Thomas Burrell

We're talking with Thomas Burrell, President of the Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association about the landmark rulling that will benefit Black Farmers on The Bev Johnson Show on WDIA Radio.

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Good morning, Good morning, goodmorning, and welcome in to WDI A
The Bev Johnson Show. I'm bezgood to have you here on this Monday,
July fifteenth, twenty twenty four.Enjoy this fabulous day to day.
Get ready to put your ears onas we share some great information with you

(00:32):
this day. When it's your turnto talk, you know you can.
All you need to do is dialthese numbers nine zero one, five three
five nine three four two. That'snine zero one five three five nine three
four two eight hundred five zero threenine three four two or A three three

(01:00):
five three five nine three four twowill get you in to me. And
if this day, this day,Monday July fifteenth, twenty twenty four,

(01:21):
is your birthday. Happy birthday toeach and every one of y'all out there
who may be celebrating a birthday onthis day, we say go out,
y'all, go out and celebrate yourlife you better and happy big twenty eighth
year anniversary to my friends K nineand Sequel. Happy anniversary U two,

(01:48):
Happy anniversary my buddies used to hangout with me at Lowes. Yeah yea
year. Happy birthday, K nineand Sequel. Enjoy your anniversary twenty eight
years. That's wonderful all of youall celebrating anniversaries and birthdays today. You
know what we say, go outand celebrate your alight you better, you

(02:13):
better. When we come back,we'll share some good news with you.
Next with me Bev Johnson on theBev Johnson Show on Double d I A

(02:59):
good morning, and we'll welcome backto w d I A little David Sanda
born for you, a little spookyand before that, d Brown, a
honeycomb and earl clue. Could itbe I'm falling in love? Welcome into
w d I A The Bev JohnsonShow. It is a hot Monday already

(03:21):
in Memphis, Tennessee. It's Monday, July fifteenth. I can't believe July's
movement in the Million of the Mud. July fifteenth, twenty twenty four.
Enjoyed this fatulty across from the FedExForum. We are live from the Esco
Restaurant in Tapes Traffic Center. Thisthis report is sponsored by AutoZone. Get
it all right, okay, thankyou AutoZone. Appreciate you, Appreciate you,

(03:46):
appreciate you. Let me continue tosay as thank you for joining us
here. At doubd. I Awell, as always, we are so
happy I have him back in thestudio with us to share some good news.
And I mentioned last week to oneof my listeners who was a farmer,

(04:08):
I said, make sure you listenon Monday, because this Monday,
back again in the studio we havemister Thomas Burrell. He's the president of
the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association.And always, good morning to you,
mister Barrell. Ha or you.I am quite fine bill of good health

(04:28):
and excellent spirits. I hear yourbrother, I hear you. Well,
you're coming in today to talk aboutsome good news and to benefit black farmers.
And as always, and it wasinteresting, mister, we were talking
about something last week and a youngman called in and said he was a
farmer and how his land had gottentaken. And I said, well,

(04:51):
maybe had some good news. MisterBarrell will be here Monday to share the
good news. What's the good news, mister Barrell, Well, the good
news here and thank you for havingus here. The Supreme Court on June
the twenty eighth made a landmark rulingthat affect outlawed a doctrine that the Department

(05:13):
of Agriculture and other agencies were usingto deprive a lot of their customers the
opportunity to file claims. And itwas called the Chevron deference doctrine that had
been passed about forty years ago.And all of the civil rights lawsuits and
settlements that the black farmers have beenthe beneficiary of for the last thirty years

(05:40):
were affected by that. But whatthey were doing, and as we were
here the last time, USDA woulduse this doctrine to deny the sons and
daughters, the heirs at law ofthose black farmers who were deceased from filing
a claim to get that fifty thousanddollars in this two point two billion dollars

(06:01):
that Congress set aside. This association, the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association,
as you know, the last timewe were here, we were talking about
how we had filed a lawsuit effectivelyasking the court to stop USDA from using
this tactic, and that it wasunconstitutional to deny a child a grandchild the

