Black farmers sue USDA for $20.5 Billion

The nation's black farmers filed a $20.5 billion lawsuit Thursday against the Agriculture Department, alleging the agency conspired to take their land through racial discrimination in government farm loans and programs. "The last thing in the world the African-American should be denied is the right to farm - that is the reason we were brought here. ... Farming should be an entitlement to black folk. Our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers paid for that opportunity," said Thomas Burrell, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalist Association. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. by the Black Farmers and Agriculturalist Association and 11 other plaintiffs, seeks class action status. If granted, the case could include as many as 25,000 black farmers who farmed or attempted to farm between 1997 and 2004, according to the lawsuit. Civil rights attorney James Myart, who filed the lawsuit, said the number of claimants is likely to top 70,000. The Agriculture Department said it could not comment on pending litigation. However, USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said the agency's record on implementing and observing civil rights laws during the Bush Administration has been exemplary. [more ]