A Name And A Face

Tracy Lloyd McCurty is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Black Belt Justice Center (BBJC), a legal and advocacy nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and  regeneration of African American farmlands and land-based livelihoods  through effective legal representation, advocacy, and community  education.  For over fifteen years, McCurty has served as a legal advocate on a range of issues disparately impacting the African Diaspora community; however, her most cherished work has been in service of multi-generational farm families living on the land in the rural South.  

Pigford v. Glickman (1999) was a class action lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), alleging that it had racially discriminated against African American farmers in its allocation of farm loans and assistance between 1981 and 1996. The lawsuit was settled on April 14, 1999, by Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. To date, almost $1 billion US dollars have been paid or credited to fewer than 20,000 farmers under the settlement's consent decree, under what is reportedly the largest civil rights settlement to date. Due to delay tactics by the U.S. government, more than 70,000 farmers were treated as filing late and thus did not have their claims heard. The 2008 Farm Bill provided for additional claims to be heard. In December 2010, Congress appropriated $1.2 billion for what is called Pigford II, settlement for the second part of the case.

Watch farmer Bernice Atchinson share her experiences of injustice hands of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Listen to this proud farmer talk about how he did not miss one payment to the USDA and still lost 650 acres and how he has been trying for years to get into the slaughtering business.