USDA ‘Systematically’ Discriminates Against Black Farmers Seeking Farm Loans, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has for decades systematically discriminated against Black farmers, particularly in its administration of federal loan programs. Also named as a defendant is U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom J. Vilsack.

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The 116-page civil rights suit was filed by two Black sugarcane farmers in Louisiana—Wenceslaus “June” Provost Jr. and Angela Provost—who say they were “set up for failure” by the USDA after being repeatedly denied equal access to adequate, timely and feasible farm loans due to their race. The complaint shares that the Provosts, beginning in 2007, were forced to run their farming operation with 25 to 50 percent of the funding white farmers were given for the same number of acres, using USDA loans that often weren’t approved until far too late into the growing season to be of real use.

Since success in the industry is largely determined by “the whims” of unpredictable weather conditions and market prices, many farmers rely on USDA loan programs to sustain their operations from year to year, the suit explains.

Without proper funding from the federal agency, the plaintiffs’ 4,000-plus acre farm was “slowly crushed” over less than a decade until they lost nearly everything, the case says. After Mr. Provost’s bankruptcy petition was dismissed by the USDA in 2018, the agency foreclosed on the farmer’s collateralized assets, including his home, land and farming equipment, the lawsuit states.

The Provosts’ experience is not unique, the filing contends, citing USDA data that reveals the agency rejected 16 percent of Black farmers who applied for a direct loan in 2022, compared to four percent of white farmers. Records also show that the USDA, between 2006 and 2016, was six times as likely to foreclose on a Black farmer as it was to foreclose on a white farmer, the suit relays.

Per the filing, the USDA admits that its disproportionate allocation of funds in favor of white farmers has cost Black farmers “hundreds of billions of dollars.” The lawsuit largely blames the USDA’s well-documented and longstanding pattern of racial discrimination on its decentralized structure, which grants local officials “broad, almost unfettered discretion” when it comes to the administration of loans, allowing the officials “free rein to discriminate.”

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs’ troubles with the USDA began in 2007, when an official informed Mr. Provost that taking over his family farm meant he would have to take on around $800,000 of his late father’s debt. The plaintiff says he didn’t want to begin his independent farming career in that much debt, but the USDA offered him no other choice.

“Such choices did, of course, exist—including a direct loan to carry out farm operations, a direct loan to purchase or lease new farming equipment, or debt forgiveness for Provost Sr.,” the suit shares. “They simply were not offered to Mr. Provost.”

The filing says that this incident was just one of many discriminatory and unlawful acts USDA officials have carried out—and continue to carry out—against the plaintiffs.

The Guardian details how the plaintiffs dealt with “unrelenting acts of apparent sabotage” throughout 2014, which the case contends were deliberate attempts to drive the couple out of business. For instance, the complaint says, dead cats were left inside Mr. Provost’s tractor, cinderblocks were hidden in Mrs. Provost’s fields to damage her equipment, and motor oil was repeatedly drained from vehicles. That same year, USDA staffers photocopied Mr. Provost’s signature onto documents without permission to make it appear as if he had approved lower loan amounts, the suit alleges.

After facing years of lending discrimination and other unlawful treatment, the Provosts lodged several formal complaints between 2016 and 2018 in which they urged the USDA to investigate and rectify local officials’ discriminatory behavior, all to no avail, the case shares.

“Those complaints were met with a pattern of delay and neglect by the defendants, who—despite documented proof in support—left the Provosts’ complaints lingering for years, with no sign of any resolution,” the suit alleges.

Indeed, the lawsuit says the USDA office in charge of dealing with such complaints, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, is no more than a “dismissal factory” that conducts only “sham” investigations.

The lawsuit looks to represent the following classes:

“All Black farmers whose farm loan applications were delayed and/or denied on account of race within the last five years.”

“All Black farmers whose civil rights complaints regarding discriminatory acts by or with the acquiescence of the USDA have not been timely and adequately investigated in accordance with law within the last six years.”

“All Black farmers who applied for a federal farm program with the USDA and had their applications denied or reduced within the last five years based on delinquent USDA debts that the USDA has acknowledged should be forgiven on account of past discrimination.”

“All Black farmers who lost land leases to USDA officials— including county committee members—who had access to information provided by socially disadvantaged farmers when applying for federal farm programs with the USDA.”

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