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The news media have recently discovered a big story that has been around since January 1999, when the Washington Post reported that the government had agreed to a consent decree in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Department of Agriculture by black farmers seeking compensation for discrimination they allegedly suffered when they applied for government farm loans. When the government signed the consent decree to allow the case to go forward, it was expected that about 2,500 plaintiffs would join in the suit. By the closing date of October 1999, over 20,000 had joined, and to date 21,325 cases have...

President Barack Obama on Thursday applauded a settlement reached with black farmers who claimed the Agriculture Department had unfairly denied them assistance. The department will create a $1.25 billion fund to compensate the farmers, the AP reported. The package, if approved by Congress, would go to people denied payments. “My Administration is dedicated to ensuring that federal agencies treat all our citizens fairly, and the settlement in the Pigford case reflects that commitment,” Obama said in a statement, referring to the lawsuit. “I applaud Secretary Vilsack for his efforts to modernize operations at the USDA, as well as the work...

After rallying across the South last week, black farmers plan to be in Washington, D.C., on Monday to call on the government to “pay up” on its more than 10-year-old promise to compensate for discrimination. Despite the conditions of the 1999 civil rights settlement, more than 70,000 black farmers have yet to see a penny. ‘A Dying Breed’ Vern Switzer is 63 years old, but he still single-handedly farms 19 acres of land along a busy country road just outside Winston Salem, N.C. He is one of only about 30,000 black farmers in America today. These farmers are mostly in...

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - President Obama has announced plans to include $1.250 billion in settlement funds in the 2010 budget to bring closure to the long-standing Black farmers’ lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the White House has announced. “This is an issue I worked on in the Senate, and I’m pleased that we are now able to close this chapter in the agency’s history and move on,” the President said in a release. “My hope is that the farmers and their families who were denied access to USDA loans and programs will be made whole and will have the...

WASHINGTON -- As a senator, Barack Obama led the charge last year to pass a bill allowing black farmers to seek new discrimination claims against the Agriculture Department. Now he is president, and his administration so far is acting like it wants the potentially budget-busting lawsuits to go away. The change isn't sitting well with black farmers who thought they'd get a friendlier reception from Obama after years of resistance from President George W. Bush. "You can't blame it on the Bush administration anymore," said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association, which has organized the lawsuits. "I...

WASHINGTON -- As a senator, Barack Obama led the charge last year to pass a bill allowing black farmers to seek new discrimination claims against the Agriculture Department. Now he is president, and his administration so far is acting like it wants the potentially budget-busting lawsuits to go away. The change isn't sitting well with black farmers who thought they'd get a friendlier reception from Obama after years of resistance from President George W. Bush.

John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, is among those being vetted for Agriculture secretary in the Obama Cabinet, an individual with knowledge of the transition process said Thursday. Congressional Black Caucus members are backing Boyd in an attempt to reverse the department’s track record on civil rights, which government investigators and outside watchdogs have described as abysmal, aides said. The fourth-generation farmer and civil rights activist would be a surprise choice given the leadership pedigrees of other possible nominees, such as former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. But the pick would help fulfill President-elect Barack Obama ’s pledge...

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The farm bill approved by the Senate last week moved Congress a step closer to reopening a landmark discrimination case against the Agriculture Department. Like its companion bill in the House, the Senate measure would give thousands of black farmers another chance at seeking compensation over claims that they were denied loans or other crop subsidies because of their race. Critics have charged that farmers had plenty of time to win claims under the original settlement that USDA agreed to in 1999. Reopening the matter now could cost several billion dollars and reward questionable claimants who...

National Black Farmers Association Endorses Allen RICHMOND, VA – Senator George Allen was endorsed by the National Black Farmers Association (NFBA) this morning for his work on behalf of African American farmers and other farmers in the Senate. “We appreciate Senator Allen's help in supporting black farmers,” said the NBFA President John Boyd, Jr. “There were 98 other Senators who had the opportunity to help but it was Senator Allen who came to the assistance of 72,000 black farmers across the nation. And we look forward to helping Senator Allen in his bid for reelection.” Senator Allen has been working...

. . . Useful Idiot. In 1999, the Clinton Administration settled a “black farmer” lawsuit against the government by agreeing to a demonstrably corrupt settlement that has since cost taxpayers well over $1 billion for claims that were virtually all phony. (Harvest of Lies, a book detailing this fiasco, is available from Representative Government Press, see page 23.) That was not sufficient for Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), who has held a series of shamelessly slanted hearings over the past two years to promote the idea that the government should pay out another $4 billion for over 70,000 mostly phony new...

<p>A Virginia congressman is calling for an investigation of payouts under the 4-year-old consent decree that was supposed to compensate black farmers for discrimination by the federal government's farm loan programs.</p> <p>Third District Rep. Robert C. Scott, a Democrat, told a group of black farmers from around the country meeting in Richmond yesterday that he was concerned that people with legitimate claims of discrimination have been denied payment or stalled under the decree.</p>

<p>HAVANA (AP) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro "seemed very interested" in creating trade links with thousands of black American farmers under a U.S. law allowing some agricultural transactions with the island, the NAACP's leader said Wednesday.</p> <p>Kweisi Mfume and other members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People delegation discussed the issue with Castro during a four-hour meeting Tuesday. The delegation includes John Boyd, president of the National Association of Black Farmers, representing more than 12,000 growers in 38 states.</p>

home/africa/southern africa President Robert Mugabe's militias in northern Zimbabwe stepped up their attempts to drive a white farmer off his land yesterday, opening fire on the family for the second day in a row, neighbours said. A horse was also trapped alive in its stable on a farm in the Karoi district 200 km north of Harare and appeared to have been burnt alive deliberately, they said. The animal suffered 90 degree burns and had to be destroyed. Earlier in the afternoon, farmer Ian Cochrane (43), and his wife, Jo, fled when they were confronted by a mob of about...

By Darryl Fears Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 2, 2002; Page A03 Three hundred black farmers took over a U.S. Department of Agriculture regional office in Brownsville, Tenn., yesterday to protest what organizers called the agency's failure to process loan applications from growers who were counting on the money to plant this year's crops. "These farmers are still waiting for word to see if they can get money," said Tom Burrell, a board member of the Tennessee chapter of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, one of several groups that organized the protest. "But now, for all intents and...