In the last few weeks, some Black farmers and Black farmer leaders have informed me that they are considering staying home and not voting in the 2022 election. They are unhappy with the lack of services provided in the past few years by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). I am appalled.
- While I might agree that USDA has done a poor job in addressing Black farmers’ needs, the idea of not voting is the wrong way to address these concerns.
First: Blacks considering not voting must review the history of voting in this country. Before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, most could not vote in the South. It took the blood and lives of their parents, grandparents, and a Democratic President’s leadership to count the votes that resulted in the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. This same Democratic President – Lyndon Johnson, provided the leadership one year earlier to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- Republicans have been working since 1965 to dismantle the Voting Rights Act. Today, the Republican-appointed Judges on the Supreme Court have been successful in removing many of the provisions in the 1965 Act.
- These two bills – the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are seriously at risk today; failing to vote risks their very existence.
Second: These same Blacks considering not voting because they are unhappy with the USDA services must also evaluate who stopped the Democrats from providing these necessary services. As soon as our current Democratic President – Joe Biden, took office, he and two Senators worked to include the promised provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA):
- This critical provision offered complete debt write-off plus 20% for taxes to all Black and other minority farmers with USDA loans. The ARPA also included a provision that would direct payments to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who were subject to past discrimination.
- The ARPA passed the House and Senate without help from a single Republican.
Within minutes, our current Democratic President – Joe Biden, signed the ARPA, and Republican groups went to court to stop the implementation of the debt relief provision.
The same two Democratic Senators who provided the leadership necessary to approve the debt relief in the ARPA revised the debt relief provision, including it in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). The revised provision removed race from the policy and made debt relief available to all distressed borrowers whose agricultural operations are at financial risk. This revision will not provide debt relief to those Black and other minority farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who are not distressed borrowers whose agricultural operations are at financial risk.
However, I repeat: Black and minority farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners are eligible for relief if their operations are stressed. Without Biden and the Senators’ determination, we would have no relief.
Lloyd E. Wright, former Director, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Agriculture.