Dear President Biden

February 17, 2023

President Joe Biden

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President: 

Surely you agree with me that we live in perilous times with threats from Russia,  domestic threats from balloons from China and other places, and threats to democracy here in our own country. While I think you are, by and large, handling those threats well, there is one threat that you, sir, are not handling well, and that is the prompt for this open letter to you. 

You are mishandling the Black farmer issue. I am disappointed. I am bitterly disappointed and disillusioned with the manner in which you have handled the Black farmers of our land and their city cousins. Country cousins and city cousins are connected, know each other, and talk to each other. 

We were very hopeful back in the day when your campaign looked to be going down the tubes, when Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina stepped up and endorsed you, and we saw the winds of your campaign change. We saw outstanding successes among the Democratic Party in Georgia for both you and Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock.

Then, Mr. President, we began to wince at what some of that change meant. We had fully engaged the campaigns of Senators Warren, Booker, Sanders, and Warnock, and we engaged with Mr. Mike Bloomberg. As the ticket of Biden/Harris won, we then engaged the agriculture transition team. Much to our surprise, the gentleman with whom we had been working on this team and your policies was not actually the person in charge. We realized that former Ag Secretary Thomas Vilsack was pulling strings from behind. We were advocating for changes within the USDA, for accountability and transparency, and for full debt relief for aggrieved Black farmers. Then, in one particular meeting we heard that what we wanted was "unconstitutional." One of your team members, an attorney, told us that. We were flabbergasted. 

Then, we watched with much interest as a variety of people pressed you both publicly and privately not to appoint Tom Vilsack to another term as Secretary of USDA. Much had been written about the failures of his two terms under President Obama, and despite opposition from congressional folk and the NAACP leadership, the Justice for Black Farmers Group, and the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, and others, you nominated him anyway. And then we observed the "love fest" at the senate confirmation hearing and I, for one, was nauseated and alarmed. 

We were hopeful despite these things at the beginning of your presidency and now we are not so hopeful. We see where the winds of change have taken us. They have taken us down the road of "Big Ag," and because of that, Vilsack, who is owned by Big Ag, is your Secretary of Ag. We want to know if you indeed are also beholden to Big Ag or is it just Mr. Vilsack. We have our suspicions and we'd like for you to dissuade us of them. We see how Big Ag is getting the major source of funding from USDA. We also see that Vilsack's favored organizations are getting millions of dollars despite there being no open application process. 

What did you miss from the messages of "don't appoint Vilsack?" Was it when you were making decisions about your cabinet? And what other voices did you ignore? What about his previous terms did you respect? What did you anticipate being different under your administration? Were you indebted to Tom Vilsack in some manner? 

Surely you know because your team had done its research that he had an incredibly spotty history: a class action suit by Black state employees in Iowa, extreme favoritism of white, corporate Ag, and a racist, dismissive attitude toward socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. 

Research about Vilsack has been published in numerous places under numerous names such as Lloyd Wright in the Washington Post, Rosenberg and Stucki in numerous publications where investigations are published, and even me here on this blog. 

A painful political cartoon is out in public spaces. It is insulting to you. It shows you as Jim Crow Joe with Black voters in your right hand and Vilsack and Dr. Dwayne Goldmon, his equity advisor, as marionettes on the strings in your left hand. It is insulting and I cringed when I saw it, but the people with whom I work and respect say that "a picture is worth a thousand words" and have made in public in various social media. 

Your appointee knows that we are displeased with him. You know that we are displeased with him. We have written both of you numerous letters. We met with him and members of his team several months back, but he did not listen to us. Instead he spent a few minutes filibustering as to his accomplishments. That is not why we called the meeting. In a follow up letter we told him so. 

We believed that he slow-walked the process under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and by doing so, he allowed time for 12 or 13 class action suits by white farmers to be filed in various courts around the country. My own research into the USDA database shows that not only have they NOT been discriminated against, but that the were very successful at receiving subsidies, MFP, and CFAP funds as well as the counties within which their farms and ranches are located. This research was on the first 6 litigants. There was no need to go any further although the data is there. 

Even though the language was modified under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to "distressed" borrowers, from the appearance of things, most of those funds have gone to white borrowers and to very few Black "distressed" borrowers. At last note, Vilsack has wiped out the debts of 11,000 borrowers to the tune of $800M. We know of less than 10 Black farmers who have been recipients of that relief. We have little hope that he will disburse the $2.2B for those have experienced discrimination. We understand that he is actually trying to change the ways the second set of funds is to be managed. 

