by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

J. Kavin Ross of the Oklahoma Eagle in his March 18, 2004 article called "Black hoax or
Black Fact?" exposes that Black people may have been "…hoodwinked and bamboozled by a
scam artist." African Americans in Oklahoma rushed to the post office late Monday, March 12,
2004 to meet a March 15 deadline with the Black Farmers and Agriculturalist Association, Inc.

This organizer promised that those who met the deadline would recover as much as $50,000 per
claimant. The potential claimants were told that the United States Department of Agriculture has
over $11 billion dollars owed to descendants of slave and it is locked away. This organizer is
referring to the now closed Pigford vs.. Glickman Black farmers’ class action lawsuit whose
deadline for filing was October12, 1999. Although the lawsuit filing date is far in the past, this
organizer claims that a "petition" drive can force the courts to accept new claimants and
that the claimants need not be farmers, just Black.

In February 2004, a representative from the monitor’s office was asked at a meeting of Black
farmers in Albany, GA, if there was any legal way of reopening the case so that new applicants could
be considered. The representative said that "…there was no legal way to reopen the lawsuit
for new applicants," but the appeal process was getting some denials reversed. A review of the
monitor’s website (www.pigfordmonitor.org)
indicates that over 22,159 "Track A" applications had been accepted in the lawsuit. As of
March 15, 2004 only 61% of the claims were ruled in favor of the claimants, and 39% had been denied.
Although the monitor’s office stated that some denials had been reversed, according to their own
website, no one else has gotten paid in 2 years. The total money dispersed to these claimants
remains at about $818,450,387, which is far below the $2.4 billion that the government claimed as
the value of this lawsuit much less, $11 billion.

Now this organizer offers this bogus petition of hope who has been so successful that the Post
Office investigator from Covington, TN has called Mr. Gary Grant, the president of original Black
Farmers and Agriculturalist Association (BFAA) to find the person in Tennessee that has a post
office box overflowing with these applications, in order to ask his some questions.

According to the J. Kevin Ross article, the national office of the Better Business Bureau has
issued a public statement:

"Callers to the Better Business Bureau of the MidSouth have indicated that this company,
Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association, Inc., is soliciting $100 from consumers and
attempting to gain signatures for a petition. The Better Business Bureau has requested basic
information about the organization on two occasions by mail and the company has declined to
provide any information. As of January 28, 2004, two phone numbers for the company have recordings
stating that their voice mailbox is full, therefore, the Better Business Bureau has been unable to
contact the company by phone."

The Better Business Bureau is not the only recipient of many calls and e-mails trying to find out
if this petition scheme is legit and will offer what is promised. Ironically, many of these calls
have come to the office of Mr. Gary R. Grant, the President of the original Black Farmers and
Agriculturalists Association (BFAA). Mr. Grant has stated that his office receives about 15 calls
per day and over the last few months, hundreds of e-mails concerning this scheme. The confusing
issue is that there are 2 organizations calling themselves BFAA. The original BFAA, established in
1998 and incorporated in the state of North Carolina in 1999. The original BFAA was the organizing
force that resulted in the Pigford vs. Glickman lawsuit. However, this same BFAA organization
fought their own lawyer, Al Pires, and the federal judge, Paul J. Friedman, to fix or get rid of the
lawsuit, once the farmers saw what was in it.

The original BFAA continued to fight the lawyers, the court and USDA on the Black farmers’
behalf until the Republicans took over the White House, the congress and used Mr. Tom Burrell to
orchestrate a coupe of BFAA leadership in July of 2002. According to Mr. Grant, Tom Burrell told him
in person, that someone "high up in the USDA said that the president of BFAA is too supportive
of the ‘Democrats’ and that if he is removed there may be some funds that could be made
available to BFAA."

BFAA never endorsed a Democrat nor Republican, but the BFAA membership had a policy that since
"BFAA" was an advocacy organization for the Black farmers, it would not accept any money
from the USDA as an organization until all of the Black farmers had gotten paid and their debt
forgiven. BFAA virtually stayed on the steps of the USDA and DC Federal Court, becoming a thorn in
the government’s side.

After Mr. Burrell found out that he could not legally take over the organization without getting
a vote from the membership, he then incorporated another Black Farmers and Agriculturalists
Association in the state of Delaware in the fall of 2002 that would accept USDA money. So now there
are two groups calling themselves BFAA, the original BFAA with national headquarters in Tillery, NC
and the new BFAA, Inc physically working out of a P.O. box in Covington, TN. BFAA, Inc. did not get
the promised "payoff" from the USDA, but now the Delaware incorporated BFAA, Inc is the
promoter of this petition scheme. The president of BFAA, Inc has not made himself available to
answer questions, so the people call Mr. Grant, who was reelected president of BFAA in 2003.

We received a passionate response by Mr. Grant on March 19, 2004 where he stated:

"I have found it most difficult and disturbing at the same time that people would go
through so much trouble, searching the Internet, trying to find a working fax or phone number in
TN and find the real BFAA’s web site with a letter explaining that what BFAA, Inc. is doing is
nothing but a scam, would then still call me in North Carolina.

Then after me and my staff would take the time to explain the whole history of the law suit and
what we new about this scam, they would rather take their chances on a dream of something for
nothing, $50,000, and not want to join the REAL BFAA to continue the protracted fight to change
the policies at the USDA, get back land taken by the USDA and remove racist bigots who continue to
commit atrocious attacks on Black farmers through denials of loan, denial of programmatic
assistance and foreclosures.

Maybe the most hurtful thing of all is that in July of 2002 we had the USDA on the ropes to
institute a memorandum of understanding to stop foreclosures on Black farmers, stop the taking of
income tax refunds and program payments of Black farmers still in the appeal process of Pigford v.
Glickman. If Mr. Burrell and his cohorts had waited just two more weeks, the Black farmers could
have received a measure of relief. Instead Mr. Burrell and his cohorts went to the USDA to stop
the negotiation process and beg for ‘30 pieces of silver’.

We have not wanted to go public with this split for sake of unity. We have not attacked Mr.
Burrell nor attempted to destroy his organization. But we must defend the integrity of the
original BFAA and those that depend on us to fight the USDA on behalf of Black farmers. This is a
said day. How much more blood must the Black farmers shed?"

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

“War” according to Webster’s Dictionary means: 1. a state of usually open and
declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations. 2. a state of hostility, conflict, or
antagonism. Another definition of war comes from Carl Von Clausewitz, an eighteenth and nineteenth
century Prussian soldier and writer in his book, “On War”. He states, “War therefore
is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.” He further states,
“As long as the enemy is not defeated, he may defeat me; then I shall be no longer my own
master; he will dictate the law to me as I did to him.” In other words, “war” is a
violent imposition of ones will against another to make them be your slave or eliminate them if they
will not.