(06:26):
right to partake in a lawful proceedingthat their parents or grandparents were able to.
Now this has a positive effect ontens of thousands of black farmers and
more specifically the sons and daughters thesurvivors of those individuals. Okay, So

(06:46):
now, since the Supreme Court madethe ruling and it will benefit the black
farmers, So take me talk tome about the lawsuit. Now, what
happens with that? Okay? Now, the lawsuit is well according to the
Supreme Court two weeks ago and ChiefJustice Roberts he was saying, the lawsuit

(07:12):
or the ruling does not go backIt does not go backwards. But any
person with a pending lawsuit or goingforward, it will apply to them.
Fortunately enough, bear, as wesaid before, the only civil rights organization
that had and has a pending lawsuitis the Block Farmers, an agriculturist.

(07:34):
We called for time out. Thatmeans that this ruling now will force the
courts, the federal judges to goback and revisit this forty page process that
USDA was using under the Inflation ReductionAct that they were trying to get a

(07:55):
lot of people to fill out,and a lot of them did. We
were asking I WE members to holdoff because we thought that was unconstitutional.
Effectively, the courts agree with us. So now our attorneys are filing a
motion or an injunction to make surethat USDA is stopped from dispensing any of

(08:16):
those funds until our members were andother similar situated individuals will have right now
to file an application. Now,so, mister Barrell, the USDA has
been holding money back? Is thatthe thing explained to me? Because I'm

(08:39):
getting confused what the USDA was actuallyactually doing. Let me tell you what
they were actually doing. If Ican use this analogy, sure, when
Congress over the last twenty five thirtyyears, if the first black farmer's lawsuit,
the second Black farmer's lawsuit, thethird to fourth or fifth, if
I can use an idalogy, therewas a restaurant company, and it is
McDonald's. They were selling cheeseburgers,hamburgers, and fries, and they came

(09:03):
up what I did call a happymeal, where when you order the happy
meal, you automatically get the burger, the fries, and the coke.
When Congress would pass legislation, theywould tell USDA, Congress will set billions
of dollars aside, and Congress willsay, you give the coke, you
give the hamburger, you give thecheeseburger, as it were, or these

(09:24):
settlements to these individuals or their heirs. USDA would say, yeah, we'll
take the money, but when thechildren come along, when these farmers come
along, we're not going to givethem the coke. We won't give them
the cheeseburger, we won't give themthe fry because we can use this doctrine
called Chevron that gives us, inother words, the devil is in charge

(09:50):
of the details. This Chevron doctrineallowed the agency to make itself the judge
and the jury as to who wouldget what amount of money. And that's
why you have so many individuals whonever got a dime of that money,
even though those billions of dollars hadbeen set aside by that agency. They

(10:11):
use this Chevron doctrine to make themselves, as it were, the sole arbiter
to determine who they should pay,even after Congress specifically told them who to
pay. So now with this,since the Supreme Court has made the ruling

(10:33):
again it's Burrell. So then nowthe black farmers, so they can go
back into court or with the lawsuitthat you all had it's still pending,
or you have to change it.What happens, Well, it's for those
who are already a quote unquote incourt, already in in court. Gotcha.
So now it's kind of like thebasketball game or the football game.

(10:54):
If you don't cay all time out. When the buzzer rings, the game
is over. Whether somebody pulled theface masks or knock you down, it
doesn't matter. But unless you callwhat time out to stop the clock as
it were. So when they wereusing this forty page application back last year,

(11:16):
when beef AND members were being denied, the sons and daughters and the
heirs of those farmers were not allowedto fill out that forty page application.
When they came to us it said, well, they won't let me fill
out an application for the benefit ofmy deceased daddy, for the benefit of
my deceased father because I'm an heir. They were members of BEEFA. And

(11:39):
at that point in time, Beeferfiled a motion we threw down the flag,
We file a lawsuit in federal court. Now that the Supreme Court has
effectively made route that concept that USDAwas using unlawful, now we are in

(12:00):
court already. Okay, we're atthe Sixth Circuit, the Court of Appeals
in Cincinnati, Ohio, And nowwe will according to George Judge the Supreme
Court ruting, we will. Ourattorneys will file a motion with the Sixth
Circuit and state that, yes,according to the Supreme Court ruling, you

(12:24):
have to do ext you have todo why you have to do z And
in this particular case, a federaljudge and not USDA will decide who should
get the cope, the Fries andthe Burgers. So how do you think,
mister Barrell, it's going. It'sit's looking it's going to take place.

