Bernice Atchinson, an 85-year-old advocate from Alabama, has been fighting for more than 40 years on behalf of her fellow Black farmers. She even represented them in the landmark case Pigford v. Glickman, a class-action lawsuit alleging the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against Black farmers from 1983 to 1997 when they applied for federal financial assistance, and failed to respond to complaints of discrimination. Though the Pigford lawsuit resulted in two settlements to Black farmers, some say they’ve still experienced discrimination since, and haven’t gotten their due.
While it’s been challenging for past administrations to address the ongoing concerns of Black farmers, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris recently issued $2.2 billion to 43,000 farmers who have been discriminated against. The funds will be administered through the USDA.
But, Atchinson says it’s still not enough.
“We are looking for something better,” she wrote Capital B in a statement.
Despite the limited progress, Atchinson still feels that Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “will be a good team” to help Black farmers.
“This is my 40th year of working for our people … walking the streets of Washington, visiting … [Capitol] Hill. I’ve went and spoke, now who shall speak for me at 85? My hope is that Vice President Kamala Harris will,” Atchinson said. “There is always hope for us. How can I have faith in someone [former President Donald Trump] who has been convicted on 34 counts by his own peers?”
Atchinson is one of many Black farmers who are hoping that Harris and Walz make it to the presidency. It’s partly due to the lack of resources they received during Trump’s tenure in the White House. He handed out historic levels of pandemic-related funding, but less than 1% went toward Black farmers.
Read More: The USDA Is Finally Paying Back Black Farmers. Some Say It’s Not Enough.
Still, there are concerns that the new administration might not deliver the relief they’ve been seeking for decades. Additionally, there’s uncertainty about whether changes will be made within the USDA, which has historically discriminated against Black farmers.
One of those people: Todd Western III a sixth-generation farmer from Iowa who works on the 200-acre heritage farm that has been in his family for more than 160 years.
“To be honest with you, I think they [Harris-Walz] care about [issues with Black farmers], but it’s so low on the totem pole for them,” he said. “In my opinion, they would care about it when it bubbles up. But to be proactive? I don’t know that they’re going to do that.”
Western referenced how earlier this year, a white farmer from Minnesota filed a federal lawsuit against Walz and the commissioner of the state’s Department of Agriculture for alleged discrimination in one of its grant programs. The program aimed to give financial assistance to “emerging farmers” who were defined as women, veterans, persons with disabilities, American Indian or Alaskan Natives, members of a community of color, young, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA+), or urban.
The farmer claimed his application being denied was a violation of his civil rights. Though he was picked ninth in the grant lottery, he claims he was pushed down the list because he was a straight, white male, according to AgWeek. In July, Walz signed the legislation, but removed the reference of “emerging farmers” in the language. The lawsuit was dismissed.
“If white farmers can win in liberal Minnesota, and this is under the Biden-Harris administration, if Trump gets in, it can only get worse,” Western added. “If Biden and Harris are protecting us now, she’s not gonna do any better in the next administration if she wins.”
Western is focusing his efforts on building support for the farmers in his state. Recently he co-founded the Iowa Farmers of Color Conference to connect Black farmers — fewer than 45 in the state — with local, state and federal resources to help sustain their operations, but also keep their land.
How might Harris-Walz differ from Biden?
What’s happening in Minnesota follows a similar issue after Biden was elected into office.
When he signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law, it included a $4 billion debt relief program for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers — which included Black communities. The program would have offered up to 120% of the outstanding indebtedness.
In June 2021, the same month the USDA planned to start loan payments to eligible borrowers, a judge issued a restraining order on the program in response to a lawsuit brought by a group of white farmers alleging that the debt relief program racially discriminated against them. After white farmers and banks fought back against the program, it fell through.
Rather than implement the existing loan forgiveness program, the Inflation Reduction Act replaced it with a $2.2 billion Discrimination Financial Assistance Program for all farmers and ranchers who experienced discrimination in USDA farm loan programs prior to 2021.
Representatives with the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, an organization formed in 1994, and Justice for Black Farmers Group called out the Biden-Harris administration in an Aug. 14 letter for its race-neutral approach with the discrimination assistance.
“Those who deserved to be compensated for their actual losses received little to nothing. On top of that, Mr. President, those few Black farmers who have had their debts full or partially forgiven will now face the onerous task of dealing with … hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes,” the authors wrote. “Due to having to pay taxes, we think, many will be at risk to lose their land, houses, and property. Additionally, we are of the opinion that the ‘process’ for addressing discrimination by farmers is flawed and inadequate.”
That wasn’t the only incident of reverse discrimination.
Two months ago, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointee in Texas, issued a preliminary injunction on a USDA emergency relief program for socially disadvantaged farmers after a group of white farmers sued.