The fact that Blacks were brought to America as slaves, and white Americans never intended for
them to be other than slaves or second class citizens, is at the core of the dilemma of Black people’s
struggle and Black farmers’ struggle in particular. Land ownership is a privilege and right of an
American citizen. All wealth comes from the land. One must always stand on some land. If you own
that land then you have the right to stand on it. If you do not own it, then you must ask
permission.

Black people in America may have come out of slavery “broke”, but their spirits were
not broken. Although farm life was tough, they were used to hard labor and had many children to help
with the work. By 1910 Blacks had accumulated 16 million acres of land with a population of about 10
million. This meant that we owned about 1.6 acres per person. This was in spite of the fact that
Blacks were never given the proverbial “40 acres and a mule”.

The US government reneged on its promise of land to the ex-slaves and later reneged on its
promise to protect them after slavery. In 1877 the North removed its protective covering of troops
from the South allowing the KKK and other killers to terrorize Black people.

How these Black people were able to accumulate such wealth and land under this type of open
warfare and hostilities is something for historians and psychologists to study.

America had left her ex-slaves to fend for themselves out in the woods and these Blacks had done
well. The statistics would prove that Blacks were on their way up out of slavery. However, starting
in 1901 Americans began in earnest to stem this tide of Black economic development by increasing the
level of state supported terrorism in terms of continued lynchings, race riots (whites on Blacks)
and enactment of discriminatory laws.

Her tactics have been successful. Now Blacks own only an estimated 2.5 million acres of land, 55%
of us now live in cities whereas over 90% of us used to live on farms at the turn of the century. We
were lured to these cities by the prospects of a higher wage and better lifestyle. For a while it
seemed that the cities offered both of these. But now there are more college age Black men in jail
than in college. Black people receive 3/5ths the income of whites. The Black male homicide rate is
almost 7 times the rate for white males. Although Blacks represent 13% of the American population
they account for 30% of the AIDS cases in America. On average whites live 6 years longer than
Blacks.

Now if we go back to the definition of “war” at the beginning of this article, then we
see that “war is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.”
Whites have taken our land, put us in prison, inflicted us with new diseases and somehow managed to
get us to kill each other.

Now how did they “somehow” get us to kill one another? Murder in the Black community is
more often a result of rage. Now how do you enrage a whole people? Answer: Play an economic game
with their lives. Put them under extreme economic stress. Call it, “low wage rage”. Let’s
look at some examples.

Back in 1974 I was a young Black man with a wife and two small children. I was going to college.
My wife wanted to stay home and raise our children. I worked at the hospital at night and went to
school in the day. In 1974 the minimum wage was $2.00 per hour. Today the minimum wage is $5.15 per
hour.

To get to work and move my family around I needed some transportation, so I bought a brand new
Dodge Extended Cab pickup truck for about $3,200. I paid a down payment of $500 and financed the
balance for 36 months paying $78 per month. Now, at $2.00 per hour for a 40 hour week my gross pay
would have been $80. For the month my gross pay before taxes would be $320 per month. Now, if we
subtract my automobile note from my gross wages, I would still have $242 to pay my rent, buy food
and get some clothes for my family, not bad in 1974.

Today a new Dodge Extended Cab pickup truck costs about $25,000. If I put $500 down and got the
balance financed over 36 months at 6% interest, I would pay $745 per month. Now if I received a
minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, my monthly gross pay would be $824. After subtracting my automobile
note, I would have $79 left over (if the IRS would look the other way). What in hell can a man with
a wife and two children do with $79 to spend over a whole month?

But you might say, “you can get that vehicle financed for 60 months instead of 36
months.” Okay, the payments would then be $474 per month, leaving a balance of $350 to pay
rent, buy food and get some clothes for his family. Oh wow, now he has about $108 more per month
than I did in 1974.

However, that Dodge truck lasted me for 13 years without me doing any major repairs on the
engine, transmission or rear end. How many new vehicles today will even last 5 years without major
repairs?

I rest my case, for now (smile).

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

As Dr. Cornell West at the "State of the Black Union" was calling Minister Farrakhan’s
plans for the establishment of a new government for Black people in America a "pipe
dream", one of the ministries of that new government was reporting its progress at the Nation
of Islam annual Saviours’ Day Convention. This report was given on February 25, 2006 in Chicago
just as Dr. Cornel West in Houston, laid a challenge at the feet of the Nation of Islam and the
Millions More Movement.

On October 15, 2005 over a million Black people agreed with Minister Louis Farrakhan that we
needed a Ministry of Agriculture. However, Minister Farrakhan had already begun that process in the
Nation of Islam in August of 2003. We have been directing the development of the Ministry of
Agriculture along with running the Nation of Islam’s 1600 acre farm near Dawson, Ga.

The mission statement of the Ministry of Agriculture states: "Our major goal is to develop a
sustainable agricultural system that would provide at least one meal per day, according to
the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad for the 40 million black people in
America. Also this system should provide the necessary raw materials for the production of clothing
and housing for the 40 million or more black people in America. This requires the attainment, proper
utilization and conservation of the useful land and using science and technology to make the
non-useful land useful."

To accomplish the goal of feeding 40 million black people we will need at least 51 million acres
of land, if we eat meat or 6.3 million acres of land, if we don’t eat meat. To operate this amount
of farmland we need $2 billion in equipment and 18,000 farmers.

There are two ways to establish the infrastructure or "lay the pipes" for our
"sustainable agricultural system": 1. Buy the land, equipment and train the farmers and/or
2. Utilize the existing Black farmers, their land and equipment. The Ministry of Agriculture of the
Nation of Islam is using both approaches. First through the generous donations of Black people all
across the country to the Three Year Economic Savings Program, we have bought 1600 acres of land in
Georgia and have been in operation since 1995. In our continued efforts to make our farm, Muhammad
Farms, a viable operation and a model for other Black farmers in 2005 we installed a state of the
arts irrigation system which included laying 7, 200 feet of 8 inch irrigation pipe (see pictures at
www.MuhammadFarms.com).

Although we are proud of our accomplishments in our farming operation, we realize that 1600 acres
is not enough acreage to meet our objectives. Therefore we have reached out to our Black farmers to
bring them first, back into business, then secondly within our food production and distribution
system. We have been working with the Black farmers in their struggles against the USDA since 1998.
We have marched, organized and served as an expert witness in the Pigford v. Glickman class action
lawsuit. We encourage our readers, especially Dr. West, to visit and read the past articles on the
"Farmer Newsletter" to see how we have been fighting for and with the farmers since 1998.

Also on the Mall in DC on October 15, 2005, Minister Farrakhan said that we need to help Black
farmers by supporting legislation that is being introduced into Congress that would stop the USDA
foreclosures on Black owned land. He also stated that the Black community needs to set up grocery
stores to serve as outlets for the products of Black farmers, not only to help the farmers but to
provide safe and healthy food to our people in the cities who are dying from diseases that are
produced by a poisoned food supply.

