From the South Carolina Times and Democrat:
Although Congress has approved settlement funds in the Black Farmers Discrimination case, a local state legislator says making payments to claimants is still at least a year away.
State Rep. Bakari Sellers, D-Denmark, works with Strom Law Firm of Columbia, which represents 10,311 South Carolina claimants in the Pigford v. Glickman class action lawsuit. Combined with similar lawsuits, the action is known as the Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation.
“I’ve been working on this since law school,” Sellers said. “South Carolina has the third largest number of claimants in the case behind only Mississippi and Alabama.
“We now have the funding, but we have a settlement timeline we have been working since 2007. We have to get it approved by a federal judge and set up a claims process.”
President Barack Obama signed legislation Dec. 8 that will pay American Indians and black farmers $4.6 billion to settle claims of government discrimination over many decades. More than $1.15 billion has been earmarked to pay Pigford claimants.
Congressman Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), D-S.C., released a statement following passage of the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, saying the law “removed the stain on our country’s history and rectified these injustices.”
“After more than a decade, this bill finally, in some significant measure, resolves the Pigford v. Glickman class action lawsuit settlement reached in 1999,” Clyburn said. “(It) was filed by African-American farmers against the Department of Agriculture for discriminating against black farmers who applied for access to loans and other assistance.”
Full article here.
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