Farmers of color sue government for promised federal aid

DES MOINES, IOWA (AP) — The federal government has illegally broken a promise to pay off the debts of a group of Black farmers, according to a class-action lawsuit. The group hopes to put pressure on officials to keep their word and to restore funding that was dropped after a group of white farmers filed legal challenges arguing their exclusion was a violation of their constitutional rights.

- Scott Mcfetridge

The lawsuit filed in October remains active even as the U.S. Department of Agriculture moves forward with another effort to help farmers in financial distress in addition to paying farmers who the agency discriminated against.

John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association and one of four plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said that the new programs don't match the USDA's earlier offer to pay off 120% of the debt of farmers who are socially disadvantaged.

According to the lawsuit, this definition applies to more than 6,500 farmers who have "traditionally suffered racial or ethnic prejudice" and are saddled with federal loan obligations. The lawsuit says this includes Native Americans or Alaska Natives; Asian Americans; Black Americans or African Americans; Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders; and Hispanic Americans or Latino Americans.

"My dad always said, if you give somebody your word then you should own up to it," Boyd said. "They gave us their word. We signed a contract and sent it back in, and then they repealed the whole measure. I see it as a broken promise."

The proposed payments and lawsuits follow a long history of the USDA refusing to process loans from farmers of color and in some cases foreclosing more quickly than usual when such farmers who obtained loans ran into problems.