(12:45):
These farmers will in the heirs willbe able to get a good ruling
and get the application. We gotthe routing, got the routing, you
got the rooting. It doesn't getany better, man, Supreme Court routing.
Let's say we were going to asegregated school in Topeka, Kansas in
nineteen fifty four, and the SupremeCourt says Brown versus the Board of Education

(13:07):
is no longer constitutional. That's agood ruling. Miss Rosa Parks was required
to give up her seat to awhite person in Montgomery, Alabama. The
Supreme Court came back and said thatis no longer constitutional. So when the
Supreme Court makes a ruling like that, Okay, we may not understand,
because you know, there's that somewhatof a Juneteenth mentality in our community,

(13:31):
there's somewhat of a delayed It maytake some of us a while right to
kind of grasp and understand the dynamicsand the ramification of these lawsuits are these
rulings. So the ruling has alreadybeen made. Okay, the decision at
that top level has already been made. The only thing that remains now would

(13:54):
be for those of us who filea motion, who had a time out,
who had a flat on the field, to go back now and make
sure that that play that we wererunning that would guarantee us a field goal,
as it were, a touchdown,will not be interfered with. And
fortunately, and hopefully our members nowthose who were excluded the right to fill

(14:18):
out a form to partake in thosebillions of dollars that Congress set us out,
they will be able to get theirquote unquote, just deserts and a
happy mail, hopefully fifty thousand dollars. Wow. So, mister Barrell,
the USDA was just sitting on thatmoney, just holding the money as they
always have. That's what they didin nineteen ninety nine when Congress set aside

(14:43):
three billion dollars. Okay, theydid it in two thousand and eight,
they did it in twenty twelve becausehere, again under this Chevron doctrine,
they were able to make the decisioneven after bail the money had been put
aside for these individuals. The discriminationis so perverse, it is so rapid

(15:07):
at that agency that they could notdivorce themselves from doing the right thing and
doing right by black folks and Blackfarmers and their heirs. They would hold
that money. And that's why westill have the fifth lawsuit, the sixth
lawsuit, the ex lawsuit, thewild lawsuit, because they refused and have

(15:31):
refused to do right by the AfricanAmerican community, and they were able to
get away with it because of thisdoctrine that they call what the Chevron doctrine,
which was passed in nineteen eighty four, and what Unfortunately, that doctrine
would allow a federal judge to say, well, well, you know what,

(15:54):
Black farmers, we believe you wereright, but in this particular case,
we have to defy. And that'swhy they referred to that as the
Chevron deaference. We have to deferto usd eight. Well, you are
deferring to the person that's being sued, and that's why we've always argued that

(16:15):
that was inherently unconstitutional. That theright of a person to inherit property is
a fundamental right. It is aright that all citizens have at birth.
Bath. I might not have theright to drive a car until I'm a
certain age. I might not havea right to vote until I'm a certain
age. But the right to inheritproperty from my parents, my grandparents exists

(16:41):
today that I'm born. That's whywe call that a natural right, and
in an unble right of all therights, that is the most supreme right.
If I could pair a phrase thegospel, when God created the Covenant,
as it were made the agreement withAbraham, he said, I'm not
going to give it to you,Abraham, the land that flow with milk

(17:03):
and out of it, But I'mgoing to give it to who your children's
children? Who is it that whatyou're working hard? You rest in the
notion bad that when something happened toyou me that at least our children will
be able to get that which weworked for. Yes, this is why
what USDA is doing, or tryto do is frightening. This is sinister.

