Congressional Members and Staff are asked to join the call for Unity with Black Farmers

Black Farmer Unity Rally
United States Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue
Washington, DC
April 26, 2006, 10:00 am

Members of the California Congressional Delegation and staff are being asked to join Black Farmers and small family farmers from around the country in front of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on April 26, to address decades of on-going discrimination and to demand support for all America's family farmers.

This rally has been called for and organized by the National Black Farmers Association, President John Boyd and Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, President Gary R. Grant.

In January 1999, lawyers representing Black Farmers in a class-action suit against the USDA (Timothy Pigford, et al. v. Glickman) signed a consent agreement compensating each farmer with $50,000 for discrimination suffered in the distribution of loans and disaster relief by the USDA between the years 1981 and 1996. Today, the USDA is still delinquent paying just compensation in injunctive relief.

According to Gary Grant, President of the BFAA, "the Consent Decree is no panacea for what has happened to us, but the terrorism with which the Decree is being implemented, with over 40% of farmers already rejected, it will lead to sure death of black family farmers in this nation." “I want to dispel all of the talk that Gary Grant and I are divided. We stand here together and we will continue to work together.”

In 1920, 925,000 farmers were African Americans. In 1999, less than 18,000 African American farmers remained. In 1990 a House of Representatives committee found that Black owned farms were going out of business at a rate five times that of white farmers, and that Black farmers, who represented less than 1% of U.S. farmers, were on the verge of extinction. Black farmers point to USDA discrimination as a major contributing factor in their declining numbers.

According to Anuradha Mittal, "Black farmers have been the proverbial "canary in the mineshaft" of American agriculture. Everything that happened to them, happens to all family farmers later." This story remains painfully clear, America needs a healthy Rural America that strengthens family farmers of all races and protects American farmland for future generations. The Black Farmer Unity Rally call remains:

Fulfillment of the consent decree;
Return of foreclosed lands to the Black farmers;
Access to credit without discrimination in the future for all family farmers;
Support for cultural specific outreach, technical assistance and funding for Black Farmers;
Democratization of the County Commissioner Structure of the USDA/Farm Services Agency

Join us in Washington D.C., April 26, 2006

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