We have it on good evidence that Mr. Vilsack thinks that distributing millions to favored organizations for technical assistance and to 1890s have been good for Black farmers. He is misguided and his assertions are insulting. Until Black farmers receive relief for the USDA's blatant malfeasance and discrimination toward them, injustice and injury will continue to live on. 

As you may recall, it was Black farmers who reluctantly formed the Class Action Suit, Pigford v. Glickman. Only 4.8% of those successful litigants received debt cancellation. Those Black farmers have continued to vote for Democratic presidents only to see their hopes for remedies to USDA's discrimination dashed on the shores of Washington DC. I personally participated in a mediation hearing before USDA and DOJ in 1997 and learned first hand how the federal government treats Black farmers. It was not a pretty sight. 

We were hoping to see things different this time. While Senator Warren's policy for Black farmers was thorough and well publicized, we had to hunt via the internet for your policy. Your policy was less than satisfactory by comparison. 

Bottom line, Mr. President, we gave you the White House. You gave us Tom Vilsack. 

His racist policies continue. Sadly, you are now implicated in the process. His efforts are only putting lipstick on a pig. We know it's still a pig. 

The Democratic Party did well in the midterms. Congratulations on that. We fear that similar results may not be in the cards for the upcoming general elections. We are suspicious but that your reelection may indeed be hanging on by a thread.

City and country cousins talk to each other. They know how your secretary continues to favor unchecked, corporate Ag to the neglect of Black farmers of the land. 

There is time to turn that around, but there is not much time. The clock is ticking. 

We are hoping, praying, and demonstrating for a better day. We hope you will meet us in those spaces of hope, prayer, and conversation. 

Respectfully, 

Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.

Representation, Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association 

Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group

Representative, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees

To Whom Should This Post be Addressed: Biden, Vilsack, the CBC, or the People?

We have come a long way from there to here and we have actually gone nowhere. It's like we are running in place, or maybe stuck in quick sand.  Listening in on blog talk radio with Lawrence Lucas, Ramsess, Michael Stovall, Carolyn Jones, and Frank Taylor reminded me of how far we've not come the last 100 years plus and the obstacles the USDA puts in our way. 

Early on, complaints had been filed for decades to the USDA Office of Civil Rights, but to no avail. Sadly enough, President Reagan essentially closed down this office in 1981, and the complaints were just tossed into the garbage can or at best, filed or maybe mis-filed, in an out of the way office there in USDA. Former Ag Secretary Michael Espy confirmed this in an interview with him. 

During the late '90s, 15 Black farmers settled their cases with the USDA/DOJ. They received compensation for their injuries, debt write-off, and promises of priority services including eligibility for future services. The documentary done by Shoun Hill and Waymon Hinson chronicles those stories, of 9 of those 15 Black farmers along with other key persons. The settlements were very uneven, all, in my opinion, due to the meddling of the Office of General Counsel. 

My opinion is that the USDA and DOJ realized that serious allegations from Black farmers were coming, so a combination of events and people resulted in another debacle called the Pigford Class action suit. Unfortunately, the attorneys waived discovery which led to more pain and suffering.  In short, 22,551 applied for Track A and 15,645 prevailed. They received $50K and promises of debt relief. At the end of the day, only 371 actually received debt relief. It was a bad deal for Black farmers who just wanted to farm and to hold on to their land. Large numbers of Black farmers lost their farms, their families, and their health. Many have passed on to the ancestors. We know many of them. With each death, we are sucker-punched. Some filed under Track B, and a few prevailed there. Then, later, Pigford II was opened, and, again, a few prevailed there, but not many. Who actually got the money from those two class action suits?  The attorneys, but that's a story for another day. 

For a summary of these events, check out what I wrote back in 2018.  More details are found there. 

Our efforts since then have been consistently oriented toward justice for this group of Black farmers. We have not hesitated one iota. 

When Senator Warren declared in 2018 that Black land loss was a function of heirs property, that Black people did not have clear titles to their land, had not paid their taxes, and other matters, we protested directly to her. We respectfully declared that the USDA was the culprit in Black land loss. She and her team believed us. As she was a candidate for the presidency, she spelled out a strong policy for Black farmers. 

Although she was not elected, she continued to advocate for Black farmers. Along with other senators, she crafted the Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020, knowing that under President Trump, it would not see the light of day, and that it would be resubmitted to congress the first year after his presidency ended. 

The Justice for Black Farmers Group was formed. 

And Booker, Warren, Warnock, and others worked on it. But it never was passed into law. 

Instead, various features of the Bill were moved into the American  Rescue Plan Act of 2021 with the assistance of Senator Warnock. Within that bill was debt relief for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers to the tune of 120%. Here is that text: "The Secretary shall provide a payment in an amount up to 120 percent of the outstanding indebtedness of each socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher as of January 1, 2021, to pay off the loan directly or to the socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher (or a combination of both), on each" direct loans or guaranteed loans. 

