Black farmers file claims in USDA settlement

In this photo from Jan­u­ary, black farm­ers and their rel­a­tives file claim appli­ca­tions related to a set­tle­ment of their law­suit against the Agri­cul­ture Depart­ment in Mem­phis, Tenn. Black farm­ers had sued the depart­ment, claim­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion in USDA loan appli­ca­tion from 1981 to 1996 (Asso­ci­ated Press | Adrian Sainz)

ADRIAN SAINZ

Asso­ci­ated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — When Roy James needed money to buy equip­ment and dig an irri­ga­tion well for his father’s Mis­sis­sippi farm, he applied for a loan from the U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture — but was turned down.

The USDA said it denied the appli­ca­tion filed in 1995 because James had inad­e­quate edu­ca­tion and didn’t have farm­ing expe­ri­ence — even though he had a col­lege degree and had worked for years on the farm that grows soy­bean, wheat and cotton.

“I couldn’t under­stand why they turned me down,” James said. “It was confusing.”

He became more frus­trated when he found out he missed a dead­line to take part in a set­tle­ment reached by black farm­ers with the USDA over dis­crim­i­na­tion claims. The 1999 set­tle­ment of the Pig­ford v. Glick­man law­suit pro­vided about $1 bil­lion to 15,000 farm­ers who say the agency unfairly turned them down for loans because of their race between 1981 and 1996.

James said he missed the dead­line because he did not find out in time, but he still filed a late claim. Thou­sands of other black farm­ers did the same — a move that may result in a pay­out, after all.

A sec­ond set­tle­ment approved by a court in Octo­ber 2011 is giv­ing another chance to black farm­ers with dis­crim­i­na­tion claims from that era who were left out of the first Pig­ford set­tle­ment. Farm­ers who filed a late claim for the first set­tle­ment — or their rel­a­tives — have until May 11 to file a new claim for thou­sands of dollars.

Lawyers involved in the case believe that 40,000 to 65,000 black farm­ers are eli­gi­ble to claim about $1.2 bil­lion under a bill signed by Pres­i­dent Barack Obama.

Thou­sands have already filed claims, and advo­cates say pay­outs could be as high as $250,000 in some cases. Fac­tors that deter­mine how much each claimant gets include the level of dam­ages and losses they expe­ri­enced, and, because there is a lim­ited pool of money avail­able, how many farm­ers end up applying.

A panel of peo­ple who are not part of the law­suit or the USDA will decide if claimants are eligible.

The Pig­ford set­tle­ments are viewed as a vic­tory by many. But one group that advo­cates for black farm­ers says they are a fig­u­ra­tive slap in the face because they don’t cover a long enough time period and claimants give up the right to appeal if they are denied.

LaSalle Dud­ley, 72, filed a claim on behalf of his deceased older sis­ter and her hus­band, who were denied a loan in the early 1980s for their cot­ton farm near Sen­a­to­bia, Miss. The loan was intended to buy machin­ery so Dudley’s brother-in-law could give up man­ual farm­ing and expand the busi­ness. Instead, because the loan was denied, they were unable to pro­duce enough crops and had to close the farm.

Dud­ley said he hopes to get about $35,000 and would share any money with his brother. He said the claim is a good way to honor his sister.

“They owned the prop­erty for so long, and really I would have loved for it to have remained in the fam­ily,” Dud­ley said. “I would tell peo­ple not to be ashamed or fear­ful com­ing for­ward with what they know happened.”

Black farm­ers were promi­nent in the 1920s, when they owned 15 mil­lion acres of farm­land, said John Zip­pert, direc­tor of pro­gram oper­a­tions for the Fed­er­a­tion of South­ern Cooperatives.

But as years passed and they sought loans to main­tain or expand their busi­nesses, many faced adver­sity. Black farm­ers seek­ing loans from the USDA were often turned down for no explicit rea­son or were approved for much lower sums than they needed. As a result, they had to reduce the size of their farms or sell their properties.

“The USDA pre­sented itself as the lenders of last resort, but in terms of black farm­ers, they didn’t ful­fill that promise in many cases,” Zip­pert said. “Many small black farm­ers because they couldn’t get access to USDA credit and other sup­port, had to go out of the farm­ing business.”

Today, black farm­ers own between 3 and 4 mil­lion acres of U.S. farm­land, accord­ing to Zip­pert, whose orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sented farm­ers in the Pig­ford set­tle­ments. Alabama, Mis­sis­sippi, Geor­gia, North Car­olina and South Car­olina have the high­est num­bers of black-owned farms, Zip­pert said.

As prop­er­ties have got­ten smaller, many black farm­ers have aban­doned tra­di­tional row crops such as corn, cot­ton and wheat. Now, many are grow­ing fruits like water­melon and man­goes and veg­eta­bles such as peas and okra because they carry a higher income per acre, Zip­pert said.

To be eli­gi­ble for money under the recent set­tle­ment, a black farmer needs to have sought a loan for his farm between 1981 and 1996. They also must have reg­is­tered a writ­ten or ver­bal com­plaint about any dis­crim­i­na­tory treat­ment they experienced.

Also, appli­cants must be farm­ers who missed the ini­tial Sept. 15, 2000 dead­line and filed a late claim for the first set­tle­ment. Zip­pert said that many did not receive ade­quate notice of their eligibility.

In cases where eli­gi­ble farm­ers have died, their heirs can make claims. In all, about 65,000 black farm­ers sub­mit­ted a late claim for the orig­i­nal Pig­ford set­tle­ment, Zip­pert said.

“It’s not a gen­eral re-opening of the case, and that’s caused some con­fu­sion,” Zip­pert said. “You have peo­ple who think that because their par­ents farmed in the 1940s … that they are eli­gi­ble for this, and they aren’t.”

More than 20 firms are help­ing farm­ers file for the new set­tle­ment, said Greg Fran­cis, an Orlando, Fla. lawyer. He’s placed ads in news­pa­pers, mag­a­zines and on the Inter­net seek­ing poten­tial claimants.

Fran­cis said his law firm called Mor­gan & Mor­gan does not charge those who file a claim. Lawyers’ fees are paid by the court.

“No poten­tial claimant should be pay­ing any­one either for a claim form or for assis­tance in fill­ing out a claims form,” Fran­cis said.

Thomas Bur­rell, pres­i­dent of the Memphis-based Black Farm­ers and Agri­cul­tur­al­ists Asso­ci­a­tion, argues that money should be avail­able to any black farmer with a legit­i­mate claim of dis­crim­i­na­tion, not just the late appli­cants from the orig­i­nal Pig­ford settlement.

Bur­rell also said it is unfair because it requires black farm­ers to for­ever waive their right to appeal if they are not approved.

“The process has never been mean­ing­ful, it has never been ade­quate,” Bur­rell said.

Posted by AP News on Mar 30 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.