In the Ministry of Agriculture we hear and obey (smile). We started a letter writing campaign to
influence the passage of the "Black Farmers Judicial Equity Act" on the Mall on October 15^th.
You may down load the letter by going to www.MuhammadFarms.com.

Three years ago the Ministry of Agriculture began "laying the pipe" for a new food
distribution system for Muhammad Farms and other Black farmers by setting up food buying clubs. To
date we now have 11 active food buying clubs in eleven cities. These "clubs" will
eventually become cooperative corporations, and then cooperatively owned super markets. We also have
Ministers of Agriculture in 23 cities who act as farm marketing coordinators that help educate our
people and distribute our produce.

Each year the Ministry of Agriculture sponsors farm tours and farming experiences for our
"city cousins" and youths. You can see some of our visitors by going to "Visit
Muhammad Farms" on our web site. We will be expanding our capacity to teach and train more
students so they can carry this experience back to the cities and set up community gardens.

We have also begun an "Eat to Live" tour to teach our people the life giving
instructions of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad on "…what you should eat and what you should
store in your houses" (Holy Qur’an, 3:48). We have been to six cities thus far and where ever
we go we leave the seeds for a new food buying club.

Gary R. Grant, President of BFAA, and myself have been invited to speak on many campuses and at
many conferences, where we spread the word of Black land ownership, and establishing an independent
food production and distribution system, "from the land to the man". Therefore, to my dear
brother Cornel West, if you talk to the right people you might find that the nine ministries that
Minister Farrakhan talks about are no "pipe dreams", because the Ministry of Agriculture
is already laying big "pipe".

In the Ministry of Agriculture we say "Let hope die", if that hope is in the moral
conscious of American whites. White America didn’t care when they took Black farmers’ lands.
They don’t care that now the Black victims of Katrina are being stripped of their land and
dispersed like refugees in their own country.

We say "Let hope Live" in God, ourselves and our will to be free. We want a future for
our Black children. GM, Ford, and IBM are laying off while we in the Ministry of Agriculture, BFAA
and Muhammad Farms are laying the pipes for an agricultural industry that will provide safe and
wholesome food for ourselves and jobs for our babies. And like our Native Americans, we know that
"the only thing that the white man invented was the patent office". We will now keep our
creativity for ourselves, market ourselves, produce for ourselves and with the protection of our God
defend our industries against the "Skull and Bones" pirates of this world.

Books and lectures by Dr.
Ridgely A. Mu’min

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

The inspiration for this documentary came from a dream that I had on December 28, 1998 on the eve
of the day that J.L. Chestnut and Al Pires were to meet with 600 or more Black farmers in Albany,
Ga. to discuss the Consent Decree. The farmers had read this proposed Consent Decree on November 5,
1998 and some were organizing to protest its contents. So, unlike Dr. Martin Luther King’s
"dream", mine was about snakes.

On the next day, my instincts told me to shut my mouth and open my video camera lens. I recorded
that session and many other public sessions like this first one over a period of three years.
Indeed, "snakes" proved to be the most subtle characters in the Black farmers’ attempt
at receiving reparations.

Now, according to the USA Today’s article, "the reparations team has been extraordinarily
secretive" up until now. And when you read the list of members, one may understand why. Blacks
must now determine who this "Dream Team" works for. There is a difference between the
wisdom of "activists" infiltrated by "snakes " seeking gold and the wisdom of
one guided by God such as Minister Louis Farrakhan seeking freedom "in deed".

This USA Today article on reparations covered 2 full pages with subheadings like: "Proving
liability for events so far in the past could be tough", "Reparations activist; ‘We’re
still living with the vestiges of slavery’, "Insurance firms issued slave policies",
"Several media companies own newspapers that were essential to slave economy",
"FleetBoston: Traced to slave-trading merchant", "Brown Bros.: Loan gave planters
cash to buy slaves", "Lehman Bros.: 1 brother owned 7 slaves in 1860",
"Railroads: Slave ‘formed the backbone of the South’s railway labor force’", and
"WestPoint Stevens: Textile firm linked to rough ‘Negro cloth’ slaves had to wear."

The idea of reparations is not new, many other groups and leaders before this "Reparations’
Dream Team" was established fought for reparations including the Honorable Marcus Garvey, the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Dr. Brock, Minister Silas Muhammad, N’COBRA, etc. to name a
few. According to the article,

"Successive generations of African-Americans, starting with slaves freed in 1865, have
failed to persuade Congress to apologize and make restitution for slavery. Attempts by descendants
of slaves to sue the federal government for damages have been dismissed."

The old movement for reparations goes back to the ex-slaves desire for land. Now the modern
descendants of these slaves are now suing for "cash", not land. And since modern Blacks no
longer understand the value of land, the American government may lend an ear to that sector that
wants a cash settlement instead of land.

In 1995 a $100 million reparations case called Cato v. the United States was filed in the U.S.
Appeals Court in San Francisco. However the court could not find "…a legal basis for it. The
panel said descendants of slaves must go to Congress, not the courts, to get redress for crimes
against their ancestors."

However, when Blacks have petitioned Congress, it "… has stifled reparations legislation
sponsored each year since 1989 by Rep. John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich." Supposedly, the new strategy
of this "Dream Team" is to attack companies and force them to seek redress from the
government.

Therefore, the movement for reparations has been "subtly" steered from the government
into the private sector which requires an even more precise proof of damages, quantification of the
damages and who should be paid the reward for those damages. The companies are not submitting to the
evidence of past profiteering by saying that "…the current company isn’t liable for what
happened before the Civil War." And furthermore, "…slaves and their masters are dead.
Company records, though sometimes damning, are seldom complete. Damages may be impossible to
calculate. Most important, no company accused of profiting from slavery was breaking U.S. law at the
time; Slavery was not a crime."

However, if slavery was not considered a crime, then the responsibility goes back to the
government for authorizing this "crime against humanity". And of course this is precisely
why America did not want to participate in the World Conference Against Racism held in South Africa
in the summer of 2001. If slavery and the slave trade could be labeled "crimes against
humanity" and some western governments apologize, then these same governments that participated
and benefited from slavery could be held liable.

So the "Dream Team" has decided to go after the companies. However, the USA Today
article goes on to say, "..before broadening a tort case to a class-action lawsuit, reparations
advocates must find the descendant of a slave damaged by one of the defendants. Then they must
decide who qualifies as a slave descendant and who, in essence, is black."

Now this language is like "deja vue" for those who saw what happened to the Black
farmers in the class action lawsuit against the USDA. When accepted into the class, each Black
farmer had to find a "similarly situated white farmer" who had gotten the loans that he
was denied. He had to be very specific as to the "similarity" between himself and that
white farmer.

