It's only taken 11 years, but the Black Farmers will FINALLY get their money

from The NYTimes.com

November 30, 2010, 7:24 pm
Black Farmers Settlement Approved
By ASHLEY SOUTHALL

The House has given final Congressional approval to a bill that would provide more than $4.55 billion to settle tens of thousands of longstanding claims brought by African Americans farmers and American Indians.

The bill provides $1.15 billion to African Americans left out of a 1999 settlement of a lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman; in that settlement the federal government agreed to compensate black farmers and would-be farmers who said Agriculture Department officials denied or cheated them out of federal aid. To be eligible for money now, claimants must have farmed or attempted to farm between 1981 and 1986, have filed a discrimination complaint before July 1, 1987, and have filed a claim after the deadline in the original settlement.

The bill provides another $3.4 billion to American Indian plaintiffs who claim that Interior officials mismanaged royalties from leases of tribal land used to harvest oil, minerals and timber. Plaintiffs will receive $1.4 billion directly, while the government will use $2 billion to repurchase Indian lands broken up under the Dawes Act in the late 19th and early 20th century. Another $60 million will fund scholarships for American Indian students.

Representative James Clyburn, the majority whip, said the bill helped right historic injustices.

“Today we removed the stain on our country’s history and rectified these injustices,” he said, thanking several Republicans for helping with the bill. “What happened to our nation’s African American farmers and Native Americans was wrong, and we have made it right.”

The vote in the House was 256-152. President Obama is expected to sign it soon.

In a statement Tuesday, Mr. Obama applauded the bill’s passage, and pledged to continue efforts to resolve similar claims brought by women and Hispanic farmers. “Yet, while today’s vote demonstrates important progress, we must remember that much work remains to be done,” he said.

Well, it's past time, but it happened. Finally.

And to Republicans like Rep. King of Iowa, who has this to say:

He then said the claims -- which stem from discrimination against black farmers in the 1980s and 1990s -- are "slavery reparations."

"We've got to stand up at some point and say, 'We are not gonna pay slavery reparations in the United States Congress,'" he said. "That war's been fought. That was over a century ago. That debt was paid for in blood and it was paid for in the blood of a lot of Yankees, especially. And there's no reparations for the blood that paid for the sin of slavery. No one's filing that claim.

The Pigford claimants, he said, "They're just filing a claim because they think they can get away with it." Standing up against the settlements, while unpopular, he said, is "a matter of justice and equity."

Go somewhere, sit down, and STFU.

Sowing injustice: Black farmers still owed millions

Dear Black Farmers,

Thanks for all your hard work in the hot sun. Thanks for sweating and toiling day-in, day-out, so that I may eat nutritious meals and even have some leftover to share with poor countries in the world. Thanks for helping make America the world’s breadbasket. As a gesture of our appreciation, I’d like to deny you the opportunity to have access to loans that white farmers easily receive. In fact, I’m so indebted to you that I will refuse to pay you $1.25 billion dollars even after a federal judge ordered me to pony up.

Your BFF,
The United States Senate

Read the rest at The Loop.

Why Black Farmers Are Broke

Today is the deadline for the government to pay Black farmers more than one billion to settle a class-action lawsuit that began more than a decade ago. For decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture denied or delayed small loans to Black farmers. The USDA even admits it is guilty.

Read the rest at The Loop.

U.S. Sens. Grassley, Hagan: Work to ensure black farmers receive funds for Pigford settlement claims

Hat tip:GreenLadyHere


Folks know that I've had some 'issues' with The President's decision last week to disrespect and dishonor the Black Farmers, by trying to go cheap on their settlement. What they were asking for, and were told ' it wasn't within the budget' is the equivalent of what we give the 51 State - EVERY DAMN YEAR WITHOUT ANY QUESTIONS.

But, I digress.

From BlackPoliticsOnTheWeb.com:

U.S. Sens. Grassley, Hagan: Work to ensure black farmers receive funds for Pigford settlement claims
May 5, 2009

Senators Chuck Grassley and Kay Hagan today introduced legislation to ensure that African American farmers, who successfully filed claims as a result of the 2008 farm bill, will receive the money they are entitled to.

“The Department of Justice decided to cap the $100 million in the farm bill, so anybody who was successful in their petition after the money was gone was out of luck. It was clear from the start that $100 million wasn’t going to be enough money. So, we’re making reasonable fixes to ensure that those who have been successful in their cases are awarded what they rightly are entitled to,” Grassley said. “We’ve been working too hard on this for too many years to let bureaucratic procedure and mumbo-jumbo discriminate against African American farmers and ranchers again.”

“Years ago, thousands of African American farmers were found to have been unfairly discriminated against when applying for loans, credit, and other forms of financial help to ensure their farm’s success,” said Hagan. “The 2008 Farm Bill passed without adequately addressing the costs required to settle the claims in the Pigford case, and ultimately, help right the injustices these farmers faced so many years ago. This legislation seeks to correct that problem, and ensures the farmers who were discriminated against receive what is fairly due to them.”

