Dec. 8, 2010, President Obama signed into law an historic discrimination settlement, known as “Pigford II,” which provides $1.15 billion to 75,000 black farmers. The settlement is a continuation of Pigford vs. Glickman, a class-action lawsuit brought against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the 1990s by black farmers for the decades of discrimination they experienced. Attorney General Eric Holder said, “This is a settlement that addressed a historical wrong, I mean something that this country is not and should not be about.”
Lawrence Lucas, president of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, waited for years for this settlement, yet he called it “bittersweet.” “I was sitting there looking at the news the night that the settlement was signed and I had a very empty feeling… We’ve fought all this time, but we still have not solved the institutional bigotry and racism that minorities – not just African Americans, but women farmers, Native American farmers, as well as Hispanic farmers – are still suffering at the hands of the USDA.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “I’m proud of the many critical steps we’ve taken in the past months to right the wrongs of the past, but more work remains to be done. I have put into action an all-encompassing program to correct our past errors, learn from those mistakes, and outline a definitive action to ensure there will be no missteps in the future. The process has been long and often difficult, but we can’t wait any longer to close this sad chapter in USDA’s history.”
While Lucas’ organization works with USDA employees, not farmers, it has taken up the cause of the black farmers. Lucas’ commitment to this cause came as a result of a late night postprandial conversation fifteen years ago in North Carolina with three farmers, including John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association. “From that night on,” said Lucas, “I promised John Boyd… that whenever you need the Coalition… [as] long as I’m president of this organization, we will support the farmers. We will not only support the black farmers… [but] women farmers, Native American farmers and Hispanic farmers.”