[GPCA Updates] RELEASE Agriculture Sec. Vilsack must keep Black farmers on their land

[Green Party of California Updates]

(Forwarded by the Green Party of the United States, http://www.gp.org)

 From Cynthia McKinney: Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Must Keep Black Farmers
on their Land

For Immediate Release:  July 21, 2010



"Vilsack Must Keep Black Farmers on their Land:  One Million and a Half
Black-Owned Farm Acres Being Looted by USDA While Farmers Wait for Justice"


Secretary Vilsack admitted in a press conference today, "I did not think
before I acted."  It is clear from Agriculture Secretary Vilsack’s press
conference today that he failed to do his job appropriately in his treatment
of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) employee, Shirley Sherrod.

Sherrod was fired after her superior, USDA Deputy Under Secretary Cheryl Cook
asked Sherrod to pull over on her drive from south Georgia to Athens, Georgia
and quit her job after a speech made by Sherrod to the Coffee County NAACP was
aired on a Douglas County TV cable access channel and then posted on the
internet by Andrew Breitbart, a known conservative, activist blogger.

Sherrod, a veteran advocate for Black Farmers, who the USDA admits have been
discriminated against, was fired because the White House feared that Glen Beck
was going to discuss her alleged racist remarks on his TV show that night.  It
turns out, however, that the tape of Sherrod's remarks had been badly doctored
and the doctored version had been posted on the internet.  Glen Beck and the
entire Fox News operation were reacting to the doctored internet posting.  Ms.
Sherrod was fired without having an opportunity to explain her side of the
story and before the White House and Secretary Vilsack had even bothered to
look at her entire speech.

"The White House and Secretary Vilsack threw Shirley Sherrod under the bus
before they had the facts," said Cynthia McKinney, who knows Sherrod and has
spoken often at the Coffee County NAACP.

Unfortunately however, Secretary Vilsack has also thrown Black Farmers under
the bus. To date, despite abundant headlines to the contrary, Black Farmers,
including the named plaintiffs in Pigford v. Glickman (1997), Lucious Abrams
and Cecil Brewington have not even had a meeting with USDA, to settle their
discrimination claim.  Others who did receive settlements were then harassed
by the Internal Revenue Service and had their bank accounts frozen and their
Social Security payments offset by any government payments, including stimulus
payments.

"The actual so-called settlement of the lawsuit was worse than the
discrimination that the USDA has admitted to and discrimination is continuing
at this very hour," said Pigford plaintiff Black Farmer Eddie Slaughter.

"The President is meeting with everyone except those who brought forward the
lawsuit and those who suffered discrimination and the violation of their
Constitutional rights," said Lucious Abrams.  Eddie Slaughter and Lucious
Abrams met with Secretary Vilsack and apprised him of the current situation,
but the Secretary to date has failed to act.

The Shirley Sherrod episode shows how quickly legitimate Black interests are
thrown under the bus due to fear on the one hand and racial incitement for
political purposes on the other hand.

"President Barack Obama should meet with Black Farmers who are leading the
lawsuit," said McKinney, who has been active for years on the Black Farmer
issue.  Despite winning the lawsuit, plaintiffs in Pigford have not been made
whole and therefore have not received justice.  Over one decade later, lead
plaintiffs on the lawsuit have not even had a hearing on the merits on their
claim of discrimination, now admitted by the USDA.  Claimants got paid, but
actual farmers did not.  The result is that over one million black-owned farm
acres are at risk of being lost due to acceleration of collection of debt,
foreclosure, bankruptcy, and USDA and USDOJ deliberate delay resulting in
delinquent notes for Black Farmers.

Claimants, who are not necessarily farmers, have been paid out of the judgment
fund.  Meanwhile, class counsel (Alexander Pires), the adjudicators (Poorman
Douglas), the arbitrator (Michael Lewis), the DOJ (USDA is paying DOJ), the
facilitator (JAM in Dispute), the monitor (Randy Ross) were all paid over $300
million dollars of taxpayer money, yet actual Black Farmers are yet to be made
whole.

“Under Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, USDA is still engaged in a racket that
will result in the theft of black-owned land,” said McKinney.

Both the White House and Secretary Vilsack have issued public apologies to
Sherrod.

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