lac
ni
ar er:
i 9
Continued from P g 1
tat , lobbied for le restric
tive property la;
arranged for private fundin to
keep land B c hands and
provided legal aid for Blac
ower facing property
10 . Financial problems t
year forced the ELF to merge
with the Federation of
Southern Cooperative .
EED CHANGES I LA
"We can't provid money, but
e can provid echnical i
tanc and legal
guidanc and e have h d
impact;' ay Ephron Le is Sr.
Blac farmer from Earle, Ark.,
ho is pre ident of th I nd nd
f rm corpor tion. "We have
b en abl to ve quite a bit of
land for Blac famille in thi
re . There have been orne
chan e in th la in Ar ansas
th t help, but they don't go far
enou h."
J ph F. Brooks, ho
headed the ELF until 1 t year,
y , "The difference been
nd hen e tarted i that
it eern if the environment
for concern and action is b tter
no . At fir were trial nd
nor-didn't kno what th pro-
blem . It a political
ell an economic problem
and hen the current crisis
came into public warene ,it
eemed likely Black pro-
blem ould et more .
co ttail.et1��:��i
D pite chan
la andgro
of th land-Io
Ar , the dec1in con
tinu . In 1930, there were
bout 80,000 Black f rrner ; by
1978 th fi ure had dropped to
bout 2,000. Today, it is esti
mated at 1,300. In 1910, about
o percent of the tate's farmer
ere Black; today, about 2 per
cent are Black.
The plight of Raymond
illiams, 60, i typic He's a
hort, chunky man ho ears
W hin ton D e Cee bib
ov ralls and a cap th t ys
Federal Land Bank A ocia-
rion.
illlam inherited 40 acres
from bi f th r, al a farmer,
and no he gro rice, cotton,
milo and yb ans on 00
acre 180 0 ned, 320 rented
- ith the help of hi on, ar
vin.'But the deb are mounting
and illiams fear the ch in of
f mily 0 ner hip ill b
broken.
"I've harve ted 38 crops, we
bought our land and we've done.
pretty ood in farming. But the
mon y hat has ot u no .
Last time I paid 11 my debt
in 1979. We pend more than
e make," William ay." y
on ould lik to farm; he'
r dy to eep oin ifhe can pay
the db:'
"I'd like to keep on:' arvin
illiam ay, "but it doe n't
100 ood,"
Cotton Plant is a forlorn lit
tle place, it main dr g peckled
ith derelict buildin sand
bo rded-up tore. But 30 or 0
ergo it a center of com-
m rce for hundr of Black far
mer and their f milie ho
lived in urroundin Woodruff
County. Cotton Plant remains
bout o-thirds Black, but the
erican
. cmcI Ept.on Lewa Jr. on
. farm
7
"Th r p rt
rtry [ic
Block' ucc r] nd
e if th recommendation
being met.... e ar tap jnt
no her e ne d cl r lin
of re ponsibility for thi
Corneliu aid.
Cornelius, a Black, . d, 'If
proceed the ay e have
been goin , it is re on bl to
ume th re ill be no Black
farmer in the future .... Our
number one problem i a need
to make certain th t the people
who have USDA responsibility
understand what the thru t i
going to be, that all farmer
must be treated fairly and
equitably. The policy dir ction
must come from the top. There
isnooth r ay .... Thisreportis
recognition of a problem th y
didn't kno existed before. It i
a start. The issue is hether e
want any Black farmer left in
the U.S.A.'
Pendleton ys he has not
een the new USDA rep rt, but
adds," e ould be di ppoin
ted if not much has be n done.
Without havin en th
r port-and this h s nothin to
do ith my Reagani -p ople
have to be treated ithout di
criminatory intent .... Our c n
cern in 1982 that farm r
are farmer and that 11 b
tr t d Ii e."
Pendleton, ho ever, y
the commi ion in 19 2
.. more of so ially oriented
commission" and that, i it er
reportin on the demi of th
Black farmer today, it might not
make the arne tron
mendation for u in
policy tool to encour
land r tention.
"I don't think enou
inAm ric understand the v lu
of land in commerce, period. I
one iv a ay the land, he con
trol nothin ," P ndleton y.
area's Black farmer population
is driftin a ay.
The town, ice its present
iz ,had a cinema, thr cotton
gins, all manner of tore,
churches a veneer plant. Cot
ton, the money crop, su tamed
the people. But markets dwin
dled, federal irrigation subsides
spurred more production in the
Wes and farm mechaniz tion
overwhelmed the small
farmer's ability to compete.
