6-year-old Kendall Rae Johnson is making history as Georgia's youngest certified farmer.
(AP) — Decades-old claims from African American farmers and native Americans that the government mistreated and swindled them out of billions of dollars can finally be settled starting Wednesday. President Barack Obama is set to sign the bill authorizing payment of $4.6 billion to settle claims that arose in class-action lawsuits. The White House said […]
(The Hill) — Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are complaining that legislation funding a settlement for discrimination against black farmers sets too high a bar for claimants. The lawmakers argue language added by the Senate, which is meant to prevent fraud in the program, sets higher standards for proving a claim than were […]
(New York Times) — The House has given final Congressional approval to a bill that would provide more than $4.55 billion to settle tens of thousands of longstanding claims brought by African Americans farmers and American Indians. The bill provides $1.15 billion to African Americans left out of a 1999 settlement of a lawsuit, Pigford […]
They'd been fighting discriminatory lending in federal farm lending programs for years.
(AOL Black Voices) — The U.S. Senate has been criticized for dragging its feet on the compensation for black farmers in the famous Pigford Discrimination case. The case was supposedly settled between an alliance of black farmers and Tom Vilsack, the United States Secretary of Agriculture. The Obama Administration has promised an extra $1.25 billion to […]
(News One) — President Obama said today that funding the Pigford II settlement is a “priority” for his administration. During his press conference, Obama was asked about the $1.25 billion settlement for African-American farmers who were discriminated against by the USDA for decades. The funding for the settlement been delayed in Congress for seven months. April […]
(AOL Black Voices) — Apparently, the votes of white farmers in a key state trump the USDA’s settlement of long-standing discrimination complaints — especially in an election year. The ire that black farmers and their advocates are currently feeling has two targets: the Senate’s failure to vote the money to complete the farmers’ settlement with the […]
Resources to assist Black farmers still not dispersed
Black farmers continue to struggle for land, justice and rights.
(HuffingtonPost.com) — On April 11, a man named John M. Bonner, of the small town Dinwiddie, Virginia, passed away. He was 87 years old. A pioneer of the Black Farmers’ Movement, which fought for equal treatment in rural county agriculture offices, farming was Bonner’s lifelong passion. He was also one of thousands of plaintiffs in […]
(CNN) — African-American farmers hoping for government settlement money in a racial bias case met with lawmakers Wednesday and called on Congress to come up with a way to fund the $1 billion deal. A March 31 deadline to appropriate the funds has passed, and farmers now may withdraw from the settlement and pursue independent […]