Class counsel, Alexander Pires who is on this "Dream Team", told Judge Friedman in 1998
that he would provide each "similarly situated white farmer" for each of the Black farmers
in the lawsuit. This would have been easy for him to do since he had access to USDA records that the
farmers did not have. Pires did not do what he told the judge and subsequently 40% of those who were
accepted into the class were denied. And now, Pires is "rewarded" by being at the right
place and the right time to have a major influence in another attempt at "reparations".

Now, how is the court to decide "who qualifies as a slave descendant"? Blacks in
America have mixed with every ethnic identity on the planet. One may only be related to a slave on
one side of the family. So what does that one get, 50% of the individual cash settlements? What will
one bring as proof of their "blackness", an old Bible or a genealogical chart? How about
having each applicant give some blood so that their DNA can be traced back to a slave ancestor? When
the government gets all of these DNA samples, what might they do with that information? Oh, well,
one can only speculate.(smile)

To top things off, the lawyers and activists on this "Reparations Dream Team" say
"…their work is likely to be done pro bono. By not charging, they hope to guard against
accusations they’re looking to get rich by conducting corporate shakedowns."

Now, when Al Pires and his band of lawyers went around the country pumping their Consent Decree,
they always told the farmers that "you all don’t have to pay us a dime." Well the
farmers did not pay Al Pires, but the farmers did not get paid themselves. Al Pires gave Judge
Friedman a bill for $38 million. Evidently, Mr. Pires was working for the government all the time,
because "he who pays the fiddler, calls the tune."

The Black farmers did not send Al Pires to court to get $50,000 worth of toilet paper with big
holes for the government to slip through. He was sent to protect the Black farmers land. Instead
Black farmers are still being foreclosed on and the media has looked the other way.

Who can we trust? In September of 2001 I attended the Congressional Black Caucus Weekend and
distributed a number of the "Snake in the Reparations’ Grass" video tapes. I gave a tape
to each Black member of the House Agricultural Committee. There was a forum on reparations which we
attended. At the end of that forum I gave a number of tapes to the panelists including Dr. Charles
Ogletree trying to warn them about Al Pires. Since Dr. Ogletree was responsible for selecting
members to this "Dream Team", we thought that he should be warned.

However, we found out at the "4th National Black Land Loss Conference" held in Atlanta
in February of this year that Dr. Ogletree had read the Pigford v. Glickman consent decree before
we, the Black farmers, got a copy. Judge Friedman used Dr. Ogletree’s endorsement of the document
as one of his reasons for accepting it.

The question now remains, did Dr. Ogletree approve the document because he trusted Al Pires or
did he know so little about agriculture that he could not interpret the language? In any case, this
causes great concern as to his ability to properly direct the development of strategy to achieve
real reparations for Black folk.

Now that the "snakes" are out of the woods and in the "reparations grass", we
might need a snake charmer or a good fat "stick" of truth to straighten them out. Before
40 million Black people get bitten by the same "snake" that bit the Black farmers, they had
better "ask somebody".

There are some that may argue that Dr. Ogletree and his "Dream Team" may not speak for
them or their organizations. However, when you are petitioning someone who has the power to accept
or reject your petition, that person or body determines who they will listen too, not you.
"Massa" always chose which set of slaves were his favorites and whom he would bestow his
favors upon. The dreams of the "house slaves" were not always in line with the "field
slaves", but guess whose dreams had the most weight with "massa"?

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

There is a lot of talk over the e-mail information highway about the statements made by Dr.
Ogletree at the "Where do we go from here?" event held in Philadelphia in February of this
year, 2002. It seems that Dr. Ogletree may be placing his select group of lawyers and intellectuals
as the "only" group to believe when it comes to reparations. Dr. Ogletree warned the
listeners to beware of "scam artists" and "reparations scams".

Now "isn’t that special"?

In December of 1998 and February of 1999 two members of Dr. Ogletree’s "Dream Team"
warned the Black farmers about this same type of thing. Attorney J.L. Chestnut told the Black
farmers to beware of "Johnny-come-latelies". On December 29, 1998, J.L. Chestnut addressed
a packed room of farmers and their families at an event sponsored by the Federation of Southern
Cooperatives in Albany, Ga. Fortunately, I video taped his presentation which can be seen in our
documentary, "Snake in the Reparations’ Grass".

In his presentation he said: "You have to use your head, use your heart and use your mind. I
understand some people, they been asking some of you to sign statements which supposedly will get
you more money in the lawsuit. And that paper turns out to be little more than trying to get you to
join some religious organization."

He further stated that "… all of you in this room know who has been in this case, made
this case possible and brought it to this point. You also know who wasn’t involved and all these
Johnny-come-latelies who have come out of the woodworks, now because they think farmers are going to
get some money and they want a part of that."

Mr. Chestnut was talking about this writer, Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min, who on behalf of the Black
Farmers and Agriculturists Association was going around Georgia getting farmers to join BFAA and
prepare to ride to Washington, DC on March 2, 1999 to protest the Consent Decree that Chestnut was
selling to the Black farmers. BFAA is not a religious organization, although the vast majority of
its members are Christians. In December of 1998, I was the only Muslim farmer that was a member of
BFAA, so I know that Chestnut was trying to play the "religious card". And it worked.

At that time I had signed up most of the farmers of the vegetable co-op that I was a member of in
southern Georgia. The leadership of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, who sponsored Chestnut’s
presentation in Albany, reportedly went back to the members of my co-op and advised them to quit
BFAA, which they did.

Now for those who do not know, it was BFAA that initially started the lawsuit and through then
Executive Director, Sam Taylor, retained Al Pires to represent Tim Pigford and the class back in
1997. So BFAA was not some "Johnny-come-lately", but actually is responsible for Al Pires
and his hired front men, such as J.L. Chestnut, being involved.

On February 13, 1999 J.L. Chestnut came back to Albany to sell the Black farmers on this
"Consent Decree". This time he brought along Al Pires, U.S. House Representative Sanford
Bishop and one of Georgia’s Black House Representatives who was also a farmer. State Senator James
admonished the Black farmers for not "trusting these people" (Al Pires and J.L. Chestnut).
Al Pires told these farmers that the "system" would work. The farmers would need to show a
minimal amount of information to qualify for the $50,000 and that he guaranteed that "99.9% of
the people would get approved."

However, Tim Pigford, the lead plaintiff, did not believe Al Pires and testified at the Fairness
Hearing on March 2,1999 that he wanted the Judge, Paul Friedman, to throw out the Consent Decree
bearing his name. However, Ralph Page, the President of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives,
stood before Judge Friedman with his sidekick, Rev. Joseph Lowery, asking the judge on that same day
to "Amend it, don’t end it."

