Timothy Pigford, Farmer Behind $2 Billion USDA Bias Settlement, Dies at 74
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 21
Timothy Pigford, Farmer Behind $2 Billion USDA Bias Settlement, Dies at 74
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 21
Summary
Timothy Pigford, the North Carolina farmer whose lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture led to the largest civil rights settlement in U.S. history, died Aug. 23 in Washington, N.C., at 74.
Cancer was the cause, his wife Janice Pigford said; he had joined other Black farmers in filing Pigford v. Glickman in 1997 after years of being denied federal loans.
The suit accused the USDA of willfully discriminating against Black loan applicants from 1983 to 1996, reflecting a longer history of racism that hit Black farmers especially hard in the rural South.
More than $2 billion was eventually paid to tens of thousands of Black claimants, often in $50,000 awards, after Pigford and his wife had endured foreclosure, shutoff electricity and crop losses.
How did Timothy Pigford's decades-long fight against discriminatory USDA lending pave the way for Native American farmers to demand justice?
Did the historic $2 billion Pigford settlement actually reverse generational land loss, or was it too late for struggling minority farmers?
Beyond historic payouts, how are today's minority farmers overcoming ongoing systemic barriers to secure vital federal agricultural funding and land access?