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82 year old black farmer arrested on terroristic threatening charges

Message Monica Davis
Harry Young, an 82 year old black farmer from Owensboro, Kentucky 
was arrested and released on $50,000 bond in connection with allegations
of threatening US Department of Agriculture employees. terroristic threatening. 
It all stems from a contested foreclosure and sale of his family farm in 2005. 
 
Young was arrested over the weekend on allegations that he threatened a federal
employee of a farm agency last week via phone. Supporters are questioning the 
arrest on those allegations, particularly given the fact that Young has consistently
maintained an orderly, legal attempt to regain his land and has been in plain sight, 
presenting his case to Congress and to the world and  working his rented fields for years.  
 
Young says  he never made threats to "blow something up", and supporters question whether 
the allegations have merit, particularly because of the state of feud that has existed between
Young and the FSA office in Owensboro. 
 
Since the foreclosure and auction his Utica Kentucky farm in 2005, Young has given interviews, 
written hundreds of letters to Congress and newspapers and has testified before Congress. 
And he has made enemies along the way, in and out of governnment.   
 
Young's  outspokenness has generated emnity from supremacists and hate groups. His property has 
been vandalized and he has also been the target of terroristic threats by phone. The situation has been
so volatile, that the county sheriff advised him to carry a gun.  
 
Vandals have shot at his house. They have  pulled protest signs from his front yard  on 
several occassions.  In 2007, supremacist groups reportedly tresspassed on his rented fields. 
When he secured the fields with a locked gate, tresspassers cut the locks and chains and 
pulled gateposts out of the ground with a tractor.  
 
Long before the current foreclosure fraud and Wall Street mortgage meltdown began generating 
headlines, Young and farm rights supporters maintained that the Farm Service Agency and 
the United States Department of Agriculture had major problems in the loan application process. 
 
Civil rights activists and audits noted problems in loan servicing, document forgery,  
conflicts of interest, employees benefitting from bonuses from foreclosing on loans they serviced,  
and maintaining a hostile environment for minority employees and farmers alike. 
Noting the endimic institutional racism and anti-family farmer bias within the USDA, 
more than one author has called the USDA the "Last Plantation." 
 
Even after years of investigations, lawsuits and congressional hearings, critics say the agency 
remains biased against minority farmers and family farmers.  According to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, 
the agency still has problems.  Secretary Vilsack told a group of black farmers at a conference sponsored by 
the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Land Assistance Fund, that "Some folks refer to USDA as 
the last plantation, and it has a pretty poor history of taking care of people of color." (Congress Daily, 2-23-09)  
 
Historically, agency employees have been downright antagonistic, spending careers working in a culture of
institutional bias, which has existed for generations. Critics say the agency has been practicing agism, sexism
and racism for so long, that discrimination against minority employees and farmers is as much a part of the 
culture as the paperwork the bureaucracy generates.   "You've got outright bias and discrimination. 
Also you've got good people who don't even know that they're discriminating," said Vilsack. 
"It's necessary to begin the process of re-educating people." (Ibid)  
 
Activists say "business as usual" in the agency includes document forgery, identity theft and collusion with 
local real estate developers, favored white farmers and county deed registration offices. Documents have 
reportedly been destroyed in some local farm loan offices, and farmers around the country have voiced 
complaints over alleged foot dragging  and obstruction of Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests to the 
agency. Many say the information in their files is not accurate and often contains forged or incomplete documents.  
s in the cases of tens of thousands of foreclosure cases, , and that many documents are missing, as well.  He says
he has a signed document from the local Farm Service Agency supervisor that his loan was paid.  While Young 
maintains that he has never had his day in court, the government says he has had a day in court, represented by a local attorney.  
 
Young claims he never hired the man.  Land theft activists say, at one time, it was common for white attorneys to "represent"
black clients who never hired them, in favor of biased interests who wanted the black victim's land or property.   
Historic problems in the Farm Services administration continue. Family farmers and black land owners continue to be victimized
by the system. White employees within the system worked in a culture of racism and bias toward large farm operations.   
Lawrence Lucas, a retired USDA employee, who was one of the whistleblowers in the  historic Pigford vs. Glickman "Black Farmers Case," 
says "Racism and sexism is institionalized and perpetuated. We're not just talking about black farmers but Hispanic farmers, women farmers." 
(click here 
 
Dr. John Boyd, will lead a protest April 28, 2009 in Washington, DC.  Among the issues Dr. Boyd will cover are: * Failure to pay administrative costs 
necessary to process black farmer discrimination claims; 

* Failure to pass legislation that will provide full compensation to all eligible black farmers;

* The need to re-open black farmer complaints closed by the USDA Office of Civil Rights without an investigation;

* The need to revamp the USDA's County Committee System that discriminates against black farmers;

* The need to include black farmers in subsidy programs.
 
According to Donald Burger, a retired federal employee, former director Iowa Civil Rights Commission,  
"Harry Young's case is one of the best and well document examples of the collaboration between the
 Department of Agriculture Office of General Counsel and the prolonged failure of the Office for 
Civil Rights within the Department of Agriculture in providing a remedy.  
It is encouraging that Secretary Vilsac has appointed a Special Assistant, who 
formerly served as Director of Office of Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration.  
His name is Lloyd Wright."  
 
Burger says "Mr. Wright met with a delegation of black farmers last month to discuss 
the nature of complaints nationwide on ongoing problems within the Office of General 
Counsel abetted by the US Department of Justice Michael Sitkof and dozens of US Attorneys nationwide."
 
Monica Davis is an Indiana-based author, columnist and public speaker.  
She specialises in economic, history and public policy issues and has written
articles on  land loss, bank failure, environmental justice and alternative energy. 
She is published in Great Britain, the US and India and home schoolers
 in New Zealand have used her articles as teaching tools.  Ms. Davis has 
given presentations on land lynching and the farm catastrophe at churches, 
museums and universities. Her articles been read into the Congressional Record 
and used as the basis for interviews by other reporters. She is available 
for speaking engagements.  Her author web site is
: http://www.lulu.com/davis4000_2000  She may be reached via 
email: davis4000_2000@yahoo.com 
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Wanna be member of the anti-word police, author, columnist, activist and muckraker extraordinaire. Author of:

Land, Legacy and Lynching: Building the Future for Black America

Urban Asylum: Politics, Lunatics and the Refrigerator (more...)
 

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