By Sara Sciammacco
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-906570.mp3
Washington, DC – A massive jobs and tax Senate bill before Congress includes $1.25 billion to compensate thousands of Tennessee black farmers who were shut out of a historic federal lawsuit. Sara Sciammacco reports from Washington.
Alleon Griggs of Memphis says her family used to run a cotton farm in Rossville for years. She claims her parents - who have both passed away - struggled to get loans and assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture while white farmers got what they needed.
"We were wondering why they had all these big tractors all these big trucks and had all the fertilizer and everything they needed that had it but the blacks didn't have it," Griggs said.
The Griggs family is not alone. Tens of thousands of black farmers across the country complained that they were racially discriminated against by the USDA.
"Oh lord tell me about it, we've been through something," Griggs said.
Farmers took the USDA to court and settled a lawsuit in 1999 known as the Pigford case. The settlement paid out $25 million to nearly 500 Tennessee black farmers who proved they were rejected help between 1981 and 1996. However, more than eight times as many farmers in the state who never got compensated because they failed to meet a filing deadline. Many say there weren't aware that they could file. Years later, Congress took legislative action and re-opened the lawsuit. Now the federal government is closer to compensating all of the late filers. Griggs has been waiting for the day.
"It is a long time coming but when it gets here it will be uplifting sometimes it pays to wait all I want is my dignity to stay in here I want what I deserve and what I think my parents deserve and that's a part of me that's all I'm asking for," Griggs said.
The House already passed legislation that includes $1.25 billion for the black farmers who missed the filing deadline. Though the head of the National Black Farmers Association John Boyd says the compensation is anything but adequate.
"No it is not enough money. For a farmer who is 60 and 70 years of age that has been waiting over a decade you know sometimes half a loaf is better than none at all," Boyd said.
Boyd says many farmers lost farms or died awaiting compensation. He said he's tired of going to funerals for farmers who never got settlement money after struggling for decades.
"It is a very sad situation you know sitting in realization that it has take 15 years for this week to come to pass so to speak with Congress finally looking at seriously doing something. This is not a new issue and to ask the black farmers to wait another day to me is really a travesty," Boyd said.
There are late filers in nearly every state. Mississippi has the highest number of farmers with 19,000 individuals awaiting compensation. There are 14,000 in Alabama and Tennessee follows with 4,600 late filers. Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen says farmers in and around his district will benefit and could help the local economy.
"Mostly the people around my district. They come to Memphis to shop. They come to Memphis to do commerce. Whatever benefits the region benefits the capital of the mid-South and there was a long history of discrimination that we recognize and understand and African American farmers were not given the same opportunities and this is a way to make up for it," Cohen said.
The Senate is expected to take up the jobs and tax bill that passed in the House. However its prospects of passage are uncertain because some lawmakers have expressed concerns over whether the overall bill's cost will be offset by spending cuts.