by Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad

You can not fight and farm. The government of America knows this and uses all
types of tactics to take Black farmers’ land and render Black people in the
cities totally vulnerable to chemical and biological warfare attacks through
their food. Who checks this stuff that we are eating anyway?

It is now over two weeks after the historic October 16, 2000 Million Family
March. To have such an event was in itself historic. The day was beautiful, the
turnout was great and the "mass media" did its "job" of
"hiding the truth".

It has taken me this much time to digest that day and the events leading up
to that day. I have yet to finish paying for the expenses occurred because of
that day, nor have I gotten my cell-phone bill which I suspect will run into the
hundreds of dollars. We are still investigating some of things that happened and
did not happen.

I, like many of the farmers that attended the events, are back home trying to
continue the harvest of our crops. October is the harvest season for a number of
crops such as cotton and peanuts. Harvest in the final determination of whether
a farmer makes a profit or loss and is most critical that he stays on top of
things, because there are "rustlers" out there waiting for you to make
a mistake or turn your back. Many Black farmers involved with the Pigford vs.
Glickman lawsuit had already been to DC seven times already this year marching,
protesting and questioning the government’s continued discrimination and wrong
doing even in the execution of this so-called "Consent Decree".
October 16th was just another time to sacrifice in order to get justice. This
time we had hoped to speak through the BFAA president, Gary Grant, to the
hundreds of thousands of families assembled in the "Belly of the
Beast" which is the Washington Mall. We had hoped to gather 100,000 names
of our city cousins that wanted "safe food" in our cities.

On Sunday, October 15th the Black farmers were invited by Rev. Walter
Fauntroy to bring fresh produce to his congregation at New Bethel Baptist Church
that morning. After distributing produce and disseminating information at New
Bethel, the farmers moved on to Muhammad Mosque #4 under the invitation of
Minister Khadir Muhammad. The Black farmers got TV. coverage by the local FOX
network and continued coverage of the Black farmer struggle by the Final Call
Newspaper. It is a blessing that we got exposure on Sunday because what happened
on Monday was somewhat of a disappointment.

Although Mr. Grant was given a faxed confirmation to speak at 12:27 p.m. for
three minutes on the stage in the Ellipse in front of the White House, he was
called at 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning of the 16th and told that he had been cut.
I made numerous phone calls on my cellular phone in the middle of the night
trying to reach people who could possibly put Mr. Grant back on the program. I
was not able to reach certain key people and some of the messages that I left
took 12 days to be retrieved on their voice mail.

Starting at 8:00 a.m. on Monday I approached as many people as I thought
might have some influence on the program for that day to see if Mr. Grant could
have a few moments to address the audience. In the meantime Mr. Grant was
feeling very ill, so much so that the paramedics had to treat him and move him
to an air-conditioned trailer used as the command center for the ongoing live
broadcast of the event.

I set with him encouraging him to wait in the wings for the possibility of
getting him on until 1:30 p.m.. Mr. Grant bravely waited until we could see that
his long term health was being threatened. We took Mr. Grant back to his hotel
and after returning to North Carolina, Mr. Grant had to be hospitalized for a
week while he recovered.

We had farmers and supporters stationed in the crowd waiting for the
announcement to be given to have the people sign the information cards. Although
the announcement was never given we were still able to collect thousands of
information cards, so that we could send information to these families alerting
them of the problems with their food supply and helping them to organize
themselves into buying co-ops so that the Black farmers can grow safe food for
them. Almost everyone that we were able to approach and explain what the issues
were, were more than happy to give us their contact information. One could only
imagine what the "harvest" would have been like if the announcement
was given.

Please continue to keep abreast of the Black farmers’ lawsuit situation and
the news about the safety of our food supply. Although many of our Native
American, Latino brothers and sisters along with other nationalities, spoke
about the value of land and questioned what was going on with our food supply,
none of the "Black" speakers at the Million Family March outside of
Min. Benjamin Muhammad even mentioned the Black farmers, land or our food
supply.

Before we become critical of the Million Family March organizers, it would be
good to read the articles in the October 31, 2000 Final Call Newspaper relating
to the struggle necessary to put the march on. In particular read "Family
March prevails over media silence, local and national opposition" to
understand the depths that this government will go to keep vital information
from us and stop us from organizing among ourselves. Also read another excellent
article in that issue of the Final Call entitled, "Farmers share food for
thought, need to forge a network at march".

We would like to continue this "harvest" of interested people,
through your help. Send this article to everyone that you know. Below are web
addresses and email addresses so that they can contact us and put themselves on
our email and "snail mail" list. Also take the time to read
information on these websites and spread the word. Let us use the Internet while
it is still free.

Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association     
Muhammad Farms:

http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/bfaa.htm           
http://www.muhammadfarms.com

tillery@aol.com or drridge@bellsouth.net

Peace, Doc