Agriculture Dept. Settles Suit Filed by Black Farmers

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture on Tuesday reached an agreement that will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to at least 3,500 black farmers who have complained for more than a decade that federal officials denied them loans that were routinely issued to white farmers.

Under terms of the settlement, individual farmers with verifiable complaints will receive tax-free cash payments of at least $50,000, said legal sources. The proposed agreement also calls for the federal government to forgive all outstanding debts to black farmers who joined the class-action lawsuit.

If all of the litigants of the suit agree to the proposed terms, the settlement would cost the government at least $300 million.

Al Pires, one of two lead attorneys for the farmers, called the deal “the largest civil rights settlement in the history of the country. This is the first time in the history of the country the government has paid real money to black people.”

He said it was unclear how many farmers would qualify for the settlement. But any black farmer in business between 1981 and 1997 is eligible to join the class action.

Agriculture Department officials said that lawyers representing the farmers and the Clinton administration spent most of the day behind closed doors in negotiations with U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, who approved the deal late Tuesday. The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial next month.

President Clinton issued a statement calling the settlement an important step in “ongoing efforts to rid the Agriculture Department of discriminatory behavior and redress any harm that has been caused by past discrimination against African American family farmers.”

Andrew Kaunders, a spokesman at the Agriculture Department, said the ultimate payout of any settlement was unclear because the exact number of black farmers who joined the discrimination suit isn’t definite.

Black farmers say they have been victimized by local agriculture agents after President Reagan shut down federal civil rights enforcement offices in 1980. In rural counties across the nation, especially in the South, many white agriculture officials routinely refused to process black farmers’ applications for USDA loans, disaster relief and other federal farm support programs, the lawsuit alleged.

Some black farmers said in congressional hearings that, when they filed official complaints about not receiving loans, their paperwork was either lost or deliberately destroyed. Such treatment forced many to lose their family farms, they said.

While the number of U.S. farms has steadily declined from a peak before the Great Depression, the number of black farmers has dramatically declined. In 1920, 925,000 black farmers owned nearly 50 million acres--about 14%--of the nation’s farmland. Today, less than 1% of all farmers in the nation are African Americans.

Until last year, Agriculture Department officials steadfastly denied any racial bias in the administration of farm programs. But after farmers mounted tractors and mules to stage a series of protests in Washington, officials began to look more closely at their allegations.

“I’m elated,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who as chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus held hearings last year on the issue. “The more we were able to give voice to the complaints, the more we were able to put a face on the misery these farmers have suffered for years without the government doing anything about it.”

At a dramatic hearing on Capitol Hill last spring, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman apologized to the assembled black farmers and acknowledged that some of them had been treated unfairly over the years by federal Agriculture officials.

“We do not admit or deny any of the specific allegations in the lawsuit,” Glickman said Tuesday. “But the fact that we are settling with a significant amount of money does indicate that we believe there is substantial liability.”