Black farmers say they're tired of waiting,
At D.C. rally, they demand action, saying Congress broke pledge

BY PETER HARDIN, TIMES-DISPATCH WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

Apr 27, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Seven years after one of the largest civil-rights settlements in history, scores of black farmers rallied yesterday to seek relief from Congress over past discrimination.

When a federal judge signed the settlement in 1999 between black farmers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he condemned decades of discrimination at the agency.

Despite subsequent payments of more than $900 million, many farmers say they're still seeking justice because they were shut out of the settlement or because their claims still haven't been decided.

Their frustration boiling over at times, an estimated 150 black farmers and family members rallied on the National Mall, a covered wagon and mules named Struggle and Forty Acres as their props. It was a decade since their first demonstration in Washington.

Their leaders called yesterday for full restitution under the settlement and asked for action by Congress to allow consideration of claims by tens of thousands of farmers who filed late.

"We're tired. We're worn out. We're in dire straits," John W. Boyd Jr. of Baskerville, Va., president of the National Black Farmers Association, said from a flatbed trailer with the Capitol Dome shining in the distant background.

"We're asking for Congress to do what they said they would do," Boyd added. He contended that Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, chairman of a key subcommittee, "went back on his word" and "has really let down the black farmers."

"We do think Congress has failed us," said Gary Grant of Tillery, N.C., president of another group, the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association Inc.

Grant worked to fire up the crowd with a chant referring to the USDA: "Hey, hey, ho, ho, the last plantation has got to go." The department has taken steps in recent years to eliminate discrimination, although it hasn't satisfied its harshest critics.

Chabot is the chairman of a House judiciary subcommittee that held hearings in 2004 and early 2005 on implementation of the civil-rights settlement between black farmers and the USDA. Many farmers who filed late claims said they hadn't heard promptly about the settlement, and Chabot pledged to work for a legislative fix. "I am optimistic this problem is finally getting the attention it is due," he told the Cincinnati Enquirer after a field hearing in February 2005.

Chabot "is working to build a consensus on the scope of the legislation," Todd Lindgren, his spokesman, said yesterday. "I still anticipate that legislation will be introduced this year."

Chabot plans to hold a hearing soon on a Government Accountability Office report made public this month, the aide said.

That report said more than 71,000 farmers tried to file late under the settlement and weren't considered for payments. Of about 22,400 claims decided by January of this year, 14,300, or 64 percent, were approved for payments and benefits.

Perhaps one-third of the farmers and family members at yesterday's rally came from Virginia.

Calvin King of Henrico County, who farms in Lunenburg and Mecklenburg counties, submitted his claim on time in June 1999; it dealt with discrimination in the early 1980s.

At first it was rejected, King said yesterday, but a court-appointed monitor did a review and found favorably for King last year, directing a final determination by another official. But King still has not gotten a final answer.

"Soon it will be seven years," King said. "Seven years should not have to pass!"

Richard E. Pearson of Brunswick County farms about 200 acres, primarily in tobacco and soybeans, and has a master's degree in agriculture from Virginia State University. He's seeking compensation for discrimination he said began in the 1980s, over loans to expand his operation. He has followed an administrative route -- outside the court settlement -- and said it has been stalemated for three years.

"I want to have my say, on my day at the bargaining table," he said.

Pearson owns funeral and dry-cleaning businesses. "I'm fortunate because I still have my farm," he said, unlike a number of black farmers who faced foreclosure proceedings.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., spoke at the rally to express support for the farmers.