By Demetrius Dillard
The United States Department of Agriculture has a storied and well-documented history of discrimination against Black farmers, revealing the overt racism and White supremacy that has and continues to plague American democracy.
“I think the USDA just got a problem with Black folk with land. It is evident. Everywhere Black people own land, ninety percent of them have a problem in trying to hold on to it,” said Carl Parker, a legacy farmer from Ashburn, Ga.
A report titled “How Thousands of Black Farmers Were Forced Off Their Land” published in the Nation also details the racism and discrimination of USDA.
“Black people own just 2 percent of farmland in the United States. A decades-long history of loan denials at the USDA is a major reason why,” The Nation magazine writer Kali Holloway pointed out in the recent story.
A prime example of the USDA’s mistreatment of Black farmers is reflected in the landmark Pigford v. Glickman (1999) case, a class action lawsuit alleging discrimination by the federal agency toward Black farmers in its distribution of price support loans, disaster payments, farm ownership loans and operating loans specifically between the years of 1981 and 1996.
Research suggests it was the largest civil rights settlement in U.S. history, after plaintiffs have been paid or credited a reported nearly $1 billion.
According to a report published by the Congressional Research Service, Congress included a provision in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 – also known as the 2008 Farm Bill – due to concerns about the numerous applicants who didn’t “obtain a determination on the merits of their claims under the original Pigford settlement.”
The new provision at the time did not reopen the previous Pigford litigation, but provided such farmers with a new right to sue. After multiple separate lawsuits were filed and subsequent claims were consolidated into a single case called In re Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation — commonly referred to as “Pigford II.” Read more details here.
As part of the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress passed legislation appropriating $100 million for compensation for Pigford II claimants in May of that year, according to a Black farmer settlement update released by the USDA.
On Dec. 8, 2010, former President Barack Obama played a prominent role in funding Pigford II by signing new legislation that appropriated an additional $1.15 billion for those additional claims, bringing the total compensation to an estimated $1.25 billion.
Despite the exorbitant funding restored to many of the plaintiffs, the Acres of Ancestry Initiative notes that a great deal of Black farmers still experience “crushing debts” after the Pigford I lawsuit. Therefore, the fight is far from over.
“The government’s reversal on its promise to give millions of newly emancipated Black folks 40 acres and a mule stood in contrast to its land-giveaway policies for white citizens,” wrote Holloway in a piece from the November 2021 edition of The Nation, also elaborating on the overwhelming discriminationatory practices involved with the Southern Homestead Act of 1866.
“The Homestead Act of 1862 took some 270 million acres of territory that had been taken from Native Americans—10 percent of all US public lands—and reallocated it in 160-acre parcels to 1.6 million Americans, almost all native or foreign-born whites, the ancestors of roughly 45 million living American adults who continue to reap generational wealth from that land grab.”
What remains in the struggle for reparatory justice owed to Black farmers?
The Black Farmers’ Appeal: Cancel Pigford Debt Campaign is perhaps the leading group advocating for the rights of Black farmers in terms of land ownership.
The recently founded grassroots organization is a “legal advocacy campaign to rectify the injustice(s) of the Pigford v. Glickman class action discrimination lawsuit.”
Though the USDA paid more than $1 billion in damages, only a small fraction went toward debt relief. A number of farmers just received $50,000 payments as opposed to their wish being granted of keeping their land.
“After the lawsuit, the vast majority of Black farmers were left with crushing debts, USDA foreclosures, and no legal recourse to save their land. The USDA continues to foreclose on Black farmers suffering under unconscionable farm ownership loan debts — debts that were to be canceled,” says a Acres of Ancestry Initiative press release.
“Of the more than $1 billion in damages paid by the USDA, only 4.8% went to debt relief. The sticker shock of a $1 billion settlement buried the truth that the $50,000 cash payments meant little for Black farmers who owed multiple times that value.”
Furthermore, only one Black farmer received priority consideration for land inventory, 29 Black farmers received priority consideration for farm ownership loans and only 76 Black farmers received priority consideration for farm operating loans.
The release further notes that “the point of the Pigford lawsuit for Black farmers was not the $50,000 cash payments, but keeping their land. Black farmers sought to own their land free and clear of USDA interference.”
This is why it’s fortunate that groups like Black Farmers’ Appeal: Cancel Pigford Debt Campaign exist: to raise awareness of the plight of Black legacy farmers and urge lawmakers to pass legislation that will restore what is rightfully owed to Black farmers.
Just last year, a political figure from North Carolina proposed a piece of legislation that may be a gamechanger for the Black agricultural landscape.
In February 2021, Congresswoman Alma Adams introduced the Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2021. The comprehensive bill will address the “sordid” history of discrimination in federal agricultural policy. The Justice for Black Farmers Act will also “reform the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provide debt relief and create a land grant program to encourage a new generation of Black farmers.”
Moreover, the bill is designed to protect the country’s 50,000 remaining Black farmers from losing their land and provide land grants to create a new generation of Black farmers, Adams said. It has garnered support from more than a dozen co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, including Connecticut Congresswoman Jahana Hayes.
“Additionally, the Justice For Black Farmers Act of 2021 provides substantial resources for 1890 Land-Grant Institutions to help Black farmers get up and running and includes funding for all HBCUs to expand their agriculture research and courses of study,” she said.
“This is critically urgent legislation that corrects a grave injustice and encourages and empowers the next generation of Black farmers.”