LA DLOSS
"In our heyday, hen 'pro
gre s' tarted, e had more than
2,000 p ople," y Mayor
Emmitt Conley. "Then, in came
the two-row planter, the fou
row planter, th eight-row p
ter and there as no ork for th
farm p ople to do .... Small far
mer mad a decent living
around here, but their kids left
for St. Louis or herever, the
parents died and the kid were
carele -1 t the land get away
from them. Th re' no way to
get it bac ."
Old folks who stayed behind
and then died often left "heir
prop rty," land conveyed
ithout ill to children and
others in the e tended familie .
Here in Ar n , as in m t of
the re t of the South, the legal
entanglements of heir property
are a major contributor to Blac
landl
ELF tudy found that
more than a fourth of all Black
o ned parcel in t Southwest
ere h ir properties, each
o ned jointly by an average of
eight p ople, of whom five lived
outside the region. Another
sugget: more . issippi land i
o ned by Black in Chicago
than by Black in M· . ippi.
Alabama and Georgia recen
tly h ve changed 1& s to require
that family members b given
first option to buy any jointly
o ned roperty in. �hi�h a
partner seeks a p rtltlOnmg
that . , to ell his or her share.
But in the rest of the region,
including Arkansas, th e dis
parately own d and mana ed
lands are ubject to la 'S that
mak them prey to the partition
le or disposal for nonpay
ment of taxes.
PAATJTIO LES
"We haven't been able to do
hat Alabama has done. We
haven't b en able to deal with
the p rtition law," ys Henry
Wilkins m of Pine Bluff, a Black
college profe sor and state rep
resentative. "The partition
thin is the mo t important item
on the agenda to me. Partition
le have been notorious in eas
ternArkan , here the bulk of
our Black liv .... We hav lot
oflawyer and lando ner in th
legislature from ea tern Arkan-
.. .. and they resist change .
There i no compassion."
Arkans ,ho ever, enacted
legislation in 1983 aimed at end
in candal and abuse that aro e
from the sale of property for
nonpayment of real e tate
taxe . Tens of thou ands of poor
Black and hites are believed
to hav lost their land through
i norance of the old law, which
Bowed countie to uction off
tax-deliquent land.
Under the old la , pecula
tor or neighbo could pay
delinquent taxes on any pro
perty-often unbekno nst to
the 0 ner-and receiv a deed
to the land after two years. In
other cases, counties uctioned
off delinquent properties at
midnight sales or through a sys
tem that g ve political favorites
first chance at the b t land.
"The abu es happened
predominantly to Black . In my
four years state land com
missioner, all the contact I ever
had about problems came from
Blacks," ays .J. (Bill)
McCune, no ecretary of state
in Little Rock. "We even had
orne county officials ho
would rake off the be t land
for them elves."
The ne la puts the state,
rather than the countie, in
charge of the collection of delin
quent taxe and it require more
diligent effort to locate and
notify absentee owner of tax
debt and a minimum five-year
aiting period b fore the state
can sell th property.
HARDTOFI D
Charlie Daniels, McCune's
successor, ys that the first sale
of delinquent tax property i
chedul d for 19 7. But, he
say ,the tate's early experience
10 trying to identify and notify
absentee owners has been dis
couraging. Almost half of the
certified notification letter
ent by Daniels on 1 � ,000 par
cels have been returned for lack
of proper addres .
In February 1982, the Com
mission on Civil Rights sent its
report on th Blac farmer and
recommendations for action to
John R Block, then cretary of
Agriculture. Block did not re
pond. The highly critical report
apparently wa put on a shelf to
ather du t.
The report aid that r die 1
di rimination as end mic in
the FmHa; that USDA' civil
right office was in hambles (it
hash six directors ince 1981);
that FmHA did not emphasize
help for small and minority far
mers; that Blaks ere not ade
quately represented on
county-level farmer commit
tees that decide who g t loans;
that 10 n programs designed for
low-income minority f rrners
were helping hire farmers in
disproportionate numbers.
OFAR LOANS
In brief, Agriculture depart
ment policies were preventing
Black farmer from getting the
credit they needed either to
obtain new land or to hold onto
their land and continue
farming.
After civil rights commi ion
chairman Clarence . Pen
dleton Jr. warned in March 1983
that Black land 10 had incre-
ed, Block acted.
He appointed a task force,
dominated by officials of agen
cies criticized by the commis
sion, to revie the report. In
October 19 3, Block rote
back to Pendleton with th pan
el's re ponse. Itackno ledgeda
duty to help II f rmer , but
mad only vague recommen
dations for addre in the com
mission's concerns .
Block ord red USDA a en
cie to respond ith action
plans, and he named Samuel J.
Cornelius to over ee progre .
Last December, th agencies
were asked to report on their
or. In a recent intervie ,
Corneliu reed th t the agen-
ci s'latest response were v u
and that little had b en done to
meet civil ri hts commi ion
concern.