The head of the National Black Farmers Association said Thursday the U.S. government has agreed to pay qualified farmers $50,000 each to settle claims of racial bias.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said those farmers may also pursue a claim for actual damages from the bias, and potentially receive up to $250,000.
The settlement, which covers as many as 80,000 black farmers at a price of more than $1 billion, still needs to be funded by Congress, both sides acknowledged Thursday.
The 2010 farm bill, still pending in Congress, includes more than $1 billion to cover the compensation claims.
In a written statement Thursday, President Obama said his administration “is dedicated to ensuring that federal agencies treat all our citizens fairly, and the settlement in the Pigford case reflects that commitment.”
The Pigford case was decided in favor of black farmers by a federal judge’s ruling in 1999.
The head of the farmers group, John Boyd, said: “It’s really the Department of Agriculture agreeing to pay, the Justice Department agreeing to pay and our lawyers agreeing to the process.”
In a conference telephone call with reporters, Vilsack said racial bias unquestionably took place in his agency over many years.
He gave an example of two farmers, one white, one black, applying for a farm loan with an office of the USDA.
The white farmer’s application “was processed rapidly, it was approved, and resources were quickly available to enable him to put a crop in,” Vilsack said. The application from the black farmer “was denied without due diligence on whether he had the capacity to repay, or else he or she was strung out over such a long period of time that they couldn’t put in a crop,” Vilsack said.
The result, Vilsack said, was that “in some cases they lost the farm.”
This month Boyd’s group organized demonstrations throughout historically black agricultural areas of the South, including areas in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia.
The rallies wrapped up Monday as a small group of activists gathered outside the Agriculture Department in Washington. Boyd and other demonstrators expressed frustration that Congress has yet to approve a budget that would pay for the 1999 class action settlement in the case.
Part of the reason lawmakers were reluctant in the past to provide funding, Vilsack said, was their concern that no agreement — such as the one announced Thursday — was on the table.
He described a two-track process in which black farmers could receive a flat $50,000 payout with minimal proof linking discrimination to the denial of federal farm support.
A more rigorous system of proof could establish actual damages and yield a potential payout up to $250,000, depending on how many other claimants also prove their cases to draw from the funding provided by Congress.
Boyd acknowledged “not everyone will qualify” for the payments.
“It’s still a victory that their claims will be reviewed as a result of this agreement, which at least gives them a chance and keeps this out of courts, where no one gets any money,” he said.
Vilsack, noting the farm bill is still awaiting approval, said he didn’t think “anybody in Congress doubts there’s a responsibility to settle.” However, if no funding exists by the end of March, farmers can walk away from the agreement if they desire, he said.
Boyd said he will meet Friday with the staffs of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to affirm that the agreement should be funded.
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James the Just, I am a black girl and I will ride you like like you’ve never been ridden before. I’ll screw that racism out of you. Come to big momma boy!
I’ve read that there were also U.S. african/black owners of african/black slaves here, before and during the civil war. :roll: Just a thought…The U.S. Irish relatives should also sue (not really), for being discriminated against during their early days here in the U.S. as well, when “The no dogs or Irish” discriminatory signs were placed in shop windows, & the italians, etc.
Not to mention that if slavery had never existed their life would be in a mud hut barely surviving… In the books that Obama wrote, he showed a clear dislike for white people. Seeing as his mother rose him, and his father abandoned him, you’d think he would ignore racial issues altogether. And don’t you love how this violates laws meant to prevent racism. They are profiling so that only black people can get this money. Kinda like how there are “African-American Schools.” I honestly believe there are more racist blacks than whites. Or at least a much bigger percentage.