(17:30):
No nation, no agency into theUnited States, has attempted to deprive
a child, think about it now, an air from receiving the benefits of
its parents and or grandparents. That'swhat USDA did with this forty page application,
and that's why we file that lawsuit. And this is what we were

(17:53):
talking about. If you recall thelast time we were here, we were
going around the country holding meetings.We went to hither, we went the
thither, we went to North andSouth Carolina, asking our members, effectively,
not to fill out the forty pageapplication. And one of the reasons
we were asking them not to doit if you remember this concept or this

(18:18):
in baseball, as it were,I'm on the batter's mound. If the
picture throws a ball, and ifit's a foul ball, if I don't
swing at it, it's charged againstthe picture. But if I swing at
the foulball and miss it, it'scalled a strike. It's charged against me.
So whether it's a file, foulball, or a strike depends on

(18:41):
what I'm gonna do with it.So we were asking our members not to
swing at these foul balls. Okay, let the ball go by as it
were, but that was a hardone to do for a lot of people.
Yeah, well, if we don'tfill out the paper now we may
miss our opportunity. But we weretelling them we had filed them in court
at least wait for the court tomake that ruling. And the court has

(19:04):
made a ruling in a case that'ssimilar situated to hours and as we said,
and I think it's worth repeating todeclare that tool, that doctrine that
USDA was using to make itself thejudge or the jury as to who it
should have paid after they received themoney for paying that they still denied African

(19:30):
Americans. If I could make oneother point, yes, sir Lyndon and
Johnson. I was about fifteen tosixteen years old when he made the speech
after Bloody Sunday in sell May,Alabama, sell By, Alabama. This
was in the sixties, nineteen sixtythree, and he had a he convened
Congress to try to get them tohave passed the routing rights at well you

(19:52):
know the story. But one ofthe things Lyndon Johnson said in that meeting,
he said that every device for whichhuman ingenuity is capable has been used
to deprive the African American of hisrights. In other words, every time
we figure out how to solve theproblem the fixed discrimination human ingenuity, somebody's

(20:15):
going to come up with another trick. Somebody's going to come up with another
scheme. Somebody's going to come upwith something else to deprive the African American
of his rights. USDA fits thatmode to the t. Every time Congress
would say, well, you discriminatedagainst this group and now you have to

(20:36):
pay them, they would come upwith the tool, they would come up
with the device, They would comeup with some trickery to deny those individuals.
So hopefully now with this ruling,the passage of this ruling, the
trickery the substitute. You got toknow, it's not going to go away.
And that's why it's important to havean association like the Black Farmers and

(20:56):
Agriculturals Association watch this agency. We'rethe only agency, the only civil rights
organization that called time out. That'simportant to remember. So, in other
words, the ruling does not affectthose other individuals who participated with it and

(21:18):
allow the buzz of the sound asit were, and for them, in
some cases the game it may beover if you've just tuned in this morning,
we are talking with mister Thomas Burrell. He's the president of the Black
Farmers and Agriculturists Association. And alsowe're talking about the US Supreme Court's landmark

(21:38):
ruling that will benefit the Black farmerslawsuit against USDA. If you have a
question or two four mister Burrell,we invite you to call now nine zero
one, five three five, nine, three four to two eight one hundred
five zero three nine four to twoeight three three, five three five nine

(22:04):
three four two will get you into us. You're listening to double d
i A. You're listening to theQueen of Talk on w d i A

(22:38):
working hard to bring you Hodays,never saying for every dy off de break
mondayday. Mister, good morning andwelcome back to w d i A.

(23:07):
I'm BEV. I am talking withmister Thomas Burrell, president of the Black
Farmers and Agriculturists Association. We're talkingabout that US Supreme Court landmark ruling that
will benefit the Black farmer's lawsuit.Mister Barrell. I'm going to our phone
lines to talk to our listeners.Thank you all so very much for waiting.