We have accused Secretary Tom Vilsack of slow-walking implementation procedures which allowed 12 class action suits of white farmers across the country to scream out "reverse discrimination." This article lines out the key dates from Warnock's introduction of the Emergency Relief Act on March 3, 2021 up until the first judge issued a restraining order on June 10, 2021. Given that we live in the computer age and that the USDA has an internal system that covers all relevant information on farmers of all colors, it is apparent that Vilsack's dallying at the door allowed these white farmers enough time to gather up their attorneys, one of whom had worked in the Trump White House and was in charge of developing his immigration policies. While they hollered out "reverse discrimination," a perusal of the USDA data for subsidies and other benefits for farmers and ranchers, shows that the first six litigants were not only NOT discriminated against, they were huge beneficiaries of the USDA's generosity in terms of subsidies, coronavirus relief funds, and Trump's failed tariff war with China. The numbers are quite staggering both for the farmers and ranchers themselves and the counties within which they are located. 

After the USDA opted not to fight these lawsuits aggressively in court, other lawsuits were filed included a couple by the Cowtown Foundation out of Tennessee. Those are still lingering in the judge's chambers apparently. 

Also, the Senate got busy under the leadership of Booker, Warnock, and others, and submitted pieces within the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. This time around, apparently in an effort to thwart the efforts of attorneys and folks from the previous Bill, the language was changed to "distressed" borrowers. The criteria for "distressed" was left to the discretion of Secretary Vilsack. $3.1B were allocated for this group of farmers and ranchers. Additionally, $2.2B were allocated to compensate for discriminatory actions on the part of USDA if that could be proven. It can without a doubt. 

What is missing from this piece of legislation just as it was in the previous legislation is that of tax burdens. If a farmer/rancher receives "payments," not debt cancellation or forgiveness, an important distinction, the principle would be taxable, but not the interest. That means that these folks would be receiving 1099s from the IRS, which could set them back even further than they would have. 

At this point, we understand that the USDA has provided $800M in payments o 11,000 borrowers, and that step-by-step processes are being initiated for 1,600 borrowers whose cases are more "complicated." 

We have evidence that there are approximately 3,000 Black farmers who are currently indebted to the USDA.  We have evidence that the total indebtedness is approximately $210M. 

Our network is nation-wide, and at this point, we know of only seven, yes, SEVEN, Black farmers have received "payments" either partially or completely wiping out their debt. There seems to be no particular rhyme or reason as one has received "payments" of $1.4M and another $200K. 

We are waiting for the Secretary to inform us as to how the $2.2B for discrimination will be managed. He is obligated by law to appointment one or more non-governmental entities to manage these processes. 

Secretary Vilsack is obligated by law to disburse $3.1B to "distressed" farmers regardless of color of skin. We have not evidence that he is doing that for Black farmers. He is obligated by law to designate one or more entities to manage the complications of disbursing $2.2B to those farmers discriminated against. 

Black farmers are tired of waiting. They are "sick and tired of being sick and tired." 

More on this later, but the Congressional Black Caucus speaks loudly by their silence despite having a variety of means of speaking up for Black farmers. 

If you want to hear first hand what the USDA does to Black farmers, scroll down to the bottom of this web page until you see the gentleman in the cotton field. Hit play and for the next 2:30 minutes or so, you'll hear agonizing stories of what it means to farm while Black in America. This is the trailer for the documentary, "I'm Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against the USDA." 

There is much, much more to this soul wrenching, gut wrenching saga. I just wanted you to be able to read a summary. 

In the meantime, what is the Justice for Black Farmers Group doing? Good question. Go to this web page of Acres of Ancestry and to the community archives and you'll find a substantial group of letters under the signature of Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, and Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group. They are addressed to Secretary Vilsack and to President Biden. You will also find documents to and from other congressional folks. 

This letter in the community archives to President Biden contains a lot of links and resources and is a good summary of our efforts and demands. 

What are we doing? We are knocking on the White House door, demanding attention from the President. Be sure to see the political satire that we include in this letter. It will move your heart. 

We know that his office will forward our correspondence to USDA, which means that we are knocking on the door of Secretary Vilsack. We are demanding justice for Black farmers. We want him gone from USDA. Sooner rather than later is preferred. 

We will not be deterred. This is a righteous cause. We will not be deterred. 

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

Dear Secretary Vilsack, July 16, 2021

July 16, 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:

We wish to acknowledge the meeting with you and your staff on May 28 which included Katherine Ferguson, Dewayne Goldmon, Monica Rainge, and the Office of General Counsel.

