Black Farmers Receive Settlement Checks In Class-Action Lawsuit

Jet, Dec 13, 1999

Checks for $50,000 each have gone to more than 2,400 Black farmers as the first payments from the government under a civil rights settlement between the growers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The farmers are among 18,000 producers who filed claims under the settlement, and about 70 percent of those are likely to be approved, said Atty. Alexander Pires, the farmers' lead attorney.

Some of the farmers who had their claims denied were victims of hasty legal work by their lawyers, said John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association. They can appeal the denials to a court monitor.

"A lot of them were strong cases, but they weren't filled out that way on paper. We're getting a lot of phone calls," said Boyd.

Under terms of the settlements, farmers who can show some evidence of discrimination are entitled to $50,000 each and have outstanding loans forgiven. An additional $12,500 has been sent to the Internal Revenue Service in the name of each farmer to cover the federal income taxes that he or she would owe on the settlement.

The checks are mailed as the claims are approved by a panel of retired judges.

The debt forgiveness is averaging $30,000 to $40,000 per farmer.

An additional 140 farmers with stronger evidence of discrimination are expected to go before an independent arbitrator to seek larger damages.

"The payments will help change the face of many communities in the South," said J.L. Chestnut, a Selma, AL, lawyer. "The African-American farmer will have a chance to stand eye-to-eye with his White neighbor, as opposed to having to look up."

The settlement, announced in April, ended a class-action lawsuit that accused the USDA of regularly denying subsidies and other assistance to Black farmers because of their race.

The largest amounts of the settlement money are going to Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia, Pires said.

Members of Congress have complained that the discrimination continues in some of the USDA's county offices. Over the past two years, five workers have been fired as a result of discrimination complaints and 41 others disciplined.

U.S. Agriculture Department officials have promised to investigate the claims to determine which of the USDA's employees were involved in any discrimination.