We Support Justice for Black Farmers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC-12), a member of the House's Committee on Agriculture, introduced the Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2023, a comprehensive bill to address the sordid history of discrimination in federal agricultural policy. The Justice for Black Farmers Act will  reform the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provide debt relief, and  create a land grant program to encourage a new generation of Black  farmers.

"This Black History Month, it’s important we recognize the unjust history of farming and agriculture in America. During the 20th Century, Black farmers lost over $300 billion worth of farmland and  acreage – a loss that further exacerbated the wealth gap for Black  Americans. That’s one of the many reasons why I’m proud to reintroduce  the Justice for Black Farmers Act, which would  enact policies to end discrimination within the USDA, protect the  50,000 remaining Black farmers from losing their land, provide land  grants to create a new generation of Black farmers, and restore the land  base that has been lost," said Congresswoman Adams. "Additionally, the Justice For Black Farmers Act provides substantial resources for 1890 Land-Grant Institutions to help  Black farmers get up and running and includes funding for all HBCUs to  expand their agriculture research and courses of study.

“I am proud to join Senator Booker in confronting our history, and opening the door to a brighter future with this bill," Adams concluded.

Original cosponsors in the House include Representatives  Joyce Beatty, Sanford Bishop, Earl Blumenauer, Lisa Blunt Rochester,  Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Jahana Hayes, Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee, Eleanor  Holmes Norton, Melanie Stansbury, and Bennie Thompson.

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the legislation in the United States Senate. Adams and Booker previously introduced the legislation in 2021. 

Click the following link to read more:  https://adams.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congresswoman-adams-senator-booker-introduce-justice-black-farmers-act

February 22, 2023      

White farmer, white farmer
Why are you so mean?
You got your land and more
You want a lot more it seems.

White farmer, white farmer
From where do you originate?
From England, Ireland, Scotland
From north to south you’ll spread your hate?

White farmer, white farmer
How much land do you need?
Are you really seizing theirs?
Why you all bound up with greed?

White farmer, white farmer
You know you got all the benefits.
You sit at the head of the table,
Black folks see your land grabbin’ blitz.

White farmer, white farmer
Do you know Jesus as Lord?
Then why do you do what you do
To seize their land by crook or the sword?

White farmer, white farmer
We know that you are in cahoots.
We see your wicked machinations
Lying awake at night, counting your fruits.

White farmer, white farmer
This land is your land.
You take that oh so literally so
With whom do you stand?

White farmer, white farmer

Friend of the county and the banks.
Black folks fear that you’re comin’
That you know how to fill in the blanks.

White farmer, white farmer
We know that you also work hard,
But your skin what’s that cost you.
When are you ever on your guard?

White farmer, white farmer
Got any conscience inside of you?
You watch them auction their land
And then what do you actually do?

White farmer, white farmer
You got your money, been saving a lot.
You sit on the sidelines at the auction.
We see your sinister plot.

White farmer, white farmer
How do you feel?
You got that land so cheap.
How does it feel to steal?

White farmer, white farmer
You know what I mean.
Don’t feign your ignorance
As you pick that carcass clean.

White farmer, white farmer
Pay day some day is what we know
When you meet your maker
Your grubby hands you’ll show.

White farmer, white farmer
Is it all worth the chase
To take someone’s land
Because you know their race?

White farmer, white farmer 

You got them in your hands 

Vilsack Biden and Big Ag Stop trying to steal our lands.

Wayon Hinson, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and marriage and family therapist, a researcher, and an advocate in  matters related to social justice.  He is a gifted storyteller in the  search for justice for the oppressed and marginalized people.  

To learn more about Dr. Hinson click the button below to visit his blog, “Let Justice Ring.” 

Dear Mr. President: 

Surely you agree with me that we live in perilous times with threats from Russia,  domestic threats from balloons from China and other places, and threats to democracy here in our own country. While I think you are, by and large, handling those threats well, there is one threat that you, sir, are not handling well, and that is the prompt for this open letter to you. 

You are mishandling the Black farmer issue. I am disappointed. I am bitterly disappointed and disillusioned with the manner in which you have handled the Black farmers of our land and their city cousins. Country cousins and city cousins are connected, know each other, and talk to each other. 

We were very hopeful back in the day when your campaign looked to be going down the tubes, when Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina stepped up and endorsed you, and we saw the winds of your campaign change. We saw outstanding successes among the Democratic Party in Georgia for both you and Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock.

Then, Mr. President, we began to wince at what some of that change meant. We had fully engaged the campaigns of Senators Warren, Booker, Sanders, and Warnock, and we engaged with Mr. Mike Bloomberg. As the ticket of Biden/Harris won, we then engaged the agriculture transition team. Much to our surprise, the gentleman with whom we had been working on this team and your policies was not actually the person in charge. We realized that former Ag Secretary Thomas Vilsack was pulling strings from behind. We were advocating for changes within the USDA, for accountability and transparency, and for full debt relief for aggrieved Black farmers. Then, in one particular meeting we heard that what we wanted was "unconstitutional." One of your team members, an attorney, told us that. We were flabbergasted. 

Then, we watched with much interest as a variety of people pressed you both publicly and privately not to appoint Tom Vilsack to another term as Secretary of USDA. Much had been written about the failures of his two terms under President Obama, and despite opposition from congressional folk and the NAACP leadership, the Justice for Black Farmers Group, and the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, and others, you nominated him anyway. And then we observed the "love fest" at the senate confirmation hearing and I, for one, was nauseated and alarmed. 

We were hopeful despite these things at the beginning of your presidency and now we are not so hopeful. We see where the winds of change have taken us. They have taken us down the road of "Big Ag," and because of that Vilsack, who is owned by Big Ag, is your Secretary of Ag. We want to know if you indeed are also beholden to Big Ag or is it just Mr. Vilsack. We have our suspicions, and we'd like you to dissuade us of them. We see how Big Ag is getting the major source of funding from USDA. We also see that Vilsack's favored organizations are getting millions of dollars despite there being no open application process. 

What did you miss from the messages of "don't appoint Vilsack?" When you were making decisions about your cabinet, and what voices did you ignore? What about his previous terms did you respect? What did you anticipate being different under your administration? Were you indebted to Tom Vilsack in some manner? 

Surely you know because your team has done its research that he has an incredibly spotty history: a class action suit by Black state employees in Iowa, extreme favoritism of white, corporate Ag, and a racist, dismissive attitude toward socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. 

Research about Vilsack has been published in numerous places under numerous names such as Lloyd Wright in the Washington Post, Rosenberg and Stucki in numerous publications where investigations are published, and even me here on this blog. 

Click here to read the rest of the letter.