FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2005
CINCINNATI, OH -- The U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Constitution Subcommittee will hold a historic field hearing on the Pigford v. Glickman settlement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and black farmers across the country. The hearing is scheduled to be held at 10:00 am on Monday, February 28, 2005, at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH. Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH) will chair the hearing, which will be held in the congressional district which he represents.

The National Black Farmers Association (www.blackfarmers.org), the leading grassroots farmers' advocacy and civil rights organization, will be participating in the hearing and plans to bring more than 150 members from different parts of the country with large concentrations of black farmers to the hearing. John W. Boyd, Jr., NBFA’s president and founder and a farmer in Baskerville, Virginia, is scheduled to testify at the public hearing.

Among recent revelations to be discussed is the fact that thousands of black farmers have not received payments under the settlement they believed would provide justice for discrimination by the USDA system. The system has not been kind to many black farmers: entire farms have been forclosed and families evicted. In addition, new discussion will focus on the fact that a Justice Department employee, Margaret O’Shea, who handled a number of the cases of black farmers as part of this settlement turned out to have never been a lawyer and was not qualified to handle these types of cases. NBFA has called for immediate Congressional action to force the Justice Department and USDA to re-open these cases.

This is the first public Congressional field hearing on this issue. The public fight began in the mid-1990s and culminated in the landmark 1999 settlement. Even with post-settlement hearing held between then and now, none have been outside Washington or open to public comment.

Background from the last House committee hearing is available at:
http://judiciary.house.gov/newscenter.aspx?A=386
For more information, please contact John Boyd at (804) 691-8528 or Adam Segal at (202) 265-3000.