A Settlement Approaching for Black Farmers

Enfield, N.C. — It was an emotional day at the Halifax County courthouse. Despite protest from a family, more than 145 acres of land were sold Wednesday at a foreclosure auction.

Roland Hardy, who died earlier this year, had owned the land.

"Why are we here selling my father's property?” daughter Virginia Dade asked during Wednesday's foreclosure auction.

Hardy's daughter said the bank had no right to sell the land or the home where her mother still lived.

“We're here to prove that this an illegal foreclosure,” Dade said.

East Carolina Farm Credit claimed the Hardy's borrowed nearly $48,000 in 1996 for a tobacco buyout loan, then defaulted. The Halifax County court agreed and ordered a foreclosure to satisfy the debt.

“We want justification for all the loans that they are assessing my father has,” Dade said.

The Dade family said they have paperwork to prove the loan was paid off over eight years ago. They, along with a representative from the National Black Farmer's Association, asked for more time to work out the problem with the bank.

“We are here to protest this sale. This is an unlawful and horrible thing to do to a group of people,” John Boyd, with the National Black Farmer's Association, said.

Despite the courthouse protest, the auction went forward and the Hardy property was sold.

“We are going to protest this. We are going to the office of the inspector general,” Dade said.

The court can continue to accept higher bids for the farm over the next 10 days. If no one else bids higher, the person that bought the property Wednesday will be the new owner. 

Dade said her family is not giving up on trying to keep the farm.