We had hoped that meeting would be the first of an ongoing series of meetings between you, your staff, and representatives from the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and the Justice for Black Farmers Group.  While we have not heard from your office regarding a follow-up with us, we will continue to persist on behalf of people who are important to us, Black farmers and employees of USDA.

Frankly, at that meeting, we were dismayed, frustrated, and disappointed by several things: we were not informed as to the length of the meeting; we were informed of the mode of technology at the last minute; the shift in confusing technology which proved problematic for some of our rural farmers; we did not have sufficient time to ask our questions nor have our questions answered; and misleading information was provided by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.

We have long advocated for major changes to be made within USDA. 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.

Therefore, we respectfully request that you and your staff meet with us expeditiously. We prefer a Zoom-type call. We also request that the meeting last not less than an hour and a half.

We anticipate a speedy and early response to our request.

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

Dear White People:

The rhetoric has been loud and rowdy since President Biden signed The American Relief Act Plan of 2021. Most of us know very little about what is actually inside the bill, but some of us know about the “Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act,” introduced by Senator Warnock as part of the Bill. This particular part of the bill will remove the debt of minority farmers, classified as Socially Disadvantaged Farmers (or SDF), specifically covering 120% of their debt which includes state and federal taxes on the forgiven amount.

White people, farmers, and congressional folks are calling this discrimination against white farmers, or reparations, or that it will create a divide between Black farmers and white farmers.

For those who want to read just a few words, here is the summary. For those who want more information, please read on. The short verse is that the USDA has a history of systemic racism in which Black farmers (and other minority farmers) have been discriminated against. Such discrimination leads to indebtedness which leads to foreclosures which leads to land loss and the generational wealth which goes with it. Period. End of discussion. Warnock’s bills are timely as more Black people lose their land and as more Black farmers die before justice is realized.

I think we need to get our whiteness under control. That’s perhaps an impossible task. Inherent within the whiteness factor is that all farmers are treated equally by the USDA. Wrong. Very, very wrong. Also, within the whiteness factor is that if a minority farmer is foreclosed upon, then they are just bad farmers. Listen to the 1619 Project and you’ll hear that said by a white sugar cane farmer in Louisiana. Also, inherent within the whiteness factor is the memory lapse, or convenient failure to remember that the overwhelming majority of dollars has gone to the white farmer. Nobody denies that small family farms are suffering, but when you consider that USDA funds go to white farmers and that Trump’s bailout money went to white farmers, the whiteness factor needs to be corrected. More details on that to follow below.

The USDA and its employees are much to blame. Administration after administration turned a blind eye to actions of discrimination on behalf of its employees. A local county agent could act with impunity toward a person of color knowing that there would be no price to pay for discriminating against someone. The system is designed that way. There is an absence of accountability and an absence of heart. The system is designed to protect itself. People, good people, know what’s going on inside the USDA; however, they cannot talk unless they retire because they know that if they do, they will be removed, demoted, or fired. More on this in a future post.

In August, 2019, the USDA Coalition for Minority Employees and the Justice for Black Farmers Group challenged Senator Elizabeth Warren when she was running for president. Black land loss is not explained, we asserted, by heir’s property issues. She invited us to the table, we went, we engaged, we informed, and they learned from us. From that effort came Senator Warren’s plan to address these grievances. You can find her full document here. Later, after Biden and Harris were elected, we received an email from Senator Booker’s staff and informed that the senator was working on a Black farmers justice bill. When we saw the bill, we were elated to read The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020 which has now been resubmitted to Congress in the current legislative session. It very much looked like Warren’s work several months earlier. In fact, it was very, very similar. Then, Senator Warnock was elected and since he knew the plight of Black farmers, he inserted his bill within The American Recue Act Plan of 2021 that Biden signed into law recently.

There is more background that white America needs to know.

In 1920, there were approximately 950,000 Black farmers and 5,500,000 white farmers. Blacks owned 22,000 farms, and whites owned 1,380,000 farms. Acreage owned by Black farmers peaked at 19,000,000 (in 1910), and white owned 62,000,000. In 1920, the average acreage for a Black farmer was 51 acres, but for the white farmer it was 166 acres. This is all from census data. It is organized in Hinson (2018). See the picture?

According to USDA census data in 2017, white producers farmed 1,973,006 farms totaling 849,816,725 acres, averaging 431 acres. The market value of products sold was $381,050,061,000; government payments were $8,851,913,000; and net cash farm income was $86,037,984,000. By comparison, Black farm producers farmed 35,470 farms totaling 4,673,140 acres, averaging 132 acres. The market value of products sold was $1,416,256,000; government payments were $58,807,000; and net cash from farm income was $124,459,000. This is all from the 2017 Census of Agriculture. See the picture?

