Black Farmers Oppose $400 Million Agriculture Dept. Bias Settlement

Jet, March 22, 1999

A proposed $400 million settlement by the Agriculture Department to pay for decades of racial discrimination was attacked by Black farmers as inadequate.

At a federal court hearing on the settlement in the nation's capital, hundreds of the affected farmers took offense at what they described as "a skimpy offering" and staged a protest outside U.S. District Court urging Judge Paul Friedman "not to allow such incomplete and defective relief to become record."

The deal would allow farmers with less documented evidence to take a $50,000 tax-free payment and have their government debts forgiven. Farmers with more evidence could opt to go before an independent arbitrator to seek larger damages.

Only weeks before, many farmers favored the Agriculture Department's formula to redress the bias which had almost wiped out the nation's once prosperous Black farming community.

However, many plaintiffs say that aider reading the agreement they're not sure they are getting a fair deal.

"The $50,000 is not enough," said Vernon Breckinridge, a farmer from Oklahoma. "It won't buy a medium-sized tractor, much less the equipment to go with it."