“Historic”: Black Farmers Celebrate $2 Billion Payout for USDA Discrimination, Still Seek Debt Relief

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We end today’s show with the historic $2 billion payout by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Black farmers and other farmers of color who experienced discrimination when applying to the USDA’s farm loan programs. The payouts finally came two years after Congress funded them through the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. USDA Secretary, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made the announcement last week.

AGRICULTURE SECRETARY TOM VILSACK: Now, this financial assistance is not compensation for anyone’s loss or the pain endured, but it is an acknowledgment by the department. And our hope is, and the president’s hope is, that this financial assistance will help many farmers stay on the farm, contribute to our nation’s food supply and continue to do what they love.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes after the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights confirmed, as long ago as 1965, that the USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, discriminated against Black farmers. But little was done to address the problem, and the number of Black-run farms dropped 96% in the last century. By 1999, 98% of all agricultural land was owned by white people.

For more, we go to Boydton, Virginia. We’re joined by John Boyd, a fourth-generation Black farmer and founder and president of the nonprofit National Black Farmers Association, which fought for these payouts that have now gone out.

John, welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. Explain the significance of what’s happening right now.

JOHN BOYD: Amy, thank you so much for having me. And it’s always good to spend time with you.

This is a very, very historic payout for Black farmers, and I see it as a huge win for myself and the National Black Farmers Association, that worked on this for nearly four decades. So, basically, 60,000 applications were turned in; 45,000 Black farmers and other farmers of color have begun receiving checks this week and the latter part of last week. So, it’s very, very good news and a total of $2 billion. So, we’ve been waiting for this payout for a long time. And we, the NBFA, went out and held 60 meetings, Amy, in face time with our members, which sent out 130,000 postcards in the mail to all of our members, telling them how to apply for this. It took us, Amy, on average, three to three-and-a-half hours to help each and every Black farmer fill out this 40-page application. So it was a very extentious process. And so, we were glad to get the news from — Stephen Benjamin at the White House actually called me and told me that the checks were actually going out to farmers around the country.

So, we see this as a huge significance for farmers who are facing foreclosure. We have a lot of Black farmers in our organization that were facing foreclosure. So these payments are timely. It’s going to help them stay on the farm or help them improve their equipment, help them pay taxes. And I’m not saying this is a holistic fix, but it’s certainly a huge thumb-up for us.

And, Amy, we’re still pushing for the $5 billion in debt relief. So I’m asking the administration to do that by executive order. It’s what I’ve been having conversations with the White House to still get the $5 billion. That’s the land that’s owned by many Black farmers that had their deeds or trusts tied up with the United States Department of Agriculture. And again, that’s a decade-old request, as well.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you explain the difference between the payments and the debt relief?

JOHN BOYD: Absolutely. The payments, like you heard Secretary Vilsack mention, is — it was those Black farmers and farmers of color who experienced discrimination prior to 2021. So, that was just about everybody in our organization that fit that definition.

So, that piece was totally separate than the actual debt relief, which is 120% we were promised. Black farmers who were eligible for that were sent the necessary form in the mail, telling them how much debt relief they were going to get, and the 20% to pay their taxes. All of our members sent them back in. And then, after that, white farmers started suing us in federal court around the country, in numerous federal courts, and two temporary injunctions, one in Florida and the other in Texas, blocking the $5 billion in debt relief to Black and other farmers of color. And then we began to file motions in federal court. And after we began to make some traction there, a few wins, the administration repealed it by an act of Congress and replaced it with some of these other measures.

So, we still want our land, our land, like you talked about at the beginning of the show. We, at the turn of the century, owned 20 million acres of land. Today we’re down, as Black farmers, to three-and-a-half million acres. At the turn of the century, we were tilling — there were 1 million Black farm families in the United States. Today we’re down to about 50,000 full-time Black farmers. So, the land, as my daddy and grandfather taught me, the land is everything. The land is food. The land is water. The land is timber to build houses on. Everything comes great from the land. And we want our land. And that’s what I’ve been after for this whole campaign, and I spoke to you about it before.

AMY GOODMAN: John, you mentioned your father. You are a fourth-generation Black farmer.

JOHN BOYD: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe your own experience of discrimination? You don’t often talk about that in your national interviews.

JOHN BOYD: Yeah, you’re right. And I want to give a thumbs-up to my daddy, the greatest man I knew in the flesh, not because he had any money, but because the way he carried himself. He was a dignified, humble Black farmer that worked hard every day. Every day that pickup truck rolled in the turn, man, he was ready to go to work. And we worked sunup to sundown, not together, and said very few words.

But the discrimination that I faced at USDA was in-your-face discrimination, Amy. I was spat on, with tobacco juice running down my shirt on one particular loan application with the lender, who was a federal employee, who was employed by our government, spat on me. I was called to the N-word from this same official. I had my application torn up and thrown in the trash can in front of me.

On average, it took 387 days to process a Black farmer’s loan request, less than 30 days to process a white farmer’s loan request. In that particular county, this person would only see Black farmers one day of the week, so we named it Black Wednesday. And we would all be in the hallway trying to apply for loans. And one day, we all just looked at our letters from USDA, and it’s said 9 a.m. Wednesday, for all of us. He’s going to see us all at the same time.

And if a white farmer came in, Amy, he would bring that farmer into the office and conduct business as though I wasn’t even there. And his voice changed, and he was — his pleasantries were happy. And then, when he turned around and spoke to me, he said he wasn’t going to lend me any of his money. And he often spoke about how powerful he was. He said he was the most powerful man in the county and the next thing to God. And I told him one day, “I don’t know what God look like.” I wasn’t the religious man I am today. But I told [inaudible] —

AMY GOODMAN: John, we just have 20 seconds.

JOHN BOYD: Well, I want people to know this is a big win, and don’t never, ever give up. The arc of justice has been slow; it’s been slower for Black people. But I never gave up, I never gave in, and I kept pushing forward. And we won. And we’re going to win that $5 billion, too.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us, John Boyd, fourth-generation Black farmer, founder and president of the nonprofit National Black Farmers Association.