Black Farmers Demand an End to Discrimination, Senate Stalls Bill

NEW YORK—With a mule by his side, John W. Boyd, Jr., founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, demanded that Congress release immediate measures to support black American farmers at a press conference held Tuesday, Sept. 7, in Foley Square, near the New York County Supreme Court building.

In August, Republicans voted against a unanimous Democratic agreement, and the U.S. Senate failed to approve the $1.25 billion proposed by the Obama administration as a settlement between black farmers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The bill, passed in February 2010, aimed to provide compensation for black farmers whose loan applications to the federal government were denied due to their race. The settlement came under Pigford II, a 2008 agreement sponsored by President Obama, then a senator, to reconcile a lawsuit filed against the USDA by black farmer Timothy Pigford more than a decade ago.

As a fourth-generation farmer himself, Boyd recognized black farmers as the most direct victims of racial discrimination in American history. The number of cases of land loss experienced by black farmers is at least three times higher than any other race in the United States. To date, 9,000 black farmers who could qualify for loan programs and benefits of the agreement are still waiting for the funding to be released.

Boyd criticized the political dispute between the Republicans and Democrats that has resulted in black farmers being subjected to endless waiting as well as land loss and foreclosures. He urged immediate funding and demanded a closure vote by the Senate as an effort to push practical measures forward.

“We have all the senators saying that we are in an agreement to pay the black farmers. But instead of doing the right thing and compensating the black farmers, they are playing politics with the lives of black farmers,” said Boyd at the press conference.

“I am so tired of going to funerals with black farmers dying and having to look at the family members,” he said.

Having traveled to southern states before the press conference in New York, Boyd and the NBFA plan to head to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to meet members of the Senate and continue to raise awareness on the issue.