(23:29):
Hi, Joeanne him, say itagain, Joanne, you were breaking
up? Say it again. Iwill ask mister Brella question. I'm an
heir of a what farmer? Andthe application of the first time they did,

(23:52):
and I was wandering through two wayfor me to fill out the applications
for the conversations. Okay, andso let's say again, So mister Burrell,
because you were you, you're heirof some uh of a black farmer,
a black farmer, and okay,and I did not feel an application
out and I was wanting too latefor me to do it. You didn't
feel an application out. So misterBarrell, what's did joe Anne do?

(24:17):
Now? So Joeanne didn't swing atthe foul ball? Yeah, okay,
joe Anne. Then, particularly ifshe's a member of the Black Farmers an
Agriculturalist Association, which I'm going togive her a telephone number if you don't
mind, sure nine O one fivetwo two eight eight eight zero. We're
holding. You had to give itagain one nine on one five two two

(24:42):
eight eight nine O one five twotwo eight eight eight zero. And Joanne,
what we're doing? Uh? Ifthe line is busy, call back.
We're holding weekly zoom meetings bell forthe benefit of those who are like
Joanne. But yeah, this lawsuitwas filed for the benefit of individuals like

(25:04):
Joeanne. What USDA would have donewas told joe Anne when she went to
fill out. If she had goneto fill out that application for the benefit
of let's say whoever, her father, grandparents, they would have denied her
an opportunity. But because she isan heir, keep in mind the fact

(25:25):
that whomever she will file, ifthey were discriminated against and they are deceased,
then she, as their heir,would have a right to continue their
claim. That's basically constitutional, that'sCivics one oh one, the right to
inherit. She was born with thatright. So if her father, her

(25:48):
mother, her grandparents were discriminated againstit, I'm repeating myself during the relevant
period, and if they can't fillout, and of course they're not here,
then she would be able to keepthat claim going. Okay, So
joe Ane, make sure you givemister Barrell that give them a call.
Okay, I gets the number nineor one, five, two, two,

(26:10):
eight, Oh, that's correct,Thank you, ne, thank you,
bye bye? How many Hello,Yes, you're on the air.
Okay, Okay, I almost askreal, okay, I remember a black
dumb I'm telling the name, andI found myself and when I said,

(26:32):
did they come up with things thatif your parents the old name, you
couldn't get it? So I didn'tget you remember okay? Many remember I
said a minute ago when President Johnsonsaid, yeah, there was always a
device, an excuse, or atrick as it were, to stop block

(26:56):
folks from participating. African Americans didn'tget a chance to participate because they told
them they didn't qualify. So inour community and actually, if somebody says
we can't do anything, we tendto take them at that word and leave.
But the fact that her parents mayor may not have owned any land

(27:18):
doesn't mean that they were not thevictims of discrimination. The lawsuit is not
a even though we call it afarming lawsuit, but it's a discrimination lawsuit
in the area of farming. Whatelse did they bring us to this country
to do? Okay, they didn'tbring us over here because they thought we
would become the senators and congressmen andvice presidents of corporation. But for the

(27:41):
grace of God, we were ableto do that. But The original intent
to bring black folks to this countryman was to do one thing and one
thing on it, and that wasthe farm. Now here you are four
hundred years later, and you're goingto use an excuse that if you look
anything like our look, that youdon't have any connections in that ari culture.
But it's because uh Many, Joe, Anne and others needs an advocacy.

(28:07):
And that's why it's important to beassociated with the company or with an
association, not the Black farmers,because we can see through those. Remember
we filed a lawsuit when one ofour members came back and told us whether
they said I couldn't file the minutethey told her that we got an aphidavit
from her. Our attorneys filed alawsuit, and now the Supreme Court,

(28:30):
among others, have rude that whatusd told them was unconstitutional. But yes
she can. She needs to dothe same thing as the young lady priud
to her eight eight eight zero.Now we hold hold on God five to
two two eight eight eight zero eightzero and fadou five to two eighty eight

