Black Farmers Get $1.25B Settlement

The U.S. government has announced that black farmers who were discriminated against by the Department of Agriculture are entitled to receive a share of a $1.25 billion settlement. Black farmers had complained for decades that, as a result of racism, they were either denied farm loans or forced to wait much longer than others for their loans to be approved; the suit was originally filed in 1997. In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “We have worked hard to address USDA’s checkered past so we can get to the business of helping farmers succeed.” “These are people who have been promised things over the past and they haven’t transpired,” said John Boyd Jr., founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association. “We’ve been really pressing the government for the past 20 years, and we want to make sure this thing really happens for us.”