Posted on 05/15/2009 7:38:01 PM PDT by reaganaut1
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - President Obama has announced plans to include $1.250 billion in settlement funds in the 2010 budget to bring closure to the long-standing Black farmers’ lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the White House has announced.
“This is an issue I worked on in the Senate, and I’m pleased that we are now able to close this chapter in the agency’s history and move on,” the President said in a release. “My hope is that the farmers and their families who were denied access to USDA loans and programs will be made whole and will have the chance to rebuild their lives and their businesses.”
The White House is describing the potential settlement as “just one part of a larger strategy at USDA to improve civil rights enforcement.”
“I am very pleased that President Obama is taking swift action on this matter as it is something that will help us chart a new course at USDA, one on which all USDA customers and employees are treated equally and fairly,” says Agriculure Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
A White House statement describes the sins of the U. S. government.
“For decades in the last century, USDA had a spotted history of discriminating against black farmers in its loan programs and subsidy programs. In 1999, the USDA entered into a consent agreement with black farmers where the agency agreed to pay these farmers for past discrimination in lending and other USDA programs. While thousands of those claims have been adjudicated, thousands of other black farmers never had a chance for their claims to be considered on the merits because of problems with the notification and claims process that made it very difficult for many farmers to participate,” said a White House statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at stlamerican.com ...
Agricultural Reparations?
How many black farmers suddenly appeared after it was announced they
would get this in the first place?
I agree the original farmers deserve something but not the backyard gardeners.
I’ve never heard of this before. weird.
Yup. Laying the legal groundwork...for "economic justice."
THIS MUST STOP.
He acts like it’s a done deal. The article says it’s to be included in the 2010 budget...doesn’t the Congress have to vote on that, or can Obama just wave his magic wand and make it so.
Yes!!! It has to be voted on, the republicans will vote for it!!!
Lately, the words, “....the land of the Freeee” in our national anthem take on an entirely different meaning!
Pass the red kool-aid....
I know ten minutes worth of research on this case...info can be found here...http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=433
Money quote: “The lawsuit against the USDA was a hard-fought, confusing, three-year battle. Black farmers’ traditional allies, like Democrats in Congress, the NAACP, and Jesse Jackson, were either late in offering support or remained silent, while unlikely allies Newt Gingrich and congressional Republicans cleared away the most formidable legal barrier: the two-year statute of limitations on civil rights complaints.”
So I don’t get the quote in the St. Louis paper:
“While thousands of those claims have been adjudicated, thousands of other black farmers never had a chance for their claims to be considered on the merits because of problems with the notification and claims process that made it very difficult for many farmers to participate,” said a White House statement.
Again it’s only ten minutes and I’ve probably missed something...
yup. just like all the others.
we didn’t get a president that is black... we got a black president. enjoy the next 3.5 years of nonstop, pro-black, anti-white rulings, laws, and anything else they can force on us.
racism... the democrat tool.. only has power if you let them have power over you with it
That’s what I’m wondering.
The money will probably go to Acorn first. It will be up to them to distribute it fairly.
Targeted reparations?
Hey! We already gave them 40 acres and a mule. What more do they want?
I believe in justice, and maybe this is justice, I don't really know!
Other thoughts?
The emphasis of this episode....was that the US Department of Agriculture sat and rigged up various loans, grants and subsidies....and didn’t readily include black farmers into this base of knowledge. This went on for years and years. I won’t say it was discrimination....but you have to remember the 1960s and 1970s version of a farmer...was that he wasn’t highly educated and typically needed a fair amount of help filling out the forms and making claims to get various checks from the government.
My dad, who was a soybean farmer in Bama in the 1970s-80s...took advantage of one program to do erosion control. This involved around $5k of work with a earth mover. My dad had to put up around half of the money and the agriculure folks ended up paying the other half. The Ag agent had to come out....check out the area....sign the forms that my dad filled out (a six-pager). I knew several farmers who had other programs that they took advantage of in this era. No one got rich and it was merely a year by year thing where you might fix this problem or collect an extra $1000 for nothing.
I believe the black farmers are pretty justified in the fact that the Ag department didn’t readily come and explain things to them or advertise programs readily. Today, its quiet different...with half the farmers having a year or two of college....and they all have networks where they share information. They all know how to milk the system that exists today.
Obama, Reparations and 40 Acres and a Mule
The New Georgia Encyclopedia | 9/2005 | Barton Myers
Posted on 05/16/2009 1:10:03 PM PDT by trek
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2252345/posts
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