In 1920, Black farmers comprised 1/6 to 1/5 of all farmers, but now they make up only 1.7% of all farmers.

Numbers are compelling.

White farmers and Republican congressional folks are fussing. Thanks to the Environmental Working Group, we can actually look at a variety of matters including who actually received how much of the $425 billion in farm subsidies from commodity, crop insurance, disaster programs and conservation payments paid between 1995 and 2020. That document is found here.

The congressman, Representative Graves, who fussed about it, what does his operation get? Is he being discriminated against? His district in Missouri received $5B during the 1995 to 2020 window. His farm received $661,153, including $57,089 in 2019 alone. Tom Philpott's article tells the larger story. 

And, during the Trump farmer bail out window, white farmers received 97% of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, $6.7 billion going to white farmers, $15 million to Black farmers, $100 million to Latino farmers, $76 million to American Indian farmers, and $17.6 million to Asian American farmers. Check out this document at this link. 

In terms of the Market Facilitation Program, a program designed to help offset the billions lost in Trump’s failed trade war with China, 99% went to white farmers, or an average of $10,674 for white farmers by comparison to $1,074 for Black farmers. White farmers $21 billion and Black farmers $38 million. See this link for more details. 

Nobody doubts that farming is a hard way to make a living. White people fail to realize the extra layer of challenges when farming is done by a Black farmer. Skin color makes things even harder.

The USDA has a myriad of ways of discriminating against Black farmers. From ignoring them to calling them “n****r” to overtly stating that “there’s no money here for you” to changing the numbers on a farm operating loan application to getting the money too little too late to selling rented land out from under them to denying opportunities for disaster payments to setting them up to fail and the list goes on and on and on. See this article and this article for a history of these things and more information. Foreclosures? That’s the way the system is designed to work, i.e., against Black farmers. Read Hinson and Robinson (2008) and Hinson (2018) for more history of the USDA and discrimination. 

Know any white farmers who received similar treatment?

It is estimated by a group at Harvard University that in terms of generational wealth denied Black farmers given that they have lose some 90% of their land, is in the range of $250-$350 billion. 

Some even point to the Pigford Class Action Suit as something that should have benefitted the farmers and paid off the debts. The short verse is that over 22,000 filed a claim under Pigford I, around 15,000 prevailed, and received $50,000. Some received a tax amount of $12,500. They were promised debt relief, but only 371 actually received debt relief. Only 371 farmers out of the 15,000 who won their cases. Lloyd Wright, a member of the Coalition with which I work says that Black farmers are worse off now than they were before. A high-ranking member of the Trump administration reported that 17,000 Black farmers are on the verge of foreclosure.

So, yes, the American Recovery Plan of 2021 signed into law by President Biden does include Senator Raphael Warnock’s “Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act” which contains $4 billion for debt relief and $1 billion for related services. These funds are for any minority farmer who owes money to the USDA via three means: a direct loan, a loan guaranteed by USDA, or a loan for property such as storage tanks. When interest is piled on top of interest, on top of interest, an indebtedness of $14,000 can grow into a couple of hundred thousand in a few decades.

The details are being worked out as we go. One suggestion by an employee within the White House, Dr. Dwayne Goldmon, is a tiered process and will take time. These smells fishy. The plan should be one that is simple and easily understood and can be managed by USDA and the farmers.

Yes, these funds are only for minority farmers. No, white farmers are not beneficiaries of these funds.

You see……white farmers have been the beneficiaries of government aid and support from the very beginning of the USDA, “the people’s department,” but for Black farmers, “the last plantation.”

White farmers have never as a group been discriminated against. In fact, white farmers are the favored face of the USDA. The system works well for white people.

These funds are the first step in leveling the playing field of farming, one that has never been level because policy and procedures, though they are “colorblind,” are administered by employees who are not colorblind. Farming should be the same level of complication for white farmers and for Black farmers. Farming should not be made more difficult because of skin color.

No, this is not reparations; this is justice. And, yes, these bills by Senator Warnock and The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2021 are considered the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation since The Civil Rights Act of 1964.

So, white people of America, please get your facts straight, and reign in your white indignation.

You do not wear it well.

A Day of Reckoning or Just an Ordinary Day

The perilous times in which we live are inescapable regardless of which newsfeeds we follow. Whether to the right, the left, or somewhere betwixt and between, we see it, or perhaps we keep our televisions turned off and stick our heads in the proverbial sand.

Perhaps our churches call for unity from the pulpit, and some do so without calling out the issues of the day which would call us to divide. I personally think that is backwards, and that it is simply trying to keep a lid on things.

