The Justice that Justice Denied: The Problematic Case of the Black Farmers Civil Rights Settlement with the Department of Agriculture

Abstract

It should be noted that W.E.B. DuBois estimated 19th century progress in land ownership by black farmers to be some 3 million acres in 1875, 8 million in 1890 and 12 million by 19'03 Farmland acquisition during this time demonstrated a level of post‐emancipation economic growth for African American farmers that served as a vehicle for increase in status and community leadership and some measure of prosperity. And yet, as that time signals the most prosperous in terms of farm land ownership for blacks, there has been a steady decrease since then due to many legal, political, economic and simply natural occurrences such as the full fledged enactment of Jim Crow laws, the disenfranchisement of blacks, oppressive operating contracts and natural disasters. Today, as indicated by the 2007 Census of Agriculture black farmers have been reduced to representing only 1.3% of all farm‐operators. This paper will explore the plight of the settlements of the Pigford v. Veneman and Pigford v. Glickman, known as Pigford and Pigford II case that led to the 1997 civil rights judgment against the United States Department of Agriculture on behalf of African American farmers, and subsequent redress of the settlement.

Note: The terms “black farmers” and “African American farmers” are used interchangeably in this paper. This paper (a work in progress) is the basis for ongoing research that will look to first‐hand data regarding the effectiveness of the Pigford II settlement.