(29:03):
eight zero, and call and callyes ma'am, thank you, miss Minnie,
thank you, And can I giveout one other piece of information.
Yes, they can go on ourwebsite, which is w w W dot
B F A A I n Cdot com, B like boy F like

(29:33):
Frank A like Apple A like Appleagain, I n C dot com.
All right, And we're holding weeklyand biweekly zoom meetings to be able to
make sure and they can sign upfor the emails et cetera. Uh.
Yeah, they may not have acomputer, but mostly everybody will have a

(29:56):
cell phone. So we're trying todo as much as we can to get
the word out regarding this important landmarkruling. Back to our phone lines.
Hi Victor, good morning Bell,and good morning Thomas Barrell. How are
you, Victor. I'm quite fine, sir bev. I'm calling to really
give a shout out of support tomister Barrell and a Black Farm Association.

(30:21):
My mother and our brother and sisterssome years ago when bobbed in a horrendous
lawsuit where their land was trying tobe confiscated by the count in which the
land resided, and mister Barrell andthe Black Farm's Associations were primarily and totally
instrumental in helping us to save overa thousand acres of land. Wow.

(30:47):
The strategy and the things that hetalks about are more than real. And
there was a strategic effort underway inthis country to deprive black people of land
ownership. I know Thomas well,I couldn't thank him enough, but I
just want to ask the radio listenersto please support mister Barrell and the Black

(31:11):
Bombs Association because there is accident.Know of an agency that advocates with the
expertise and the compassion, and misterBarrell is shown. So thank you Thomas,
and I'll give you a call whenI get a chance. But I
couldn't say how important it is tosupport this organization. Thank you, beb

(31:32):
and thank you Thomas. Thank youVictor, Bye bye w D. I
a Prince of the Charles say myname, singer name? How you doing
bed? I'm doing well today,Prince. How are you? I'm on
the top step and good morning toyour guests. Mister Barrell, how you
doing third? I'm quite fine,Victor? How are you? I'm sorry,
Prince Charles. I want to sayas well, okay, and I

(31:57):
do too. Good afternoon to yourwell litter morell have two simple questions.
Helpfully you can answer them. Aperson never farmed, but has insquired farmland.
The person left the left the farmland. Should that individual could they

(32:19):
still apply for what you're speaking onright now? I want to make sure
I understand the question that Bell,Okay, christshad. You're saying A.
Let's say A left some land toperson B. Yes, that was farm
land that they farmed on it.But the person that they left it to
do not farm the land. Allright, I understand. So let's say

(32:42):
B is the person that they leftthe land too, yes, and B
is not a farmer. Okay,there are several things B can do.
B can now apply for loans toif B chooses to become involved, or
BE can file if A was discriminatedagainst. Let's assume that the person A

(33:05):
in your case, who left youthe property number y were they a victim
of discrimination by USDA. You don'thave to answer that question, okay,
but my question I want you tothink about it because that would be one
source of an opportunity. The question, and this is why this not allowing
an air beav to is so forebodingis because it's effectively economic genocide. In

(33:31):
other words, African Americans have acquiredall of these thousands and millions of acres
of land over the last one hundredor two hundred years, and now you
are not going to allow the descendantsto carry that forward, either by compensating
them for discrimination or not allowing themto have alone. What good would the

(33:53):
property be? What good would theland be? Now? The reason this
rule, and I'll get back toPrince chauices more specifically, the reason this
ruling is so important is that itreally affect people in business. However,
African Americans, the number one businessthat black folk were in bed was just

(34:15):
that farming. We didn't look atfarming as a business, We didn't look
at it as an enterprise. Butthe Department of Agriculture and Congress did and
they still do. Therefore, theChevron deference, rightly understood is for basically
people who were involved in business,it affects you, or if you were

(34:39):
in business in the Transportation department,if you were in commerce and trade in
the educational department. But to theextent the African American community is basically a
consumer agency, then the chef RNdifference would then benefit those who are in
coll ute unquote business. And toprint Charles's point, he has a captive

