USDA Defends Civil Rights Actions Against Charges

October 15, 1999

The National Black Farmers Association (NBFA)characterizes the relationship between black farmers and USDA as "tattered." USDA's pattern of racial discrimination of black farmers is "so severe that many farmers will not return" to farming. USDA defends its discrimination policies with new management, a better organizational structure, more than three dozen new policies and procedures, additional resources and new legislative language.

"It is disturbing that we still find the need to use our oversight authority to learn why farmers continue to complain about the treatment they receive from USDA," says House Department Operations Subcommittee Chairman Robert Goodlatte (R-VA). "Racism in any government department, agency or program is abhorrent and will not be tolerated."

John W. Boyd, Jr., president of the NBFA, told the subcommittee that black farmers are becoming extinct, at least partly because of USDA's discriminatory policies and actions. The Farm Service Agency "has done absolutely nothing to identify and/or correct the discriminatory patterns, policies and practices towards black farmers," he says.

"It is ridiculous and insulting that a high ranking FSA official would refer to me as a 'nigger' over the telephone," Boyd continues. Almost 85% of FSA personnel are white, he adds, and blacks often occupy the lowest pay grades.

USDA "has illegally confiscated an estimated 1.5 million acres of black American farmland through foreclosure," he told the panel. But the foreclosures would not have occurred if black farmers "were allowed the same access to loans and other funding programs as similarly situated white farmers."

Rosalind D. Gray, director, USDA Office of Civil Rights, told the subcommittee, "We now have virtually everything in place...to ensure that USDA treats all of its customers and employees fairly and equitably, with dignity and respect; all potential customers have full access to all USDA programs and services, and our work force is becoming more reflective of the diversity of the nation."

New procedures are designed to resolve program complaints within 180 days, she adds. Of the 1,088 program complaints backlogged on Nov. 1, 1997, all except 29 have been resolved or referred. Since that date, USDA has accepted 502 new program complaints of which 260 have been "closed" and 242 are active.

"For the last two years, we have been holding agency heads accountable for their agencies' civil rights performance through our annual performance appraisal process. Agency heads in turn are holding their employees down through the ranks accountable. We are also strengthening our policy and procedures for taking corrective action in cases where employees are found to have discriminated or had misconduct. This new policy is in final clearance and will be issued soon," she says.

The administrative changes are taking "longer than we had hoped," she adds, but they are "rooted in new, well thought-out policies, regulations and procedures that should endure."