USDA Unveils Blueprint for Fixing Civil Rights Issues

Three months into his position as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack sent a memo to USDA employees promising an aggressive strategy to fix the racial discrimination issues long plaguing the department. The well-known Pigford Case, a successful class-action suit filed against USDA by black farmers for unfairly denying them loans, was just one example…

Three months into his position as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack sent a memo to USDA employees promising an aggressive strategy to fix the racial discrimination issues long plaguing the department. The well-known Pigford Case, a successful class-action suit filed against USDA by black farmers for unfairly denying them loans, was just one example of the problem. For decades, the USDAโ€”especially its local county committees, which administer farm loans throughout the rural Southโ€”has been known as โ€œthe Last Plantationโ€ for discriminatory lending practices, land foreclosures and degrading treatment of African-American farmers.

Video will return here when scrolled back into view
Dominique Thorne Reveals Why She Almost Passed on <em>Ironheart</em>
Dominique Thorne Reveals Why She Almost Passed on <em>Ironheart</em>

โ€œI have said many times that I intend to take definitive action to improve USDAโ€™s record on civil rights and to move USDA into a new era as a model employer and premier service provider,โ€ Vilsack said in the 2009 memo, which detailed his plans to review thousands of neglected Bush-era complaints against the agency, and to commission an independent, on-the-ground assessment of practices at their county offices. Two years later, that Civil Rights Assessment report (pdf) is here, with recommendations to help ensure fair and equal access to USDA programs.

Led by the Jackson Lewis Corporate Diversity Counseling Group, which has conducted similar civil rights evaluations for Fortune 500 companies, investigators went to the 16 states representing the majority of claims. They came back with more than 200 proposals for preventing inequities, whether intentional or unintentional, including monitoring customer service, documenting of interactions with the public, and creating a more streamlined program application process.

"These changes enhance the key elements of structure, accountability, incentives and penalities, cultural transformation, performance management, and other essential tools and measures of success," says the report's executive summary. According to USDA, many of the reportโ€™s recommendations have either already been, or are currently being, implemented, including:

* Holding managers accountable for using a diverse pool of applicants for job vacancies and promotions

* Requiring county officials to thoroughly explain the reasons why a loan or program application was denied, and what the applicant can do to improve their chances of getting approved in the future

* Promoting and distributing informational materials about programs and services throughout all USDA offices

Secretary Vilsack has formed an internal working group to implement other recommendations from the report, which he heralded as โ€œa roadmap that will help us continue moving forward.โ€ But a leader in the black farmers community is underwhelmed.

โ€œMany of the issues raised in this report are nothing new,โ€ John W. Boyd Jr, president of the National Black Farmers Association told The Root, explaining that Jackson Lewisโ€™ recommendations are similar to proposals mentioned in a previous report from 1997 under former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. โ€œThe USDA already knows that this stuff exists.โ€

Boyd, who was consulted as part of the report, says he talked to officials about the need for diversity on the mostly white county committees that make loan decisions around the country. โ€œThey need to take a stronger approach to fix that, either legislatively or through internal policy, to make it more comfortable for blacks and other minorities to be a part of that system. That has to be a priority if they really want to see more loans going to minority farmers,โ€ he said.

A specific change that Boyd would like to see is voting rights for the minority advisors who counsel county officers on equitable lending. โ€œThey can advise, but they canโ€™t vote, so theyโ€™re just sitting there and watching a lot of corruption take place. If they could actually vote on who loans are given to, that would really change the results.โ€

Boyd also thinksโ€”now that the government has offered discrimination settlements for African-American, Native American, Hispanic and women farmersโ€”that itโ€™s time for some officials to step down from their posts. โ€œThere has to be some kind of accountability here,โ€ he said. โ€œWeโ€™ve had all these settlements, and we havenโ€™t heard about anybody being terminated or penalized or fired. That needs to happen so those career bureaucrats will see that the department is no longer playing. Secretary Vilsack often makes statements about having โ€˜zero toleranceโ€™ for discrimination, but I havenโ€™t seen the accountability piece.โ€

But he says the biggest issue straining relationships between the USDA and black farmers, and perhaps the hardest one to remedy, is a lack of trust. โ€œThe farmers just donโ€™t trust the government to make loans to them fairly. Itโ€™s going to be hard to get them to take a new chance on USDA,โ€ Boyd said, suggesting that a special initiative to transform the very culture of the department is needed.

Despite his grievances with the Civil Rights Assessment report, Boyd has a bit of praise for the USDAโ€™s efforts. โ€œI give the Obama administration some credit for signing the black farmers bill and entering into agreements with the Indian, Hispanic and women farmers,โ€ he said. โ€œBut from a holistic and long-term standpoint, more needs to be done to fix what we were all complaining about in the first place. And I donโ€™t think weโ€™re there yet.โ€

Straight From The Root

Sign up for our free daily newsletter.