(35:06):
component of business and that is afour letter word, f r M farm.
That farm will entitle him to awealth, a plethora of financial opportunities,
but he has to cross that thresholdof discrimination. And that's what we
do. And as we did inVictor's case, and I remember that was

(35:31):
maybe twenty or thirty years ago.His family they owned, as he said,
virtually one thousand acres in Mississippi andthat was about to be lost.
We were able to step in tohelp them to save that. But we're
not just saving land for the sakeof saving it. We want to save
the land because it's an opportunity foras Charles is saying, to go back

(35:52):
into business. Yes, okay.My second question I'll let you go on
this is that remember signing something saidthe green belt or the green law or
something like that. Do you knowanything about that? Uh, He's probably
referenced to a tax known as greenbelt. Does that make that's exactly what?

(36:13):
Yeah, that's exactly it is.In other words, that is reference
to farming, yes, or taxingor farming. That's like I've never been
a farmer, so I wouldn't know. Just quickly get the question what green
belt? Does? It makes iteasy for a person in agriculture. They
don't have to pay the same amountof taxes. If I own a million

(36:35):
dollar house, I'm going to betaxed at one rate. But if I
own a million dollar farm, theywill tax me according to what it's called
green belt. I may only paytwo hundred dollars for taxes. Because again,
this country encourages folks to go intobusiness, and particularly agriculture. We
were brought here to go into business, as I said earlier, but it

(36:58):
benefited the here. Now that slaveryis over in African Americans have acquired all
of this land. The Department ofAgriculture now wants to take us out of
that business and give that land tothe sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters
of the original plantation owners. Andwe can't allow that to happen. We

(37:19):
owe our ancestors too much. Theywere in business, they just didn't understand
it at the time, and thiscountry favors them. But for that,
there wouldn't be these settlements. TheCongress recognized that we have to compensate these
people for putting them out of quoteunquote business. All right, let me
ask you this, and I leaveyou with this. Oh, if that

(37:40):
individual was part of the lawsuit thatyou spoke about earlier, well, if
they were part of the lawsuit andthey prevailed, not how would I know?
How would I know at this pointin time? Out, Well,
called our office because there are waysthat you can but keep in mind and

(38:01):
we are also dealing with the PrivacyAct too, But there are ways that
you can find out. Call thatsame number and Prince Charles and they can
help you with that information as well. Thank you, sir. You guys
have a beautiful, blessed sake andhealthy dates. YouTube. Prince Charles,
we are talking with mister Thomas Burrell. He is the president of the Black

(38:25):
Farmers and Agricultures Association. We're talkingabout that landmark ruling. Get in before
he gets out of here. Yeah, by three five nine three four two
eight hundred five zero three nine threefour two eight three three five three five

(38:47):
nine three four two will get youin to us. You're listening to double
You Dia. Don't go away.The Bev Johnson Show returns after these messages.

(39:13):
I know your mind ship. I'mtelling you to just keep the firs.
I'm begging out. Billy Johnson Showbecause they have got He's the show.

(39:37):
And back to our phone lines withRay. Hi, Ray, Hey,
how are you? I'm doing welltoday, Ray, and yourself.
I am good. I just wantto claim a little stuff that Thomas morell
And says absolutely the truth, andhe needs to call me. You know

(39:57):
who I am, I think,don't you, Thomas? Oh yeah,
I know that. Boys. Okay, so give me a call so we
can elaborate on some other stuff.All right, good deal, all right
you later, Thank you, Ray, Bud. Yeah. Ray said something
that prompted me to answer additional questionby Prince Chaws. Charles was saying,

(40:22):
now he has inherited, he hasthis property. In addition to the settlement
agreement, Charles will be eligible fromUSDA up to as much as almost four
million dollars in a loan. Wow, okay, a two million dollar operating
loan and two million dollars to purchaseland. Now, this is why it's

(40:44):
so important that individuals prevailed in thelawsuit. Uh. The individual who just
called Ray, I know enough aboutRay prevailed. H We've got young black
men and women who prevailed, andthey were able to use not only the
settlement agreement to go into business butthat settlement agreement qualified them for additional loans.

