Years after settlement, black farmers still fighting government

BURKEVILLE, Va. -- James Beverly stands in a broken-down, vine-choked lean-to, surveying the rusting feed bins and stacks of moldering 2-by-4s that were supposed to be his pig-breeding farm.

They've been sitting there for 20 years, waiting for a government loan that never came.

Beverly thought his wait had finally ended four years ago when the U.S. Department of Agriculture settled a national class-action lawsuit claiming it systematically discriminated against black farmers in awarding farm loans. As one of the original plaintiffs in the case, the fourth-generation black farmer was even singled out by a federal judge in the ruling laying out the deal.

"Forty acres and a mule," U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman wrote. "The government broke that promise to African-American farmers. Over one hundred years later, the USDA broke its promise to Mr. James Beverly."

But while the USDA has paid out some $630 million since then, more than 40 percent of the 22,000 claims made by black farmers have been rejected. And some farmers complain they continue to be foreclosed on by creditors while awaiting their payments.

'Back where we started'

Beverly is among the thousands of black farmers still fighting for the money they thought they had won.

"They beat their chests about 'this is the largest civil rights settlement in the history of the United States,"' said Beverly, 46, standing on a cornfield now overgrown with Queen Anne's lace, goldenrod and purple morning glories. "That's an outright lie."

The ultimate irony for the farmers is that they must face many of the same career USDA employees who were in place when the alleged discrimination occurred.

"I mean, we're right back where we started from," said John Zippert, director of program operations for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Epes, Ala.

Under the settlement, farmers had two options:

Track A -- This fast-track process required farmers to prove they had tried and failed to get USDA loans between 1981 and 1996, and had complained about the denial. Successful claimants would receive $50,000 cash, an additional $12,500 to cover taxes on that money, and forgiveness of certain USDA debts. To date, USDA says it has canceled more than $17 million in debt.

Because attorneys argued that most plaintiffs could meet these standards, the vast majority of farmers went that route. As of the end of July, however, just under 13,000 farmers have been approved for Track A payments, and about 8,500 have had their claims rejected.

Track B -- Some 184 farmers chose this route, opting for one-day hearings before an independent arbitrator to seek something closer to actual damages. Those farmers had a tougher standard of proof, including showing that they were treated differently from a "similarly situated" white farmer in their area.

According to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the government has settled 58 Track B claims for a total of $7.5 million. The highest amount received by any Track B farmer was $780,000; one farmer got just $7,500.

Earlier this summer, farmers staged a sit-in at a USDA office in Tennessee to protest the large number of denials and delays in receiving payments. This past month, about 60 farmers converged on Washington with tractors and farm animals and demanded a moratorium on foreclosures and other action.

What really riled the farmers was when USDA attorney J. Michael Kelly was recently quoted as saying that the paucity of victories in arbitration "says something favorable about USDA's treatment of black farmers to begin with."

In a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and the White House, Gary Grant, president of the Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association, said comments like those are "proof positive" that racism still exists within USDA.

"Some heads need to roll," he wrote.

'Just enough to get in debt'

Many farmers, like Beverly, have received nothing.

Beverly was offered the $50,000 payoff, but he turned it down. Like his father before him, Beverly made a decent living at farming, raising hogs, corn, soybeans and tobacco on 200 acres. But he wanted to do more, and he went to the USDA for help.

With the aid of an economist friend who worked for the USDA, Beverly drew up plans for expansion to an industrial hog farm with 300 sows and fields of grain to use for feed. He says he leased equipment, and bought livestock and lumber based on the promise of a $100,000 loan from the USDA.

But after four years of trying, he says, the best he could get was a $14,000 loan -- and a late one at that.

"Just enough to get in debt, that's what it boiled down to," he said bitterly.