by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

I was invited to speak on behalf of the Black farmers at the Selma, Ala commemoration of the 1965
Edmund Petis Bridge crossing. However, it seems that even though I was personally invited by the
head organizer the week before, she developed more “hope” in an x-president, Bill (Savior)
Clinton, his wife, Hillary (Second Coming) Clinton and the upstart Barack (African-American) Obama,
than in the value of keeping the last remaining parcels of real wealth in America, land.

Politicians are absolutely amazing “story” tellers. Barack started out at the breakfast
on Sunday, March 4^th giving Selma credit for his birth. You see, his father was a goat
herder in Kenya, but because of the civil rights movement in America, he was one of the Africans
brought to America to study during the 60’s. There he met his white wife from Kansas who was
inspired by the Civil Rights Movement to look beyond color in choosing a mate. So she married Barack’s
father and therefore it was like a homecoming for Barack to come to Selma, because probably without
that crossing of the Petis Bridge he might not have been born. Oh please!!!!

Then that afternoon Hillary gave credit to the Civil Rights Movement for opening up the doors for
women and therefore allowing her to become a US Senator and now a candidate for the presidency. Oh
please!!!

Bill just walked around and waved to the herd of Black groupie acting admirers who just wanted to
touch the hem of his garment.

I assume that the reason that I was not allowed to speak was because the Negroes were afraid that
I might bring substance to the conversation, thereby embarrassing the dignitaries. They may have
thought that I might ask Bill why he did not simply sign an executive order and pay the Black
farmers in the Pigford v Glickman lawsuit after the Black farmers had gone to jail a couple of times
to protest how they were neglected within the Consent Decree. Or maybe they thought that I was going
to ask him why he got rid of welfare.

Maybe they thought I would ask Hillary if she thought that she could have beaten John F. Kennedy,
Jr. in a fare race for that vacant Senate seat in New York in 2000. Maybe they thought that I would
ask Barack if he thought it was a little odd that both of his major opponents dropped out of the
Senate race in Illinois because of scandals, therefore projecting him into the forefront of Black
“hope” for a Black or should I say African-American president. Or maybe they thought that
I would ask Obama if there was a difference between a Black descendent of slaves in America and an
African-American.

In fact I was not going to ask any of those hard questions. I was just going to tell the 5,000 in
attendance that the Black farmers did not “win” the lawsuit, but the government got away
with a scam. The courts have failed the Black farmers and now the Black farmers were depending on
the Federal legislators to give justice, make them whole and stop USDA foreclosures. That is if they
can get anyone to listen and a congressperson with enough “testicular fortitude” to
sponsor the bill.

The Black farmers did not initially go to Washington in 1997 to ask for $50,000, but they went to
stop the foreclosure on another 3,000 Black farmers and get the land back that had already been
stolen.. Instead, their lawyer, Al Pires, who was a former Justice Department lawyer, opened the
lawsuit up to non-farmers and required that legitimate farmers had to prove discrimination all over
again by identifying a “similarly situated white” farmer who had gotten the loans that
they had applied for.

Of the 21,000 applicants allowed into the class, 13,000 were awarded the $50,000, while another
8,000 were denied. Within this 8,000 that were denied were the original 3,000 who were under the
threat of foreclosure by the USDA. Now the USDA has started kicking these elderly farmers off of
their land and out of their houses.

I was sent to Selma by the Black farmers to introduce to the audience and the politicians the
proposed “Endangered Black Farmer Act of 2007” that is geared to put an immediate stop to
foreclosures and force the USDA to provide money and services to the remaining and new Black
farmers. If highways can be diverted to protect the spotted owl, then surely foreclosures can be
stopped to prevent the extinction of Black farmers. If special breeding, incubating facilities and
wild life preserves can be set up to protect endangered species of animals, then surely programs
could be put in place to develop and incubate the next generation of Black farmers. Or are these
animals more important than Black farmers?

Yes, I may have asked that tough question to the audience of urban dwellers and their urban
serving lawmakers, but I was denied the opportunity the same way that I was denied at the 2000
“Redeem the Dream: 37th Anniversary March on Washington” and Gary Grant, Pres. of BFAA was
denied to speak at the 2000 Million Family March in DC. At least I had enough sense to force my way
to the front line of the march over the Petis bridge while holding up the cover of the Final Call
Newspaper with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the front.
At least the people there got a chance to take a picture of two true Black leaders staring them in
the face.

Well, what will the urban dwellers say when they are denied food to eat or if they just keep on
eating the slow poisons dished out to them by the “merchants of death”? Oh, that is a dumb
question, dead folk can’t talk.

But there is still hope for the urban dwellers, not the hope in storytelling politicians or
“We shall overcome” singers. When Rev. King made the transition from Civil Rights to Human
Rights and economic empowerment, he was shot down. However, Allah (God) has protected the Honorable
Minister Louis Farrakhan to the point that he is more than a great orator but has inspired the
Nation of Islam to come out of its “urban” shell and realize the value in land ownership
and growing our own food. He first started off by re-instituting the Three Year Economic Savings
Program in 1991, followed by the purchase of 1600 acres of farmland in Georgia at the end of 1994.

Gary Grant got his chance to speak at the 10^th Anniversary of the Million Man March in
2005 where the Millions More Movement was inaugurated. He finally presented the plight of the Black
farmers to a national and international audience. Minister Farrakhan included Agriculture as one of
the nine ministries of the Millions More Movement in his October 15, 2005 address on the Mall in DC.
He backed up his support for agriculture by having two agricultural sessions as a part of the 2007
Saviours’ Day Celebration weekend. In his speech on Sunday, February 25^th, he again
stressed the importance of those nine ministries and demanded that members of the Nation of Islam go
out in the communities, set up these ministries and make them work for the benefit and salvation of
a people trapped in the concrete jungles of America.

So “hope” is alive, kicking up dirt on some land of our own and fighting for more.