Judge Friedman agreed to "amend it" according to many of the complaints brought forward
by the farmers themselves. However, Al Pires refused to "amend it", so it was signed by
Judge Friedman in April over the objections of the majority of Black farmers who had read the
Consent Decree, including all of the six lead plaintiffs.

To be honest, the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit should not even be called such because, the lead
plaintiff, Tim Pigford, opted out of this so-called Consent Decree and went through the USDA
Administrative complaint process. Forty percent of the applicants in the lawsuit were denied the
$50,000. Most of the "real" farmers were denied and now the USDA is trying to foreclose on
their land. The monetary awards were doled out in such a way as to insure that the farmers could not
organize their individual awards to be used as financial leverage for joint undertakings.

Furthermore, the FBI and IRS are harassing those that did get the $50,000, while Al Pires stands
to get $38 million for his services to the government. By this process, the Black farmers have
signed away their rights to ever put the USDA on trial. A better name for the Pigford v. Glickman
Consent Decree would be the "Pires & Glickman Consent Scam".

Since Al Pires and J.L. Chestnut are on this so-called "Reparations Dream Team", Dr.
Ogletree and others should beware when the masters of scam come claiming to cast out scams.
Unfortunately, there may be a sequel to the Black farmers’ demise, maybe something like, "How
40 Million Black People Got Took".

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

"No, that won’t work! You just don’t get it. We are at war!" I blurted out this
statement in response to a statement by a young lady in the audience who had suggested to a farmer
that he seek "venture capital" funds to develop a processing facility for his co-op.

One of the Black farmers who runs a farmer co-op, had just given a presentation at the 7^th
National Black Land Loss Summit held on February 19, 2005 at the Franklinton Center near Tillery, NC
on how his co-op was faring even with a contract with a large hotel chain. He told us that he needed
other markets that he had more control over, because they could not afford for this hotel chain to
be their primary market.

Specifically he stated how they had sent up a load of produce that he knew was grade
"A". However, when the truck arrived at the central warehouse for this hotel chain, it was
turned away, supposedly because it was of inferior grade. The co-op was luckily able to divert that
shipment to another buyer, but he found out later that the hotel’s purchaser had over ordered and
to hide the fact, turned back good products from his co-op because they lacked market power.

In other words, although this chain agreed to purchase from the co-op, the unwritten rule in the
industry is that if you over order, you turn back products from your newest and smallest supplier so
as not to upset your larger historical suppliers. Therefore, so as not to be sued you subjectively
lower the grade of the product. Since food products are highly perishable, there would be no
evidence for the victim to show in court as to the quality on the day of delivery.

This farmer therefore advocated the position that Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association
(BFAA) and we at Muhammad Farms take and that is, the Black farmer must control the product
"from the land to the man". We must develop independent markets with our "city
cousins" that would not play these purchasing games because they had our best interest in mind.
We as Black farmers would also have our "city cousins" best interests in mind and would
insure that we do not put any harmful chemicals on our produce or in our farm animals.

To set up such a processing and distribution system requires money. This is when the lady from
the audience made the comment about seeking "venture capital". This was at the end of a
long day of workshops where the issue of losing control of your farm operation and even your
personal life came about by borrowing money from the USDA.

We had talked about how our uneducated ancestors 45 years up from slavery had bought over 16
million acres of land by 1910 without borrowing money from the government or "venture
capitalists". However, it took the recent generation of college educated farm advisors to
convince Black farmers to "leverage their assets", the land, to eventually lose it to the
children of their former slave masters through foreclosures and tax sales.

One such victim of the USDA’s lending practices is Mr. Leroy Harvey. Mr. Harvey is eighty-nine
years old, a life-long farmer, who has accumulated several tracts of land totaling 300 acres.
Despite his age, he is forced to continue farming to maintain his land and home. Due to the
devastating effects of Hurricane Hazel, Mr. Harvey, like many other farmers in his position, took
out a loan with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to save his farm. Even though the
value of the property may far exceed the amount of the loan, all assets immediately become
collateral for the loan repayment. This is the case with Mr. Harvey. Furthermore, the USDA is now
garnishing his deceased wife’s retirement pension which had nothing to do with his original loan.

"Venture capital" sounds high tech and progressive, but the Honorable Elijah Muhammad
has taught us that "history rewards all research." Let us go to the text book definition
of "venture capital" first. According to http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/business/cmbor/glossary.phtml

"Venture capital: Equity finance in an unquoted, and usually quite young, company to enable
it to start up, expand or restructure its operations entirely. It’s cheaper than bank finance
initially because paying dividends can be deferred; it also provides a strategic partner – but it
implies handing over some control, a share of earnings and decisions over future sales."

Now let’s break this definition down. It talks about this capital being "cheaper…initially"
but results in handing over "some control", "share of earnings" and
"decisions". Now these are the same conditions that Black farmers are trying to get out
from under with the USDA. The USDA loan funds were cheaper than the bank rates initially. However,
USDA officials on the local level began to micro-manage the Black farm borrower out of business,
then sell off the farm to friends and relatives of the USDA loan officer. So why should the farmers
trade off one "massa" for another.

Furthermore, the history of venture capitalism reveals that this was the "brain child"
of a few very rich families who did not have any new ideas to invest in. So they looked around for
creativity and genius, funded those ideas in exchange for an equity position in the new emerging
firm. In other words, they looked for talent, gave them the money in exchange for up to 75%
ownership and control.

The venture capitalists’ goal is to fund new and emerging technologies while they are still too
risky for other sources of finance. Once this new product or service goes big, it then offers stock
on the stock market. The venture capitalists cash in on the initial public offering (IPO) on the
stock exchanges and get "filthier rich". If the venture does not make it, well they just
print some more money, and lend it to the government. These same wealthy families own the Federal
Reserve System that prints the money and finances the US government. These international banking
families pull this same stunt all over the world.

Do you know the "magic" of compound interest? One hundred dollars ($100) loaned out at
6% compounded annually for 100 years, grows to be $35,000 (thirty five thousand dollars). So these
money lenders and moneychangers have amassed so much wealth that they buy ideas, people and
countries.

If we are to build an alternative production, processing and distribution system that gets around
the present system controlled by these same families, we must do it ourselves. The rich only invest
to own, not liberate.

Please support the Three Year Economic Savings Program and BFAA so that we can continue to
develop such a system for Black farmers and our "city cousins", so that we might "Eat
to Live".

Listening won’t grow food and the USDA is not giving back any of the blood that it sucked from
Black farmers even though they were caught in the act of sucking. The Black farmers descended on the
nation’s capital Monday, February 28th once again seeking justice through the courts, this time at
the Federal Court of Appeals. Attorney David Schnorrenberg speaking on behalf of Black Farmers and
Agriculturists Association (BFAA), which brought along 75 farmers from 12 states and other farmers
being denied benefits under the Pigford vs Glickman lawsuit pointed out the fallacies in an
agreement that allows the government to default on payments and priority loans for farmers who
qualified under the Consent Decree.