The people that I hang out with these days are truth-tellers. People like Lawrence Lucas, Lloyd Wright, Marti Oakley, Shoun Hill, Richard Chowing, Kordel Davis, Corey Lea, Lander Bethel, Adam Zipkin, Jillian Hishaw, and many more. The list is too long to enumerate everyone. Truth-tellers write letters of protest. They appear on radio programs and zoom programs. They appear on national forums such as the National Whistleblowers Conference along with people like Stucki and Rosenberg, all truth-tellers who are investigative writers.

Truth-tellers and lie-tellers were all over Washington DC on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Some lied to themselves that they had no part in the insurrection. Their names are Donald J. Trump, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley. Some have been lying to America for a long time. These are folks on the religious right who have co-opted the Christian faith with politics and turned the church upside down.

The mantra “God, guns, and Donald Trump” is a political ideology, but not a Biblical position that has any merit. Those who are Christological in their orientation like me know that the stories of life and justice and faith begin and end with Jesus of Nazareth. They know that Jesus was murdered by the religious right in concert with the powerful government of the day. They know that Jesus came to seek and save the lost and along the way He loved those who had been kicked to the curb by society. Overall, He was one of those folks whose people had been kicked to the curb. And so, he was found hanging out with sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, women, those overtaken by demons, those with shriveled hands and leprosy and paralysis.

So, on this sacred day, I am pondering the influence that Dr. Martin Luther King and his teachings have had in my life. I am pondering how we have gone from a country that despised him as an alleged communist and socialist, to one in which a day is set aside in his honor. I am pondering these ideas against the backdrop of a crazed mob looking for Vice President Pence, intending apparently on hanging him from the temporary gallows there on the Capitol grounds. Yes, the platform and the noose.

This mob, in a sense, was “lynching our country.” Or at least they were attempting to lynch someone.

Speaking of lynching, that notion and its inhumanities are well know by Black people in our country and by those of us who work alongside them and who know the history of mob violence in America. Want to know how to control people? Lynch them. Hang their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and cut their genitals off, save a finger for a prize, and yell while they are being burned alive, lifted up and down over the fires of hell as the onlookers cheer.

Want to know another form of “lynching?” Rob Black people of their land, livelihood, and generational wealth. Why? Because you can. That’s the way the system works. A Black family gets too uppity and wealthy? Burn them out. Starve them out. Steal their land.

In 1920, there were 950,000 Black farmers. There were 22,000 Black farmers who owned their farms. In 1910, Black farmers farmed 47,000,000 acres, down to 45,000,000 in 1920. In 1910, Black farmers owned 19,100,000 acres of land, down to 16,700,000 in 1920.

In 2017, there were 35,470 Black-owned farms with a total of 4,673,140 acres. The farm averaged 132 acres. At this same time, Black-owned farms was 1.7% of all farms, the acreage was .05% of all farms, and the average Black-owned farm was .30% of all farms.

Between 2013 and 2015, 86% of microloans by the USDA went to white farmers. Seven percent went to Black farmers. White farmers received 94.97% of all loans while Black farmers received .2% of the $5.7B loans. The amount of program benefits going to Black farmers was 0.80%. These stats come from Stucki and Rosenberg, 2019 and Lloyd Wright, 2020.

Just a few weeks ago, we were informed that 17,000 Black-owned farms were in danger of foreclosure. That is 48% of Black-owned farmers.

Want to know the value of land that Blacks have lost through the years and to various egregious means? Close to $1T. I cannot wrap my head around that much generational wealth that now resides in someone's hands rather than the original rightful landowners. 

Elsewhere I have written at length about Black land acquisition and dispossession. That article was published in 2018 and is easy to find. In my opinion, heir’s property is certainly an issue and has resulted in Black land loss, but, in my opinion, the greater culprit is the USDA, its county committee system, and the commitment to keeping white people in charge. The system is made that way. The system is working the way it was supposed to work.

Now, Senators Booker, Warren, and Gillibrand have proposed a revolutionary bill to address these grievances, The Black Farmer Justice Act of 2020. It levels the playing field in many, many ways.

I wonder what Jesus would think about these times. I wonder what Dr. King would think about these times. What would Jesus think about the “God, guns, and Donald Trump” slogan? What would Dr. King say about it?

What do white Americans think about racial justice? What do white Americans who stormed the Capitol building think about racial justice?

I think we all know what would be felt and said and done.

Light in the Darkness

The work that I do as an adviser to the USDA Coalition for Minority Employees, Justice for Black Farmer Group, developing the documentary along with Shoun Hill, and engaging in other ways within the Black Farmer Movement are so central to who I am as a human being that it is difficult to tease them out. My desire is to be a good ally in this work. 

