Black Farmers' Refrain: Where's All Our Money? -NYT

[Rose Siding]

STARKVILLE, Miss. - R. L. Stevenson was bundled into a recliner, a bowl of prescription medicine bottles at his elbow. At 79, he can no longer work his farm here in Oktibbeha County, about 150 miles northeast of Jackson, though until he fell ill a year ago he baled hay and mended fences.

He is a black farmer who toiled for decades at near-subsistence levels - buying used equipment and dairy cows past their prime - with little of the government support that white farmers here received.

"I've been farming now for 70-some years," he said. "And I didn't do too much progress in that time."

Mr. Stevenson expected to benefit from the landmark 1999 class-action settlement with the United States Department of Agriculture, which acknowledged decades of "indifference and blatant discrimination" against blacks in the department's lending programs. When the settlement was approved, the judge hailed it as the biggest civil rights award in United States history, estimating that $2 billion would be paid out to black farmers...MORE.........

http://nytimes.com/2004/08/01/national/01farm.html?hp

[Judi Lynn]

1. This hideous situation has been featured in news programs like 60 Minutes

I fully expected something would have been done by now. My God!

From the article:

TARKVILLE, Miss. - R. L. Stevenson was bundled into a recliner, a bowl of prescription medicine bottles at his elbow. At 79, he can no longer work his farm here in Oktibbeha County, about 150 miles northeast of Jackson, though until he fell ill a year ago he baled hay and mended fences.

He is a black farmer who toiled for decades at near-subsistence levels - buying used equipment and dairy cows past their prime - with little of the government support that white farmers here received.
(snip)

His case illustrates the failures of a claims process that even the judge said had fallen far short of what he envisioned. Thousands of claims have been denied for a tangle of reasons including tight deadlines and late submissions, lawyers' bungling and, perhaps most significantly, the resistance of the Agriculture Department, which critics say has used technicalities to deny farmers a hard-won remedy. For those rejected, the only hope for restitution is an act of Congress.
(snip/...)

This is pathetic, but predictable when you recognize what has been occupying the White House and making policy.

Thanks for the info.

[fortyfeetunder]

2. Paradoxical

Well, it always made me wonder when I heard * had blocked the renumeration to this group. Was this payback for lack of support (votes) in the election? OTOH, this last election intentionally excluded certain blacks from the Florida rolls, even those who were eleigible to vote.

Then I wonder with all the publicity, will * have a change of heart adn get the money problem solved in time for election day in hopes of winning over that population?

[tlcandie]

3. And who is leading the WTO?

Think any of the other people who have something other than white skin will be given a hell's chance to do better than survive?

[Gman]

4. Blacks never got the 40 acres and they damn sure never got the mule

so that's why they ride the Donkey! (with apologies to Al Sharpton)

[wildmanj]

5. money

:nopity:

[Rose Siding]

6. I don't quite understand

Are you saying you support the govt weaseling out of commitments?

Or that when they do, Blacks shouldn't bring it up?

[struggle4progress]

7. kick

:kick: