I’m writing this a little before sunrise at a hotel room in Jackson, Mississippi. I’m traveling with my family — my wife, three of our kids and two cats — and gathering facts and conducting interviews about the Pigford vs. Glickman settlement that was designed to remedy the decades of discrimination that black farmers in this country faced from their own government, specifically the USDA. ThePigford tale is one that the mainstream press has barely covered, so I’ve had no problem finding people close to the story who want to tell the world their side of it. My family has driven through four different states in the past 10 days, and I’ve videotaped more than five and a half fours of interviews, in addition to spending countless hours on the phone in both on and off the record conversations.
One thing that’s emerged from every conversation I’ve had is that America’s black farmers are this country’s unsung heroes. Farming is hard enough work on its own, but when you add the additional weight of fighting the government’s “good old boy” network that existed in many places, the resilience of the black farmers is amazing.
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