Al Pires had convinced the Judge that the hurdles would be low enough in this Consent Decree to
allow 80 to 90 percent of the farmers that did apply to win the $50,000, instead the hurdles have
allowed through only 60 percent and the process has been delayed into another growing season for
another 10,000 applicants.

To defend the present lawsuit stood Al Pires the head attorney for the Black farmers who pleaded
to the court to not listen to Attorney Schnorrenberg, because he, Al Pires, had lost three years of
his life helping Black farmers. This is the same Al Pires, according to Melvin Bishop, the President
of the Georgia chapter of BFAA, who called the president of Ft.Valley State University to demand
that the Black farmers not be allowed to use meeting rooms on campus. The farmers were organizing to
protest the wording of the Consent Decree tendered on November 3, 1998. The farmers knew then that
this document was not in their favor.

The farmers did organize and they did go to the Fairness Hearing in March of 1999. Judge Freedman
even agreed with the changes that the farmers demanded, however the farmers’ own lawyers did not
want to change one line in this piece of junk sold to the American public by the media as the
"Second Coming". This Consent Decree is proving to be the "Second Drumming" of
the Black Farmers. But where is the audience? The farmers can not find the press. Could this be an
item that may embarrass the Democratic party in a major election year?

Bro. Barry Crumbley, the New York representative for BFAA, was in line to ask Al Gore a question
about the Black farmers at the "debate" at the Apollo two weeks ago. After one of the
commentators read the gist of his question, Bro. Barry was taken out of line and not allowed to
speak. There goes your "freedom of speech".

Al Pires was invited to be a part of the lawsuit, not by the farmers, but by the black
representative that the six lead plaintiffs asked to pursue their grievance. Soon Al Pires became
the lead lawyer and that same representative, Sam Taylor has been kicked to the curb by Al Pires.

This is the same Al Pires who told the Black farmers that all they needed to win the $50,000 was
to be black and farming between 1981 and 1996, but instead Black farmers are being denied
arbitrarily and capriciously as though the Consent Decree was a ticket to a lottery. This is the
same Al Pires who told the court and the farmers that the average debt relief for those filing under
the Track A provision would be $107, 500 but has turned out to be only $17,500.

Now Al Pires is taking this same document to use against the Native Americans under the guise of
being their friend. Al Pires is not another Kunstler. I wonder if you can sue your lawyer for
malpractice? This is a question that Phil Haney asked. Now Mr. Haney has a right to ask such a tough
question, because he was the Black farmer who had a gun pulled on him by a FSA agent of the USDA in
Virginia. The agent is still working and Al Pires is still getting paid and his "clients"
are still getting shafted. The real question is not "can you sue your lawyers, but who will
break with tradition and sue another lawyer?"

The farmers left the court house and met in the Rayburn building before going to the USDA
building. Tom Burrell, a farmer from Tennessee, stated that, "…relatives of FSA employees
were being used as adjudicators in this lawsuit." It is the adjudicators and not the judge who
are determining whether farmers have a right to monetary relief.

Stephon Bowens, a lawyer from the Land Loss Prevention Project, told the farmers that
"…the government is using the Privacy Act to bar disclosure of information that might help a
Black farmer win his case while bringing forth documentation that the local FSA offices said did not
exist to attempt to disqualify others." He further added that "…the government lawyers
were filing motions to dismiss and the adjudicators are accepting. This was not a part of the
Consent Decree." Further, he stated, "the adjudicators are asking the USDA how much of the
debt owed by the farmers should be forgiven, whereas it says in the Consent Decree that ‘all’
USDA debt was to be forgiven."

Many farmers asked "have the lawyers been paid?" The answer was given as
"yes".

A monitor was finally put in place on March 1, 2000, nine months too late. She is white, while 8
Blacks were nominated to the Judge. However, BFAA is asking that the farmers flood her office with
"complaints so high that they finally reach Clinton and Gore." Her name is Randy Roth and
her number is (877) 924-7483

At the USDA building they were met by security guards who told them that they had to have an
invitation before they could get in. Finally they were invited by two of Glickman’s front people
who could not tell the farmers if Glickman was in the building or on Mars. As a matter of fact,
neither Ms. Rosylin Gray, Director of the Civil Rights Division of the USDA, nor Mr. Paul Fiddick,
Assistant Secretary-Administration, had much to say. They just listened as the farmers questioned
them about why the USDA is denying 40% of the Black farmers benefits under the lawsuit.

Wayne Alexander, a farmer from Kansas asked that the USDA "…to put a moratorium on all
pending foreclosures until all appeals are made."

Eddie Slaughter, Vice-president of BFAA, asked that the USDA stop "…taking off set
payments from the farmers in the lawsuit while at the same time denying these farmers the $50,000.
They are taking money that is due to these farmers, so the $50,000 is a sham. Out of the $6.8
billion in disaster payments for 1999, no Black farmers in the lawsuit have received payments."

Gary Grant, the President of BFAA, summed up the farmers demand by stating that "…the USDA
stop all foreclosure procedures, stop taking off set payments on taxes, disaster payments and CRP
payments and stop hiding evidence that would help Black farmers win their cases."

Mr. Fiddick explained that he had been on the job for only three months and did not know what
powers he had or what he could do about anything. He was there to just listen. Mr. Haney suggested
that Mr. Fiddick could begin his duties by firing Ms. Rosylin Gray. Mr. Fiddick hemmed and hawed
about standard procedures and chain of command, etc. Dr. Ridgely broke in and asked, "Straight
up, do you have the power to fire Ms. Gray, yes or no? Yes or no, answer the question." Mr.
Fiddick retorted by saying that he preferred not to answer that question directly.

On that note Dr. Ridgely asked him to listen very carefully and deliver a message to Dan Glickman
for Al Gore. "Since you can just listen, then pass this on. If Dan Glickman ain’t cleaned up
this mess with the Black farmers, that is give them their money, then he can tell Al Gore that he
will not be president of these United States. See you next Monday and bring Dan with you."

Today is Friday, March 3, 2000. Back in February, Rep. Sanford Bishop announced at a Black
farmers’ conference that Al Gore would be campaigning in Albany on March 3rd. However, according
to the news room at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Al Gore will not be going to Albany but
instead is attending a dinner at the Hyatt Regency where no questions are scheduled to be asked. It
seems that BFAA has Al Gore on the run. Run Al, run.

On Monday, March 6, 2000 BFAA is spearheading along with 10 other organizations a protest on the
Jefferson Street side of the USDA against this Consent Decree and the continued discrimination by
the USDA against Black farmers. For more information call Mr. Grant at (252) 826-2800 or e-mail:
TILLERY@aol.com.