(41:07):
So keep in mind, it's more, infinitely more to it, and
this is why we're having these zoommeetings at our If they go to our
web page and sign up for thesezoom meetings, then we can we're talking
about wealth creation and generational wealth pastthe farming component. But how do we

(41:27):
now use our agricultural platform to getus to the next generation to create wealth
and lead wealth for the quote unquotenext generation. So, mister Burrell,
how do people who are listening,who may be farmers, who are listening
around, how do they can jointhe organization become members? Oh? Yes,
we encourage them to join. Butfor the fact that it is our

(41:51):
members that made it possible for usto sue USDA as it were. Wow,
okay, there are a lot ofblack organizations out there, but they
were not allowed to sue because youcan't take money from the agency and sue
the same agency. Right, Soone of the hardest things for us was
to convince our members that we haveto remain financially independent. You're not going

(42:15):
to be able to haul people inthe court if you're getting money from them,
right, Okay, so if youcan remain independent, then if they
are using these devices to deprive yourindividual members of their rights, you won't
have a problem filing a lawsuit againstthem. But to make a long story
short, it is going to requireadvocacy and our ability to enforce our rights.

(42:40):
We can't just say I have aright without the ability to enforce it,
and you do that. Unfortunately,sometimes you have to take people to
court. There's an old saying thatgoes, whatever a man ought to do,
he ought to be made to do. And because USDA didn't do what
they were supposed to do, thecourts now are saying we will make you

(43:02):
do it. Unfortunately, but that'sjust the way it is. Bell up
here again. Our telephone number atthe office is nine on one five two
to eight eight eight zero. Ourweb page is BFAA NC dot com.
And we're having a zoom meeting thiscoming Thursday night, so they need to

(43:22):
call in get signed up for thezoom meeting. So forth and so on
and so up too. And asalways, Bell, we love you,
we appreciate you, I appreciate yougiving all this information. Before you go,
I have to ask this question.Sure, how's it looking, mister
Burrell with those people in the landin Blue Oval. Oh yes, well,
keep in mind Blue Oval is stillup and running. The first vehicle

(43:45):
we'll told we'll be running off theproduction line next year. Unfortunately, we
still have some issues with black landownersin the area because a lot of that
land is air property. Yeah,we've got to get handle and there are
handles, there are solutions to it. But because discussing land issues in the

(44:07):
African American community BED has been somewhatof a taboo subject. The older generations
just didn't want to talk about it. And this is why we're telling the
new generation. Now call your cousin, called a tout call Uncle Joe,
and cutwill ed and said, comeon, y'all, we've got to talk

(44:27):
about this property. Notice the youngman Victor said his family owned over one
thousand acres and Victor and the reasonI love that and the reason they prevail
is the family got together. Wetalked to the ones in Chicago, we
got with the ones in Melphis,we got with the ones in Saint Louis,

(44:49):
and they agreed. That's the chalice. So the opportunities that blew over
there will be opportunities in hither they'regoing to be opportunities is in thither and
but we have to come together andcall us around the family first. But
we thank you for allowing us andto have a platform to be able to

(45:10):
get this information out. Bet welove you. Thank you. Members of
the Black Farmers Association love you alsowell. Thank you so much, and
I thank you for coming in andsharing sharing the good news with us.
Thank you, mister Thomas Morell y'all, who is the president of the Black
Farmers and Agriculture Association. Give thema call five two two eight eight eight

(45:35):
zero. That's nine zero one fivetwo two eight eight eight zero. Give
them a call their website b FA A I n C dot com.
When we come back, we'll sharemore information. He's back. Yeah,
my favorite chiropractice doctor, Bobby Myers, will be talking with him next as

(45:59):
we go to the other side ofthe BEB Johnson Show on do w d
IA. Whether you're in Arkansas,Tennessee, or Mississippi on Facebook, Twitter,
or Instagram, thank you for listeningto the BEB Johnson Show on do
w d I A Memphis