——————————————————————

Money. What can I do with $50k?

By Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad 

            The Black Farmers
and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA) on May 15, 2009 hosted a Town Hall
meeting in Tillery, NC between black farmers and the newly appointed Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights of the US Department of Agriculture under the Obama
Administration, Dr. Joe Leonard, Jr. Dr. Leonard made it very clear that he was
more than just a government employee, he is an activist who has served as the
director of the Congressional Black Caucus and as an assistant to Rev. Jesse
Jackson in the Rainbow Push organization.  His relationship with President
Barack Obama goes back to when he was an assistant to Mr. Obama when he was an
Illinois state senator.

            His job is to
review all EEO complaints in the USDA and farmer discrimination complaints
against the USDA.  He said that he came to Tillery to meet with the farmers and
to listen.  He started off his day by visiting the local FSA (Farm Services
Administration) in Halifax County, NC.

            Mr. Gary Grant,
president of BFAA, opened up the floor for farmers to tell Dr. Leonard their
experience with the Pigford lawsuit and discrimination by the USDA. 

Mr. Jeff Hawkins, Macon, NC
stated, “I was in Pigford for 10 years and did not get a dime. My farm was
taken. My mother hocked her house to get my farm back. I have not been able to
borrow since I borrowed from FSA in the 1970s. Some farmers got paid but not
me.”

Similar
experiences were related by Mr. Leo Jackson, Pineview, GA, who stated in the
Pigford lawsuit they were throwing people’s claims out because of many frivolous
reasons.

Mr. Griffin
Todd, Jr., Zebulon, NC, stated that some got money and others did not.
He described how FHA (now Farm Service
Agency – FSA) would write a check for $100 thousand to a “similarly situated
white farmer” and give it to him, but Todd had to bring each bill that he needed
to pay to the FHA agent before he would write him a check. They would give Hue,
a white farmer, money in November or December but he would not get his money
until April, almost too late to plant.

            As more farmers
reported how their land was taken from them and other black farmers, Dr. Leonard
asked what happened to that land.  The farmers responded with stories of how
family members, friends, and local power brokers of USDA employees would be
given a tip on when the black farmer’s land would be auctioned off.  Then they
would get the land at below market prices then turn around and sell it to
developers to build homes or counties to build schools.

            A North Carolina
state employee who was also on the planning committee for his county stated that
there are plans developed 30 years in advance which would target sets of land
needs.  Then things would be put in place to get that land by any means
necessary.  He had actually been involved with blocking his county from taking a
black farmer’s land when he found out that they were planning to do so.

            Mr. Lucious
Abrams, Waynesboro, GA, a lead plaintiff in the Pigford lawsuit, stated that his
land has been in foreclosure for 10 years and he has not had a foreclosure
hearing, which is his constitutional right.  He also stated that he went to
testify before Judge Friedman when the fairness hearing on the Pigford lawsuit. 
He told Judge Friedman that the consent decree was not worth the paper that it
was written on and it did not represent the wishes of the lead plaintiffs.
However, Judge Friedman, completely disregarded his and other black farmers’
complaints against the “consent decree” and its results. The consent decree as
enacted completely vindicated the black farmers’ serious concerns regarding the
legal advice provided by Attorney Al Pires.

            As the
Vice-President of BFAA, a farmer and an agricultural economist, I presented a
six slide PowerPoint presentation designed to give Dr. Leonard a brief
historical understanding of how the black farmers got in their condition aided
by the USDA’s discrimination in the allocation of government subsidies. I
started out by showing a picture of the former holder of the mortgage on the
Nation of Islam’s 1600 acre farm in Georgia receiving a check for over $840,000
to pay off that mortgage.  When receiving the check the mortgage holder said,
“Money. What can I do with money? The worst thing I ever did was sell y’all that
land.”

            So I asked Dr.
Leonard what was it that this white man understood and these black farmers
understand about the value of land?  The black farmers did not go to court to
receive a $50,000 check. They went to federal court to stop the USDA from
foreclosing on their land, which the Pigford lawsuit did not do.  The farmers at
this meeting were not interested in just a money settlement, but wanted an
opportunity to farm and pass that legacy on to their children and grandchildren.

            Then I showed
graphs that represented the loss of black farm land from the high of 16 million
acres in 1910 to the present low figure of less than 3 million acres and
decreasing. I showed the relationship between the “parity ratio” and the loss of
black farm land.  The “parity ratio” is defined as the price that the farmer
receives divided by the cost of his inputs needed to produce his crop or
product.  The parity ratio started off in 1910 as a one to one relationship, but
by 1997 it had dropped to almost 0.4.  This means that the cost of production
has gone up 2.5 times the price that the farmer receives, i.e. costs have gone
up but prices of the farmer’s products have not.

            Nonetheless, the
US government gave out checks to white farmers to compensate for this increase
of cost while finding creative ways to deny black farmers these same subsidies
and payments.  The USDA would loan black farmers money and hold their land as
collateral.  Then like a vulture, they would wait until a drought or other
natural disaster hit.  At which time they would rush to pay the white farmers
disaster checks, but deny the same payments to black farmers.  Then they would
turn right around and demand full payment on the loans due by the black farmers.
When they could not pay, the USDA agents continued to add up interest on the
debt until they drove the farmer into foreclosure.

            In the meantime
the USDA put in irrigation systems on a cost share basis for white farmers in
the South, but did not help black farmers put in systems.  So when the droughts
hit, the white farmers turned on their irrigation and watched their crops grow,
while the black farmers watched their crops burn up.

            Over a ten year
period from 1982 to 1992, the USDA gave each white farmer an average of $1,023
per acre in crop subsidies while restricting black farmers to only $274 over the
same time period.  Since farm land prices in the 1980s ran about $1,000 per
acre, the USDA essentially helped white farmers to buy another acre for each
acre they had.  And of course the land that they bought was the acreage of
distressed black farmers.

            The mystery of
black farm loss is solved and the solution is simple.  President Barack Obama
needs to write an executive order stopping all USDA foreclosures on black farm
land, removing all USDA debt on that land and retuning the land that was
foreclosed on: not a “bailout”, not a “handout”, just a “cleanout”. Don’t make
black farmer salute the flag while taking their land.