Black Farmers Receive 2 Billion Dollar Payout for Discrimination

We look at the historic $2 billion payout by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to farmers who experienced systemic discrimination when applying to the USDA’s farm loan programs. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has documented how USDA administrators routinely denied loans to Black farmers and other farmers of color for many decades, contributing to a massive decline in the amount of Black-owned farms in the United States. “This is a very, very historic payout for Black farmers,” says John Boyd, a fourth-generation Black farmer and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, who notes the application to receive the payout was 40 pages long. He says the group is also still fighting for a related $5 billion debt relief program. “I want people to know this is a big win, and don’t never, ever give up. The arc of justice bends slow; it bends slower for Black people, but I never gave up.”

The payouts finally came two years after Congress funded them through the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. USDA Secretary, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made the announcement last week.

AGRICULTURE SECRETARY TOM VILSACK: Now, this financial assistance is not compensation for anyone’s loss or the pain endured, but it is an acknowledgment by the department. And our hope is, and the president’s hope is, that this financial assistance will help many farmers stay on the farm, contribute to our nation’s food supply and continue to do what they love.

This comes after the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights confirmed, as long ago as 1965, that the USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, discriminated against Black farmers. But little was done to address the problem, and the number of Black-run farms dropped 96% in the last century. By 1999, 98% of all agricultural land was owned by white people.

The National Association of Black Farmers are also requesting a $5 Billion Debt Relief from the U.S. Department of Agriculture which is 120% that was  promised. Black farmers who were eligible for that were sent the necessary form in the mail, telling them how much debt relief they were going to get, and the 20% to pay their taxes. All of the NABF members sent them back in. And then, after that, white farmers began filing lawsuits in federal court around the country, in numerous federal courts, and two temporary injunctions, one in Florida and the other in Texas, blocking the $5 billion in debt relief to Black and other farmers of color. The NABF began to file motions in federal court to counter the lawsuits from White farmers. After members of NABF began to make some traction there, a few wins, the administration repealed it by an act of Congress and replaced it with some of these other measures.

Black Farmers want their land back.  At the turn of the century, Black farmers owned 20 million acres of land. Today that has decreased to three-and-a-half million acres. At the turn of the century, Black farmers were tilling — there were 1 million Black farm families in the United States. Today there are about 50,000 full-time Black farmers. "So, the land," according to NABF member John Boyd, "is everything. The land is food. The land is water. The land is timber to build houses on. Everything comes great from the land. And we want our land. And that’s what I’ve been after for this whole campaign."