John Boyd endured icy winds and a soaking rain during a 200-mile trek to Washington in a mule-drawn wagon. But the hard ride from his Baskerville, Va., farm was worth it, he said.
Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, plans to erect a soapbox on the Capitol steps today and rail against the Department of Agriculture.
In the past few months, thousands of black farmers have been meeting across the South to complain about how federal agents are rejecting their farm loan applications and compensation claims for discriminatory practices, which they say violates the spirit of a class-action settlement won by the farmers in 1999.
Criticism of the USDA by black farmers has grown despite Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman's creation this year of what she thought was a solution to complaints of widespread discrimination at the agency: a civil rights office. The office, under the guidance of newly appointed Assistant Secretary Vernon Parker, was created to expedite the handling of complaints by minority farmers and USDA employees.
But like Veneman, Parker has come under fire from lawmakers and farmers, who say he does not have the budget or the authority needed to change an agency that was dubbed "the last plantation for slavery" because of the volume of discrimination complaints.
| Continue Darryl Fears' Washington Post article "USDA is Target of Protests"
posted in articles on November 21, 2003 3:15 AM | t (0)
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