Wow, i didnt know that some white people thought they were the superior race.(I love people as individuals and i definately dont around calling white people crackers,pale face or pinky. get over it! Im over slavery which absolutely has nothing to do with this case (ignorant). What exactly are you so upset about. All black people arent lazy. in fact, you probaly work for me….ha ha. i worked to get to the top. and my grandfather is a ligitment Black farmer deserving of this settlement so go to hell and stop worrying about whats going on with us. if its money you want……(if it will make you shut up)I dont want for nothing…I’ll spare you some…ha ha ha
There are 19,000 black farmers and 80,000 claims. All part of Obama’s financial distribution plan. All you have to do is declare that I wanted to be a farmer and black to qualify. White America wake up to this racist president. The blacks could qualify for up to $250,000-WOA they’ll all be driving cadillacs. Write your comgressman to stop this criminal act.
I don’t care how you look at it, the truth is simply that Africans sold other Africans who they had captured or conquered. White people just purchased them. The time for slavery is long over and they should not be getting paid $50,000.
Oh, and LifestyleBarbie… Don’t insult someone’s
education when you can’t spell EDUCATED correctly.
“Nigger” is a combination of Nigro and Niger, and was used as a term to degrade the black race. And “cracker” refers to the “crack” sound made by whips when whites beat blacks. Which was, actually, not very true and quite rare. Whites depended heavily on slaves for their crops, and treated them FAR better than shown. In fact, factory workers in the north were treated WORSE than slaves. Where is my $50,000? Oh wait, I work for a living, I don’t use other peoples tax dollars unreasonably.
Weren’t mos
HEY, the PEOPLE that brought AFRICANs to America, Most were Jews, RICH people, Lazy People. If you check, most Plantation owners were Jewish, some white races, check by the Africans last name,they took the owners last name.
Hummm, JTJ, isn’t this twit interesting? She isn’t speaking in first person, so probably isn’t mud, she uses whitisch adolescent vernacular, doesn’t know the difference between “dumb” and ignorant, and in her defence of mud, uses anacronyms to “prove her point”. I’d say what we have her is some twelve year old white or maybe jew bimbo who really shouldn’t be barging into this conversation at all, an example of thirty years of the “dumbimg down” of American school childern. Give her a taste of adulthood, and a lesson in life!What great sport!
O.B.A.M.A(OVIOUSLY BLACKS ARE MOVING AHEAD) :)
you got that s*** rite :-D
:-x @james the just… I can see youre not very eduacated… because you dont know the meaning of a nigger.. eduacate yourself and look in the dictionary… Racism is over with…. Read the bible… And how can you prove something when youre being dumb….GET A LIFE!!!!!AND O.B.A.M.A is an(OUTSTANDING,BLACK,AFRICAN,MAN,AMERICA
:) @james the just…… you cant prove anything…. and black people arent niggers…. anyone can be a nigger for the simple fact of being ignorant…. and to me for you to judge someone is ignorant….. so whose the nigger now?????? you are… you cant judge anyone youre not GOD…. and oh yeah!!!! I VOTED FOT OBAMA!!!!!
Well, it appears that the same demon race of vipers who brought the niggers as slaves to America in the first place are also responsible for this as well. Anything to destroy the White race…
The settlement is contingent on congressional authorization, for which there is a March 31 deadline. A range of attorney fees—between about 4% and 7%, or $49 million to $89 million—is part of the settlement agreement, according to Perrelli. He called it a “relatively complicated” set of attorney fee provisions that address prior and future work. Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who has presided over the case, will have the final say on fees.
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/02/government-announces-125-billion-settlement-in-black-farmer-litigation.html
And the actual settlement amount is more like 1.25 BILLION, but then what’s 25 million when you have a NIGGER monkey for president spending like a drunken Bootoo voodoo African dictator?
Now watch a bunch of mamzer jew dogs will attack the facts of this case or they’ll attack me simply because I speak the truth!
Oh and I hope they slip up and say that the Edomite jews weren’t responsible for the slave trade in America. I have TONS of proof to support that claim. :-D
VERY SOON Edom is going to burn! I can’t wait!
your wife screws niggers you french fried fagget
Send all those lazy no good pieces of lazy shit back to Africa, didn’t work out as slaves, what the hell makes them think they can do it free? Pretty soon, the US dollar will cost more to print than it is worth. Be like the Zimbewe and Zaire money
suck my nutts cracker :-D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MKt4RlDktA&feature=player_embedded