Tomorrow is the Day We Have Anticipated

Tomorrow is the day that Shoun Hill and I have been planning for over the last two years. It is with both anticipation and excitement that tomorrow we premier the Black farmer documentary. We will engage the farmers in a discussion of the film and what the interviewees have brought to the film. We will show half of it tomorrow and the second half on Saturday. What do we expect? I am not sure. Some know it is coming, and some have come just to see it. Others do not know it is coming and will see it as well for the first time.

For those of you who have followed this page, you know that it has been over two years in the works. Shoun, Charla and I have traveled from Texas, to New Jersey, to Maryland, and to DC, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama.

BFAA funded the initial stages of the work, and you, friends, and family funded a very large sum of money for its completion. Without you and BFAA, this project would not have occurred. Along the way, we faced opposition as some farmers or family members did not want to be interviewed, legal counsel for the DOJ rebuffed us, as did legal counsel for PIgford I and a number of others.

Still, we found extraordinary stories from the farmers who prevailed as David against Goliath between 1997 and 1999. The stories brought their pain to surface. Shoun, Charla, and I walked into sacred spaces in hearing their stories and honoring their stories. It is impossible to get every story and every nuance of a story in a documentary of an hour and forty minutes. That has been Shoun's burden. My burden was to negotiate itineraries, times, and places, and whether or not a farmer and family would engage with us.

With each burden came a huge amount of respect for the lived experiences of these brave people. They believed that their cause was just. They believed that they were fighting for themselves and for the movement.

Therein lies the burden and the challenge for Shoun and me. We believe in their stories. We believe in the movement that they started. We believe that justice is still being denied.

It is for the cause of justice that we have made this documentary.

Sacred Journeys: Theirs and Ours

For those of you who have been following Shoun Hill and me on either our Facebook fundraising page or here on this blog, we thank you. If you have, you know then that I have been sharing a little about the sacred stories and the sacred journey that we have been on. That journey will continue until the Black farmer documentary premiers and then beyond as we intend to use it to tell the stories of struggle and resilience of these amazing people and their fight for justice.

We have just returned to our homes and our beloveds in our cities of choice. Between Sunday and Friday, we traveled from the Bronx, NY and Denison, TX to the northern sections of North Carolina, southern Virginia, and the Durham, NC area.  We conducted five interviews for well over 12 hours and numerous hours of b-roll footage that Shoun will use in his artistic way to tell the stories of injustices done to Black farmers at the hands of the USDA and DOJ.

We are focusing on the limited number of cases that were settled with the USDA and DOJ between 1997 and 1999. Their stories are riveting. Terribly riveting.

Most of these farmers had their cases settled which means a dollar amount, debt relief, and priority services if they continue in farming. We have not asked the interviewees about money or debt relief. Those numbers are actually available most likely via Freedom of Information Act.  We'll see. We'll not reveal any specific numbers for specific farmers, just aggregates.

Along the way, we are coming face to face with a bitter reality. Several bitter realities in fact. Discrimination started very early in their farming days. Farming while Black in America is a dangerous occupation. The list of discriminatory acts is lengthy: farm operating plans changed to accommodate the county supervisor, a supervisor who "lost" the applications, overt acts of aggression such as a confederate tie around the neck of the supervisor or a gun displayed at the desk, too little money coming too late, supervised loans (while whites did not have such), debt relief not offered, and foreclosures without justification. The list is long, very, very long.

The legal processes themselves are brutal, lengthy, and painful.

We have come face to face with farmers and families who tell us that the settlement was not satisfactory. After all, how much is a life work, a kidney, an eye, the battle with diabetes or hypertension, or a marriage or a family.  No amount of money can replace a loved one.

So, as we got to the airport in Raleigh-Durham and headed to Atlanta and on to our homes. We were satisfied that we had done the technologies of recording and interviewing. On the other hands, our hearts were full of stories, expressions of grief, displays of anger, and lives realizing that dreams were lost.

The resilience of the farmers and families is inspiring. Their faith, commitment to their calling, and faith in doing the right thing will inspire us all.

We have one more week of interviewing and much, much work to do. 

Thank you for following us and supporting these efforts.