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Indybay Feature

Freedom of Speech and Assembly—Where Has It Gone?

by Monica Davis (davis4000_2000 [at] yahoo.com)
Campus cops reportedly told Harry Young of Owensboro, Kentucky that the only place he could protest was on the campus football field some distance from the academic building where the meeting between black farmers and farm loan officials will be held on October 15. His issues: freedom of speech and assembly issues, violations of various federal credit reporting laws, possible doctoring of loan documents, trespassing, violations of civil rights laws, implied threats, denial of Discovery in court, and the probable theft by document deception of nearly three quarters of a billion dollars worth of coal reserves.
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Harry Young, an 80 year old farmer from rural Owensboro, Kentucky, continues to protest the allegedly illegal auction of his farm (along with as much as $750,000,000 in coal reserves), the trespassing by the KKK in his current fields, and now, the violation of his rights pf freedom of speech and assembly. Here is what is going on.

In the state of Kentucky, as well as in other parts of the nation, there is an upsurge in supremacist activity, Klan-oriented events and other types of pseudo-terroristic activities. Nooses have been left on black professors’ desks, racists threats and insults have been written on black students’ dorm doors at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and racist organizations have left calling cards and flyers in communities in Indiana and Kentucky.

One mostly black high school in Indianapolis was recently peppered with racist flyers. And now, the supremacists are openly meeting in fields in Owensboro, Kentucky, where 80 year old Harry Young tries generate enough income to keep food on his table and a roof over his head, after the farm which been in his family for more than a hundred years was sold out from under him in what many farm activists say was an illegal action, based on fraudulent documents. Young’s attorneys filed motion after motion, demanding the government produce evidence—canceled checks, etc. That is, they asked for evidence other than “we say you owe the money.”

Young says he offered to buy the land back, to pay the loan that he did not owe, but was turned down. Somebody wanted his black self off that land and they achieved their purpose, and then some.

The land in question has coal reserves valued as high as $750,000,000, which confuses many who have been following this story. They don’t understand how an alleged debt worth less than 20 per cent of the value of the coal reserves generated a sale that resulted in the land being sold for a mere half a million dollars. Neither does Harry Young.

Today, this elderly farmer has another legal battle on his hands. He says constitutional rights are being violated: specifically his right to free speech and assembly.

Mr. Young is trying to get permission from university officials to field an informational picket outside an academic building on the Kentucky State University campus in Frankfort, Kentucky. The event would coincide with a meeting of black farmers and government farm loan officials, letting other farmers and the public know about his situation.

Campus cops reportedly told Young that the only place he could protest was on the campus football field some distance from the academic building where the meeting is being held. So, we have: freedom of speech and assembly issues, violations of various federal credit reporting laws, possible doctoring of loan documents, trespassing, violations of civil rights laws, implied threats, denial of Discovery in court, and the probable theft by document deception of nearly three quarters of a billion dollars worth of coal reserves. And this is America?
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