John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association, told Capital B that putting Harris on the ticket was the right thing to do to motivate Black people, but there are still a number of issues plaguing Black farmers that need to be addressed, like removing Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who has a decades-long fraught relationship with Black farmers and ensuring full debt relief.
“We didn’t get the debt relief under this administration … so I’ve been reaching out to the Democratic Party and Harris’ campaign to see if I could have a conversation about that,” Boyd said. “She’s motivating the base, but we need answers. We shouldn’t be losing land and farmers. We lost 40,000 Black farmers under this [Biden-Harris] administration.”
Walz has a record in agriculture and farming that could influence his approach as vice-president.Walz helped shape farm policy during his time as U.S. representative in Congress in a Republican district. According to Politico, he helped draft and pass the 2008, 2014, and 2018 Farms Bills, the largest piece of legislation for food and farming that is passed every five years. He was the top-ranked Democrat on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and served on the House Agriculture Committee for 12 years, where he oversaw rural conservation and energy programs.
Even after his time in Congress, his commitments to agriculture continued. In Minnesota, he created the Governor’s Committee on Safety, Health, and Wellbeing of Agricultural and Food Processing Workers.
Trump’s record with Black farmers
The Trump-Vance ticket hasn’t won over most Black farmers. U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance’s recent comments during an Aug. 11 interview on Face the Nation didn’t help. After condemning attacks on his wife, Vance went on to talk about the $2.2 billion financial assistance program, suggesting the program is racist against white farmers:
“I do think that there’s been this thing in America where we’ve said that we should judge people based on their skin color, based on their immutable characteristics, based on things that they can’t control. I frankly think that unfortunately, a lot of people on the left have leaned into this by trying to categorize people by skin color and then give special benefits or special amounts of discrimination. The Harris Administration, for example, handed out farm benefits to people based on skin color. I think that’s disgraceful. I don’t — I don’t think we should say, you get farm benefits if you’re a Black farmer, you don’t get farm benefits if you’re a white farmer. All farmers, we want to thrive, and that’s certainly the President Trump and J.D. Vance view of the situation.”
Boyd called out Vance and demanded he issue an apology to Black farmers for his “racist, inaccurate, and anti-Black comments.”
“This was not a ‘farm benefit’ based on skin color given to Black farmers,” he said. “Decades of discriminatory behavior by the USDA have contributed to significant economic differences between white farmers and farmers of color that directly impact their access to credit.”
Neither Trump nor Vance has laid out clear policies for helping Black farmers. But Project 2025, a transition plan created by The Heritage Foundation for the next Republican president, proposes to eliminate important federal conservation programs and cut spending to crop insurance subsidies.
During his tenure in the White House, Trump didn’t do much for Black farmers. Despite the historic amounts of emergency relief under his administration, the money didn’t flow to the pockets of Black folks.
Under his administration, government assistance reached a record $46 billion in 2020 — and $26 billion of that came from the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which kept some producers afloat. With that pandemic relief funding, 0.1% went to Black farmers, according to Vilsack — just $20.8 million.
“We saw 99% of the money going to White farmers and 1% going to socially disadvantaged farmers, and if you break that down to how much went to Black farmers, it’s 0.1 percent,” he told The Washington Post. “Look at it another way: The top 10% of farmers in the country received 60% of the value of the COVID payments. And the bottom 10% received 0.26%.”
The year before, farmers received $22 billion, the highest in farm subsidies in 14 years. One of the subsidies was the Market Facilitation Program, which was designed to help farmers directly affected by foreign retaliatory tariffs from China. Nearly 100% of the bailout payments disproportionately benefited white farmers, according to The Counter.
Changes farmers are still hoping for
Despite who wins in November, some farmers are calling on Biden to finish what he started before he leaves office.
In the letter to Biden, Lawrence Lucas and Waymon Hinson with the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and Justice for Black Farmers Group asked Biden to “do good for our Black farmers and others suffering at USDA, especially when there is lingering skepticism about USDA and your support of USDA Secretary Vilsack.”
They included a partial list of demands for Biden, including:
- remove the indebtedness from Black farmers;
- cover their taxes;
- root out racism, sexism, and violence from USDA, especially the Forest Service, Western Division;
- eliminate the County Committee system;
- put a firewall between the Office of General Counsel and the Office of Civil Rights;
- settle the many unresolved cases within the Office of Civil Rights; and
- endorse a program that puts land back into the hands of Black farmers who have had their land stolen from them because of a failed civil rights process.
“In short, Mr. President, we, Black farmers and advocates, are seeking accountability, transparency, and justice. USDA, until these factors are included, will continue to be labeled ‘the last plantation,’ because, indeed, Secretary Vilsack runs the agency like a plantation, and it has been that way for decade after decade.”
This story has been updated.