Black farmers not all of one voice about the new Black Farmer “settlement”

Instead of putting all of their apples in the very risky bucket of class action lawsuits, which in the past have resulted in disappointment, sell outs, and unlicensed phony lawyers, today's savvy black farmers fighting back with individual, budget-busting lawsuits.

The plan is to generate a more sophisticated litigation model, one which is based less on the actions of headline-grabbing activists, and more on the individual legal issues of outraged family farmers. A group of activist farmers reportedly plans to head to the World Court and put their issue on a global platform.

When it comes to black farmer property rights issues many outraged farmers say they are fed up with self-serving, self-appointed leaders. They are disappointed that a decade of legal action still does not address real damages, and now, some claim that the $50,000 ‘settlement’ may turn in to $20,000 when all is said and done.

They blame the Black Caucus, which they say keeps putting the issue on the back burner and won’t address the issue until after the elections. They also say many of the movement’s so called leaders are more interested in self-promotion than in real solutions. Accusations include, self-promotion, obstruction and gamesmanship.

The disaffected farmers say it's not about the money. It's about millions of acreage of black-owned acreage, which has been illegally foreclosed and wrongfully sold. It’s also about activists and self-proclaimed leaders allegedly advancing their own individual agendas at the expense of the organizations and individuals they claim to represent.

With that in mind, the farmer are taking their complaints to a higher level and upping the ante. The disaffected farmers say if the United States can give Zimbabwe a smack down in the United Nations and in International Court, then what's good for the goose, is good fort the gander.

Farm rights activist Eddie Slaughter is taking the issue up a notch, and taking the movement to a higher level. He and others are disappointed with the progress and scope of the settlement, and say many so-called leaders, along with certain elements in Congress, are not as pro-human rights as they claim to be. Outside the Beltway, minority farmers are fed up with the machinations of organizations which claim to represent them, but, which, they say sell them out, or use the situation of disaffected farmers to advance their own agendas.

Slaughter and a group of similarly affected farmers are preparing to present their grievances before the world. They say this is not about money: it is about land, acreage, land rights and billions of dollars of mineral rights--coal, oil, natural gas, along with tens of billions in lost crop and lease revenue.

For added than half a century, disaffected farmers have experienced land theft, domestic terrorism and illegal dispossession. The 1999 Black Farmer Settlement, was supposed to offer $50,000 per affected agriculturalist, as partial compensation for their loss of income, loss of land and distress.

Yet, despite the agreement, few actually received the money, and those who did say the government didn’t live up to the agreement. Debts were not forgiven as promised, and the same institutional racism which generated the settlement, generated an illegal backlash from within USDA.

The institutional racism within USDA has provided a fertile stomping ground for thieves in and out of the farm loan bureaucracy, who have used the process to dispossess thousands of black farmers in contested fore closures around the nation. USDA, also described as "the Last Plantation", was already hostile to minority farmers. It illegally fought back against the Black Farmer Settlement with a vengeance, where agency executives told civil servants to lobby their congressmen against the settlement--something which was and is highly illegal.

The e-mail in question, apparently written by a Farm Service Agency employee, quoted the deputy farm loans administrator for the agency, Carolyn Cooksie, as saying legislative language dealing with the Pigford settlement in the House farm bill was “awful.” It also said Cooksie was lobbying senators to oppose it. (Nebraska Democratic Party, http://www.nebraskademocrats.org/blog/1231/johanns-staff-lobbying-against-black-farmers)

The Black Farmer's Class Action lawsuit is more than a decade old. During that time promises have been made and broken. The USDA has reportedly fought the settlement every step of the way. And the very process of becoming part of the lawsuit has been fraught with corruption, callousness and malfeasance, as many farmers were never notified of the suit, and thousands didn't have access to information concerning the details of the court case. Some of the so-called lawyers involved weren’t even licensed to practice law.

The second Black Farmer's Settlement was supposed to rectify the omissions of the 1999 settlement, but many farmers remain angry. Many feel they have been sold out: by Congress and by so-called black farmer leaders. In a press release, a black farmer and long time activist, Eddie Slaughter, says "the real players are the actual farmers and not the self proclaimed leaders of the black farmers." Slaughter says a few highly visible black farm settlement promoters are promoting their own agenda, at the expense of thousands of black farmers across the nation.

Thus, the promise of the settlement has turned to dust. Critics say the cumulative effects of corruption, ignorance and land terrorism within government agencies and local land offices kept blacks out of the first settlement, and so-called budget issues may reportedly drive the second settlement down to $20,000. It all depends on the number of black farmers who become claimants in the second settlement, and, all the while, the purported headline grabbers and self-proclaimed spokespersons manipulate issue for their own agendas.

Slaughter and other critics say, "What is a possible fifty thousand dollars that will diminish to a possible twenty thousand depending on the number of applicants, when the USDA is set to swipe another million acres of land from black farmers?"

In essence, farm rights activist say, "It’s not about the money to the USDA, it’s all about acquiring the land. Look at the Pigford Settlement, the USDA came back in the cover of darkness and placed liens back on property that was promised debt forgiveness. With this being just one of the things that continues to happen in a long list of dirty laundry, we have questions that need to be answered."

However, the rules of the game have changed. The new generation of black farmers is looking beyond long-time organizations such as the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Association of Black Farmers. After being told that Congressional leaders would not hold hearings on the issue until after the November elections, a group of black farmers says they have taken the gloves off and will now play hardball.

About the Author:
Monica Davis is an Indiana-based marketing specialist, author, radio personality, columnist and public speaker. She specializes in economic, history and public policy issues and has written articles on land loss, bank failure, institutional corruption/document deception, environmental justice and alternative energy. She is the author of six books and is published in Great Britain, Canada, the U.S. and India. Home schoolers in New Zealand have used her articles as teaching tools. Ms. Davis has given presentations on land lynching and the farm catastrophe at churches, museums and universities. She publishes regularly on Opednews.com, Indybay.org, Buzzflash.org, and Sfbaview.org. Her articles are used as primary research material by researchers and have been read into the Congressional Record in land loss hearings. She has been interviewed by numerous bloggers, radio and television journalists, including:
Bmstv/Blackmenscreaming.com
Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III on XM radio
Radio stations in NYC, New Orleans
She may be reached at: davis4000_2000 [at] yahoo.com