National Black Farmers Assoc Pres John Boyd
LAWSUIT WON. MONEY HELD UP. Few issues have continued year after year after year as the issue of allocating settlement cash for black farmers. The farmers won a discrimination suit back in 1999 after proving white farmers were routinely receiving loans and assistance from the US Department of Agriculture that black farmers were not. Last month, this happened:
Back on February 18, 2010, Paul Courson wrote for CNN: “In a conference telephone call with reporters, (Secretary of Agriculture) Vilsack said racial bias unquestionably took place in his agency over many years. He gave an example of two farmers, one white, one black, applying for a farm loan with an office of the USDA.
The white farmer’s application “was processed rapidly, it was approved, and resources were quickly available to enable him to put a crop in,” Vilsack said. The application from the black farmer “was denied without due diligence on whether he had the capacity to repay, or else he or she was strung out over such a long period of time that they couldn’t put in a crop,” Vilsack said.”
