenges in dealing with the racism and sexism at the USDA; and
• Create a plan to provide greater institutional and programmatic support for urban farmers and urban communities. As you may note, these are issues that a reorientation within the USDA as it roots out systemic racism will include.

We know that you can press Secretary Vilsack to act in ways that address the internal system that organizes all of USDA. We, as part of that audience want to see you demand that Secretary Vilsack move toward creating systemic change within USDA such that all persons employed and recipients of programs are treated with dignity and respect. Unless the system is revamped, we will be facing more complaints from employees and Black farmers because of the existence of institutionalized anti-Black racism.  It is our belief that USDA should be put into “receivership” as the organization does not have the will to address systemic change.

We are looking to you, Mr. President, to move quickly to press your appointee, Secretary Thomas Vilsack, to move speedily under the provisions of the IRA to wipe out the debt of Black farmers. Black voters of our country are watching and waiting anxiously for signs from the White House that our votes and our concerns matter to you. If student indebtedness can be forgiven speedily, then Black farmers’ debts can be cancelled in an expeditious manner.

In a recent MSNBC interview, Dr. Eddie Glaude tells us who we are as a Nation. It was a brutal yet truthful deconstruction of our country. We can do better. You can lead us to do better. You can also lead USDA out of its “last plantation” mindset into a new department that serves everyone and not just the white farmers. Discrimination wounds people and destroys families and dreams. The award-winning documentary, “I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice:” Black Farmers Fight Against USDA, produced by Shoun Hill and Dr. Waymon Hinson, explains it.  

At this moment in our history, USDA has no credibility with Black farmers. We have had our hopes dashed for too many years. Pigford I and II destroyed many of us. Twelve class action suits filed by white farmers derailed your race-based remediation efforts in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and now, all race-based solutions are eliminated from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. We are not optimistic for a better day. You have the power to change this by compelling Tom Vilsack to move with all due haste.

Finally, we acknowledge your recent meeting on September 2, 2022 with various “Legacy Black Civil Rights Organizations” to discuss the accomplishments of your administration. We are, however, dismayed that such a meeting has not occurred with you and “Legacy Black Farmers.” We are asking you for the same sensitivity and commitment that President Clinton showed when he listened and responded to the Black farmers’ cause on December 17, 1997, on a Wednesday night. We want you to duplicate the Clinton/Glickman Model that showed a genuine commitment to address the historical, systemic racism and sexism at USDA. This brought about the Civil Rights Action Team Report of 1997, the Civil Rights Implementation Team Report of 1998, and the Commitment to Progress of 2000. Other reports include the Jackson-Lewis Report, the Harvard University Study, the Office of Inspector General reports, and the General Accounting Office reports, and their recommendations have mostly been ignored under Secretary Vilsack’s leadership.  

Now is the time. This is the occasion to show Black farmers and the larger Black community that you will honor their voices and concerns given the fact that they delivered the White House to you.

Again, you should meet and hear from Black farmers, not sanitized self-serving messaging. We look forward to hearing from you very soon.

Respectfully,

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

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?"

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