Richard Rohr says that there are six types of liberation: inner, cultural, dogmatic, personal, spiritual, and liberation for "infinite mystery." His note on personal liberation from the "system" rings true, though he and I may see things differently. 

Then, at this time of the year, the season of Advent, we are focusing on light, the light that shines in darkness, the light of the world, the light that came into the world, the light which was the Christ child, and how our world did not understand it, and still has not yet responded to it, yet it is still there for our engagement. Yes, Jesus entered the world, and light shone all around Him, and the light shines on and in us to let us know where we can be cleansed, purified, and made righteous and justice oriented. 

How do these connect is the question of the morning. It is dark here in the neighborhood as I glance out the window. My desk lamp over to my right illuminates this room. Down on the street on the right, the neighbor's Christmas lights have shone all night and they dispel a bit of the darkness. In front of our house, we have a laser light that shines images that move at rapid speed on the outside of our house. Inside, we have various things that attract the grandchildren, the Christmas tree, the little stations that have lights inside them, the music box that they all love and claim for their own, and other displays that capture their imagination. 

The world of injustice in a dark world. Various offices that symbolize institutions of power and privilege overshadow the lives and efforts of Black farmers. The politics of the day is dark and foreboding as we anticipate the transition from one administration to another, and yet within the new administration that we are relatively optimistic about there is darkness. One of his nominees led an agency full of darkness that wounded people, overshadowed people, took the land away from people, left people bereft of their livelihood and identities, protected the brutality of the powerful against women employees. We could go on and on about the darkness. 

For me, there is great symbolism in the moment and the MOMENT of the Black Farmer Movement. I think it is no accident that we are advocating AGAINST a nominee at this particular time of the year. Sure, it is a part of the election and transition cycle of things. I am struck, however, by Advent. Advent shapes the protests in a different direction. We are not just working AGAINST a nominee. We are working FOR people who work for and are recipients of services and programs within that department. 

Not only do I need liberation from various thing like Rohr suggested, including myself, but there are many good people who deserve to be liberated from that which has held them enslaved since 1862. Lincoln's "the peoples' department" has become "the last plantation." The plantation is run predominately by white people appointed or hired by a white government with programs and services designed for white people. 

If indeed Jesus came to liberate us from our darkness, and to bring the true light into the world, then that is the cause of righteousness, the cause of advocacy, the cause of protest, the cause of demanding change at the highest levels of the land. 

So, I do not separate my faith as a human being from my work and engagement as an advocate. As I invite the Christ child into my world here in a week, I invite, no, I demand that institutions of power and privilege change and permit the light to shine in the darkness of their halls and smoke-filled, back room deliberations that marginalize generation after generation after generation of Black farmers and their families. 

That intersection of the light of the gospel and the darkness of institutions is the world in which I reside. It is oftentimes an uncomfortable place and space. At other times, it is one of immense joy and satisfaction. 

I invite both. To do otherwise would be less than human. 

They Kingdom Come in Heaven and in Mississippi and Alabama and Arkansas

On this Thursday morning during the season of Advent, my reflections turn, given my readings, toward Jesus incarnate in my life and work, and the place and space of God in the misguided creation that is our world.

The people with whom I am involved are Black farmers. They know their history and that history is one of oppression and subjugation at the hands of the powerful and privileged. Advocates like me are deeply involved

The stories are full of pain and suffering. They tell of staying up all night and watching lest the sheriffs come and remove them from the land. That has happened. I remember at this moment Eddie and Dorothy Wise. In the case of one in which it did not happen, she had a psychotic break. Loss of land, loss of livelihood, are real to these people. White people, uninformed as they are, come along and insult them by saying, “They must not be good farmers.”

The truth is that all advantages at the county committee level belong to the white farmers in terms of programs and services. When a Black farmer finally gets his operating loan and it is too little and too late, and the white farmer’s crops are already growing, that’s discrimination.

And, as President-Elect Joe Biden goes about the business of selecting his cabinet members, one he is making is strongly opposed by Black farmers and advocates. Vilsack had his chances for eight years, and during those two terms, Black farmers were woefully mistreated. The investigative reporting of Nate Rosenberg and Bryce Stucki confirm what we knew all along. When stories from within the USDA, plus the statistics, all converge with the dominant narrative of marginalization, that seals the deal for me.

So, what of meditation in this world of conflict and rage? I have always been at odds within myself, the part of me that is strongly oriented toward justice and that part of me that yearns for quiet and contemplation. When I am out there, writing, speaking, advocating, researching, attending meetings, and such, is Jesus there? Does Jesus attend with me and through me in those settings? How can I step out of justice and into contemplation? What are the mechanisms and personality traits and spiritual gifts that allow that to happen? Are they perhaps two aspects of the same spiritual gift?