Thank You.

by Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad

"Maybe it’s the famous Senate bean soup," opined Jacob Weisberg in his Slate magazine
article "Why Strom Won’t Die" on Tuesday, March 13, 2001. Although it was a "tongue
in cheek" explanation for the longevity of such Senate relics as Strom Thurmond and Jesse
Helms, the irony is not lost on this writer in light of Bill Moyer’s recent expose on the Chemical
Industry entitled "Trade Secrets".

In "Trade Secrets" Mr. Moyer points out that the "chemical revolution"
brought new products and new cancer causing agents that the Chemical Industry knew of decades ago
but artfully covered up. These harmful chemicals are in the food, water and air and now all mixed up
in us. There is a revolving door between the chemical industries and the government agencies that
are supposed to regulate the safety of their products.

The Black farmers have been put out of business and this government has no intention to put or
let them back in. As I stated in an earlier articles on our site (The Farmer Newsletter),
this government has withheld evidence that could help the Black farmers in their fight for justice
and now we have absolute proof of that.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the USDA on December 1, 1994 commissioned a Black consulting
firm, D.J. Miller & Associates (DJMA) to do a "Disparity Study" to determine if there
was "disparity between White males and minorities and females in program participation,
representation on the County Committees, results of appeals, and assignment of program
payments." The report was completed on March 4, 1996 but did not see the light of day until
last week, March 19, 2001, five years later.

The report was denied by the USDA to exist as the Black farmers pursued a lawsuit against the
USDA. Without the evidence that this report could have produced the farmers and their lawyers were
left with trying to prove discrimination without hard statistical evidence. The lawsuit process led
to a settlement out of court which did not include admission by the USDA that it had discriminated
against Black farmers. Therefore each member of the "class" had to prove discrimination
all over again without the benefits of the D.J. Miller report or the power of discovery which would
have allowed them to go into USDA records on "similarly situated white farmers" to show
disparity in treatment.

The 700+ pages DJMA Disparity Study stated, "This report establishes that, based on direct
FSA data sources, minority and female farmers generally face disparities in participation in FSA
programs and processes…Black farmers in the FSA Southeast Area states, in particular, are faced
with the most striking disparities." Now that the lawsuit is basically over and nearly 40% of
those who applied for the lawsuit have been denied and the monitor for the lawsuit has admitted that
the appeal process will not help most of those denied, here comes this report out of the dark closet
of our government. The Republicans will probably blame the Democrats for withholding the evidence.
However, the study was done using data from 1990 to 1995 in which the Republicans held executive
power for 1990 through 1992 and the Democrats for 1993 through 1995. The Civil Rights Division of
the USDA was eliminated in 1983 under President Reagan, Republican. In other words, discrimination
was a "bipartisan effort".

Now we find that the chemical companies have lied, the Senate has been eating "navy bean
soup" to live longer since the early 1900’s, while the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his
followers have been laughed at for their bean soup and bean pies and accused of being paranoid, when
they teach that the so-called white man is an open enemy to Black people. By the way, a recent FOX
t.v. report has exposed that the "moon landing" was also a hoax, which the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad had argued years ago.

This western world has not only told lies about what to eat and how to eat, they have even
tricked cows into being cannibals by sneaking cow brains into their diet resulting in "Mad
Cows" disease. They have destroyed Black people’s ability to feed themselves by destroying
the Black farm industry and lied about it all along, while the Jesse Helms of this world have set up
fast foods franchises like, "Heart Disease", "MacDeath", "Murder
King", "Sintucky Fried Chicken", "Taco Hell" and "Wind Dies".

One day we may wind up hitting the wall of the reality of "universal laws" as the
"gremlins" of this world say "OOPS! You should have followed the Messenger."

By Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad

On a beautiful sunny day in the capital of the United States 12
Black farmers were put in jail. Their crime? They wanted to ask Sec. Dan
Glickman “why won’t he live up to the provisions of the Consent
Decree?” The previous week a group of Black farmers came to the USDA to
talk with Glickman, however they were only allowed to speak to two underlings.
The farmers told them that they were going to return on March 6^th to
speak with Glickman, only.

However, when the Black farmers returned at 10:00 A.M. on
Monday, they were even denied access to the building and forced to stay on the
sidewalk in front of the USDA building denied of their right to enter a public
facility where visitors were supposedly welcomed. After picketing on the
sidewalk and demanding to talk to Glickman for over an hour, twelve black
farmers peacefully approached the front door to enter. The door was not locked
but six security guards held the door closed. After fifteen minutes of
attempting to enter the building, Black farmers were warned that they would be
arrested if they did not stop trying to enter the building. Subsequently, the
Black farmers sat down and waited to be handcuffed and taken to jail charged
with blocking an entrance to a public facility.

One of the farmers, Mr. Tom Burrell called all the major
networks –CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX–to tell them that the Black farmers were
going to the USDA on Monday. However, there were no cameras their to show the
people the price of seeking justice from the USDA. It seems that innocent black
men being carted off to jail is “old news” in America. The only live
coverage was through a cellular phone hook up to the Tom Pope Show, a syndicated
talk show in D.C.

The Black farmers that went to jail were Gary Grant, national
president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association (BFAA), Mr.
Griffin Todd, Sr. from North Carolina; Morris James, Eddie Slaughter, Ridgely
Muhammad, Charles Denard and Dennis Moore from Georgia; Lloyd Shaffer from
Mississippi; Richard Jackson, Marrin Sanderlin and Fred Sanders from Tennessee;
and Alton Jarrett from Florida.

While in the Washington, D.C. jail we were able to interview
some of them to ask them why they were willing to go to jail.

Mr. Alton Jarrett said, “I am disappointed at the
government of the United States of America. I was sure that they were not for
Blacks but I didn’t know that they would treat us this badly. We need
help.”

“My name is Richard Jackson. I am a farmer, my father was a
farmer, my grandfather was a farmer. They were mistreated for many years. I am
here to represent them and I will die representing them.”

“I am Dennis Moore. I’ve been a farmer for quite a while
and this government has denied me loans based on my color. I came to Washington,
D.C. to protest and I will come back as long as they don’t give us
justice.”

Eddie Slaughter said, “I’m sitting here in the
Washington, D.C. jail and I’m trying to really comprehend what is going on.
But all America means to me is jail, because as a black farmer when people do me
an injustice they don’t go to jail but when I try to get justice I wind up in
jail.”

“My name is Lloyd Shaffer. I am one of the lead plaintiffs
in this case and I heard with my own ears, Al Pires, the lead lawyer in the
Pigford vs Glickman lawsuit, say on Wednesday that ‘he wished that he would
never have another black farmer step into his office, never have to hear another
black farmer’s case’ Al Pires is not fighting for us but for himself.”

Mr. Morris James had to be taken from the police van and rushed
to the hospital after collapsing. The driver of the police van turned the heat
up too high causing great discomfort to all of us. We complained, but by the
time they responded to our pleas, Mr. James fail victim to the heat and lack of
air. All we could do was to beg for help. We were handcuffed and locked down.