The Department of Agriculture settled a landmark class action lawsuit with African American farmers in 1999. The Department and the county commissioners discriminated against African American farmers when they denied, delayed, or otherwise frustrated the applications of those farmers and those attempting to farm for farm loans and other credit and benefit programs. This settlement permitted over 22,000 black farmers to have their claims evaluated on the merits, and almost 15,000 had their claims vindicated.

For a variety of reasons, nearly 75,000 additional black farmers filed their claims of discrimination through the Pigford consent decree process past the deadline for their claims to be evaluated on the merits. As a result, thousands of victims of discrimination continue to be denied an opportunity even to have their claims heard.

The case of the Black Farmers is about JUSTICE. Plain and simple. The Department of Agriculture is notorious in its racist practices against Black Farmers, and it's time a wrong be righted. I would have hoped that The President, who exploited this issue during the campaign, would take the lead on it, but since he won't, I'm fine with anyone else who wants to step up to the plate and DO THE RIGHT THING.

Mr. President, When ARE you going to do right by BLACK FOLKS?

Not something that you can hide behind that rainbow crap, but BLACK FOLKS.

Hat tip: The Field Negro

From The Associated Press

PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama and black farmers
By BEN EVANS – 20 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a senator, Barack Obama led the charge last year to pass a bill allowing black farmers to seek new discrimination claims against the Agriculture Department. Now he is president, and his administration so far is acting like it wants the potentially budget-busting lawsuits to go away.

The change isn't sitting well with black farmers who thought they'd get a friendlier reception from Obama after years of resistance from President George W. Bush.

"You can't blame it on the Bush administration anymore," said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association, which has organized the lawsuits. "I can't figure out for the life of me why the president wouldn't want to implement a bill that he fought for as a U.S. senator."

At issue is a class-action lawsuit known as the Pigford case. Thousands of farmers sued USDA claiming they had for years been denied government loans and other assistance that routinely went to whites. The government settled in 1999 and has paid out nearly $1 billion in damages on almost 16,000 claims.

Farmers, lawyers and activists like Boyd have worked for years to reopen the case because thousands of farmers missed the deadlines for participating. Many said the filing period was too short and they were unaware of the settlement until it was too late.

The cause gained momentum in August 2007 when Obama, then an Illinois senator, introduced Pigford legislation about six months into his presidential campaign.

Although the case was hardly a hot-button political issue, it had drawn intense interest among African-Americans in the rural South. It was seen as a way for Obama to reach out in those areas, where he was not well-known and where he would need strong support to win the Democratic primary.

The proposal won passage in May as sponsors rounded up enough support to incorporate it into the 2008 farm bill. The potential budget implications were huge: It could easily cost $2 billion or $3 billion given an estimated 65,000 pending claims.

With pressure to hold down costs, lawmakers set an artificially low $100 million budget. They called it a first step and said more money could be approved later.

But with 25,000 new claims and counting, the Obama administration is now arguing that the $100 million budget should be considered a cap to be split among the successful cases.

The position — spelled out in a legal motion filed in February and reiterated in recent settlement talks — would leave payments as low as $2,000 or $3,000 per farmer. Boyd called that "insulting."

Boyd noted that Obama's legislation specifically called for the new claimants to be eligible for the same awards as the initial lawsuit, including expedited payments of $50,000 plus $12,500 in tax breaks that the vast majority of the earlier farmers received.

"I'm really disappointed," Boyd said. "This is the president's bill."

"They did discriminate against these farmers, maybe not all of them, but a lot of these people would prevail if they could go to court," he said.

The administration wouldn't discuss specific budget plans or commit to fully funding the claims.

But in a statement to The Associated Press, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the department agrees that more needs to be done and is working with the Justice Department to "ensure that people are treated fairly."

Kenneth Baer, a budget spokesman for the White House, also suggested that the White House is planning to do more.

"The president has been a leader on this issue since his days as a U.S. senator and is deeply committed to closing this painful chapter in our history," Baer said in a statement.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

I don't care if it is the Associated Press. I know my usual take on them, but the bullshit coming from The White House on this is disturbing. You can give those lying mofos on Wall Street BILLIONS upon BILLIONS, but you can't find the money to do right by these farmers who have obviously been discriminated against. It's no secret how completely and utterly RACIST the history of the Department of Agriculture has been towards Black farmers. No ifs, ands or buts. NOT up for debate. I'm tired of these mealy mouthed excuses when it comes to issues dealing with BLACK FOLKS.

As I've said before, there are a lot of issues, that this ' rainbow approach', will cover things.

But, there ARE things that are specific to BLACK FOLKS, and yes, I expect a BLACK MAN, who received 95% of the BLACK VOTE, to get involved in this issue.

There is RIGHT.

And there is WRONG.

And, this continued mealymouthed bullshit when it comes to BLACK FOLK is UNACCEPTABLE.

That he would be no better on this issue than Bill Clinton is UNACCEPTABLE.


STEP UP TO PLATE AND DO THE RIGHT THING.

Reminder: 3 Billion is the MINIMUM of what we give to our 51st State. NO question about finding money for the 51st State, but AMERICAN CITIZENS WHO HAVE BEEN SYSTEMATICALLY DISCRIMINATED AGAINST AND ITS BEEN PROVEN ----nothing but excuses.