The Christ child is soon to arrive with his parents in Bethlehem. Our children are soon to hear the gospel narrative read from Matthew and Luke. We are already listening to the songs on our XM radios as we travel about.

I want my soul to be prepared for His coming. I want His coming to be transformative in my life. On the day in the near future and on this day, today.

Black farmers deserve justice. I do not want Vilsack to be reappointed. I experience vicariously the rage of the people in these moments. I experience my own anger, disgust, nausea, and bitter frustration and powerlessness over this decision.

So, until I discover something else, my prayer will be “come Lord Jesus into my life and heart and as I work on behalf of your people, shine the light of transformation on me and in me and through me such that your will is done and not mine, and that your Kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven, in Washington DC and in Grady, Arkansas, and in Columbia, Mississippi. And, like the persistent widow, I know what I want. I know what the people want and what they do not want. While we protest and write and protest some more, we will plead with you, and we will in the words of the text, ‘wear you out with our coming’ so that your will and ours will align.”

OPEN LETTER TO VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

OPEN LETTER TO VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN 

September 6, 2020

Subject: Civil Rights, Programs, and Employment at the Department of Agriculture (USDA)

It has become very apparent that the working relationship between the Biden Policy Team and USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, Justice for Black Farmers, and Advocacy Groups (rural and urban) has been terminated. However, we had worked vigorously and hoped for a better outcome.

We have found very discouraging the absence of a solution driven civil rights policy similar to that of the Elizabeth Warren plan, Addressing Discrimination and Ensuring Equity for Farmers of Color, August, 2019, located here: https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/equity-farmers-of-color. We have requested on many occasions that you adopt this policy. Our anticipation was to develop a policy that would serve the good of Black farmers, minority farmers, and USDA employees.

Senator Sanders’ commitment to Black farmers and civil rights is similar to Senator Warren’s plan. His plan is found here: https://berniesanders.com/issues/revitalizing-rural-america. Some of these factors are included in his comprehensive plan for Black farmers. His entire plan is found as an attachment below. He was fully committed to systemic change within the USDA. The Biden campaign does not include these issues.

We mistakenly thought that the Biden Policy Team was searching for real solutions. When you presented us with the Biden Team policy on July 28, we expected further discussion. However, we were met with defensive posturing and then silence. Shortly after the Democratic National Convention we discovered published articles that partially contained a false narrative. Here is the policy that you proposed to the Nation: https://joebiden.com/racial-economic-equity.

Additionally, we were insulted by the policy team’s position that our request to address Black farmers issues was unconstitutional. This is a marathon from the truth. Politics, politicians, and others have operated in an “American systems built on the notion that Black lives don’t matter as much as others.” That is what your response is saying to us. To invoke the constitution to deny us opportunity provided to others goes totally against our sense of justice. That is the same constitution that did not include us from it's very beginning.

We actually had surmised that Tom Vilsack’s team was shaping your rural agriculture policy. Since the Clinton administration civil rights at the USDA has continued to deteriorate. Our position is influenced by the following and more. Jillian Hishaw’s book, “The Impact of U.S. Land Theft,” will address Black land loss at the hands of egregious practices within the USDA. The documentary, “I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against the USDA,” produced by Shoun Hill and Waymon Hinson, chronicles stories of Black farmers who prevailed against the USDA and DOJ between 1997 and 1999.

The investigative reporting of Stucki and Rosenberg’s article, “How the USDA Distorted Data to Conceal Decades of Discrimination Against Black Farmers,” in The Counter which critiques the Vilsack administration is found at: https://thecounter.org/usda-black-farmers-discrimination-tomvilsack-reparations-civil-rights.

Further, this Op-Ed piece from the Kansas City Star addresses the inadequacies of the Vilsack administration: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readersopinion/guest-commentary/article240721906.html

Rural America is intricately connected to urban America. Many in rural America have a difficult time believing that the Biden campaign cares about them. Your campaign has a battle in overcoming this real and perceived attitude that you are taking US for granted. Such an obvious rejection of the issues we shared with you and that you ignored…. continues to perpetuate a legacy of discrimination that has long been known by many, both inside and outside USDA. Black farmers and employees deserve justice that is long overdue.

We will continue to demand justice for Black farmers and employees.

Black Lives Matter,

Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus
USDA Coalition of Minority Employees
Justice for Black Farmers
www.agcoalition.org
Justice for Black Farmers
justice4Bf@gmail.com
856-910-2399

In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.