After a precarious wait an ambulance finally came but the police
would not tell us which hospital he was taken to. Even after someone posted bail
for us, they still would not give us his location. He was finally released
around 5:00 p.m. Mr. James said that, “when I finally came to, I was a
little disappointed that no one from the group was with me. The police made it a
point to ask me where were my supporters. After I got back with my group and I
found out that the police kept my location secret I was even angrier. I wished
that nobody had posted bail. I wouldn’t mind staying in jail for weeks if
necessary. Now I have a mind to sue this government again for how they treated
us and me up here. That was a public building and we at least have a right to go
to the bathroom.”

Gary Grant, the president of BFAA, said from his cell,
“this is just the beginning, so Dan Glickman, Al Gore and Bill Clinton had
better get used to seeing more of us in jail, if they do not intend to give us
justice and our land back. My family has been fighting this battle for 24 years.
My father is sick. My brother is sick, and I am tired. But we’ll be back on
March 20^th and back and back….Tell the people out there to call Dan
Glickman and give him hell. ((202)720-3631) Call Rep. Goodlatte too (chairman of
House Ag Committee-(202) 225-0171).”

“My name is Mr. Griffin Todd, Sr. born in North Carolina,
72 years old, never been locked up in my life, father of seven children. All of
them law abiding citizens. They have never been locked up. Most all of them have
been to college. They are hard workers. We black farmers have been treated just
like black dogs. And I want the whole world to know that. I never been locked up
before and I don’t mind being locked up when I know that I am doing right.
That’s all I’ve got to say.”

For more information on the March 20th plans contact Gary Grant
at (252) 826-2800 or email: TILLERY@aol.com.

Out of jail, but still in the “Middle Passage”, peace,
Doc.

Click Below for Pictures

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

Some of Georgia’s sweet watermelons will be coming off of Muhammad Farms starting June28th. In
the meantime the "Watermelon Capital Queen" was chosen on June 22nd in Cordele, Georgia,
the 19 year home of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Now here is some irony for you. In the June 21st edition of the Cordele Dispatch pictures of the
74 contestants (all White) for Watermelon Capital Queen were displayed is section B, while the front
page ran an article entitled "Truck attack investigation continues". It seems that on the
previous Sunday two trucks carrying watermelons were attacked at the corner of Joe Wright Drive and
22nd Avenue in Cordele. According to the article people were drinking, dancing in the streets and
congregating up and down Joe Wright Drive when these two trucks passed through at about midnight.

During watermelon season it is quite common to see people walking up and down this same street
day and night as the watermelon trucks carry their loads from the farms up to the State Farmer’s
Market at the end of Joe Wright Drive. In the past money would be flowing in this predominantly
Black but poor neighborhood as local farm workers spent their watermelon harvesting wages. Many
"ladies of the night" could be seen walking up and down the streets provocatively attired
to attract the men who had just got paid for their labor or who had just sold a load of watermelons
in the "Watermelon Capital of the World", Cordele.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad lived in Cordele for 19 years from the age of three years old. The
corner where this "attack" occurred was the former sight of the Holsey-Cobb Institute
where young Elijah attended school up until the third grade. This corner is now flanked by the
Sunset Homes Housing Project which looks more like a concentration camp because of the barbed wire
fence which partially surrounds it. But why attack watermelon trucks?

According to the World Book Encyclopedia, watermelons were first grown in Africa. Georgia is
famous for its sweet watermelons. In the past these melons were raised by many Black farmers whose
numbers have steadily declined due to collusion of racist whites and the USDA. As Black farmers were
moved off of their own land, many found employment on the large farms and plantations that grew on
top of the land that they once owned. "Massa" would allow his best workers to use corners
of his fields that were too small to be planted with his large agricultural equipment. Many of these
small plots were then used to grow watermelons.

So when the watermelon season arrived, these Black men had extra money, above their meager
plantation wages, which was indeed cause for celebration. But now mainline Cordele has its own
"Watermelon Festival", all White, while Black people are still relegated to the night. But
what is worse, Mexicans, run out of Mexico due to NAFTA, are bringing in watermelons from Florida to
predominate the Cordele State Farmer’s Market. Large white farmers are setting up their own
packing sheds so that the major watermelon buyers don’t even pass through the farmer’s market.
Mexicans are taking over the field work on the large farms while Black workers are being
"locked out" of the fields.

Today if you want to sling watermelons you must be hired by a "certified" field
foreman. Ostensibly this certification process and the issuance of a "badge" was to insure
that all the immigrant workers were "legal". However, what it has effectively done is to
eliminate yet another source of employment for the local Black and poor populations of Cordele.

So the Watermelon Queen is White. The watermelon producers are White. The watermelon pickers are
Mexicans and the Black people just sit and watch behind barbed wire fences. No wonder that
watermelon trucks were attacked.

All of this is happening right under our noses. Black people first lose the land, then lose the
farm jobs, get herded into the cities and put behind fences. For the few Black farmers that are
left, the "market" has told them to switch watermelon varieties from the traditional Black
Diamonds, Charleston Greys, Jubilees and Crimson Sweets to Sangria. Supposedly the
"Sangria" watermelons ship better and look pretty when sliced, always a deep red color
inside. However, these melons do not taste any sweeter but their hybridized seeds cost four times
what the traditional varieties cost.

I have seen Black farmers come in to the Cordele market with their Black Diamonds, Jubilees or
Crimson Sweets and just sit their while Mexicans with a load of Sangria grown in Florida sell out
and head back to Florida for another load. So now the Black farmers have to spend more money to
compete, while the larger white farmers still grow the older varieties, by-pass the Cordele farmer’s
market and ship directly to the large supermarket chains.

Muhammad Farms occupies the site where the Honorable Elijah Muhammad raised watermelons to ship
across the country in the Nation’s own fleet of trucks back in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
As a college student and young member of the Nation of Islam back in the 70’s, I would sell these
sweet Georgia melons door to door in Winston-Salem, N.C. Now I am the manager of Muhammad Farms and
we grow these same sweet Black Diamonds, Jubilees, All Sweets and Crimson Sweets so that you can
have a sample of what a "real" melon should taste like. I don’t mean to brag but we have
been told that our watermelons are sweet, real sweet. We even grew some Sangrias so that we could
make the taste comparison.

When you buy one of the watermelons from Muhammad Farms, we can guarantee that they will be
sweet, raised and harvested by Black hands and will not be filled with harmful chemicals. On the
other hand you can go to your local supermarket and take a chance on something that looks like a
watermelon. Have a nice summer.

If you want sweetness to go along with your summer, contact Muhammad Farms at (229)995-6619 or
visit our website at www.MuhammadFarms.com.

Peace, Doc