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

Gut Punch: Too Many Deaths

This morning I had one of those gut-punch moments. It was a serious punch to my heart and soul. My grief is intense, and maybe it will remit as the day goes on. I hope so. Actually, I hope it doesn't. It is too deep. 

Several of us have been working with various congressional leaders and Secretary Tom Vilsack's office on behalf of Black farmers and their severe mistreatment at the hands of the USDA. Those people have been Senators Warren, Sanders, and Booker. We engaged with President Biden's policy team before the election. We have made calls, written letters, and helped write legislation. 

Socially Disadvantaged Farmers are on the precipice of a dream come true. Indebtedness that has been a function of discriminatory actions for years, as interest piled up upon interest, now has an opportunity to be erased. The term is "debt relief," which carries with it some technicalities. 

Several years ago, I interviewed a couple of Black farmers who had had their land and equipment taken from them via a contrived arrangement of the FSA office, a local bank, and the implement dealership. Those folks knew that foreclosure was coming before it landed in the laps of the farmers. 

One farmer died not long after I interviewed him. It was a short interview as he was in his hospital bed in his living room as his care taker hovered nearby. I made it brief. I had moved into his space and he was suffering. He was soon in the presence of his ancestors. 

This morning, I decided to call the other farmer. I was thinking that perhaps provisions for debt relief under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, with its sections 1005 and 1006, might be useful for him and his wife. I knew that they were indebted to the USDA, but how much I don't recall. 

Then, upon doing a google search, I received the sucker punch. This farmer had died earlier this year. Yes, he also had passed on to his ancestors, just like his partner had several years ago. I watched the video of him and his family there on the web page, and I wept. 

Those tears are for him and his wife and family. Those tears are for numerous other Black farmers who did not live to see justice. From Texas to North Carolina to Georgia to Kansas and to points betwixt and between, they are dead. Yes, they have died, and in many instances, the stress of farming while Black in  America took them to early graves. I see their names, I hear their voices, their documents are in my filing cabinet, their interviews are in my voice files and transcribed in most places. 

They passed to glory without seeing justice, without seeing their debts forgiven. 

I left a message on their home phone. I hope his wife will call. If she doesn't, I still was able to leave a word of condolence. 

Yes, the Black Farmer Movement is real and the farmers are worthy of justice for their pain and suffering. Yes, their families deserve debt relief that they never received. 

That is my commitment, to work on their behalf, before any more Black farmers die. 

Too many have died. 

Therein lies my grief.