Testifying on the Black Farmers Class Action lawsuit, Selma attorney J.L. Chestnut will face 37 U.S. representatives in the Judiciary Committee today in Washington.

The odds are almost enough to drum up some sympathy… for Congress.

“It’s high level competition and it is intense,” Chestnut said. “If I was not so disturbed over what I know is going on, I’d have a much more positive feeling about being called to testify before a Congressional Committee on the constitution of the United States.”

According to a letter from Wisconsin Rep. and Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Chestnut is being invited to testify on the matter of notice in the Pigford v. Glickman Consent Decree, better known as the settlement in the Black Farmers lawsuit.

After the settlement, an additional 65,000 black farmers wanted to join, but it was too late because the action had been legally closed.

Chestnut says enough of those farmers petitioned Congress that they have initiated hearings on the case.

Chestnut believes that some in Congress will try and blame the attorneys for not giving out enough notice nationwide.

“Congress, in my opinion, is looking for someone to blame. What (Sensenbrenner) wants to say is if you all had acted right and these folks had got notice, they would be in this lawsuit. He has limited the whole testimony to notice.” Chestnut said. “This is not about notice, the notice in this case was as complete as any I’ve ever seen.

The truth

of the matter, and I’m going to tell them tomorrow and they don’t want to hear it, is they can go out there now and find another 65,000 who want to get in the lawsuit.”

Part of the problem, Chestnut said, is that many black farmers didn’t believe in the lawsuit.

They didn’t believe the government would pay, he said. Now, that they see the government is paying, many more want into the action.

“That, in a sense, has almost become our Frankenstien,” he said. “Everybody who really does not understand the intricacies of what is a legislative problem as opposed to a legal problem.

The farmer says ‘you didn’t change the structure of the USDA, the same people who discriminated against us are still there.’ They don’t understand that’s a legislative problem and Congress is ducking it.”

The suit, one of the biggest class action suits in the country, ended in an $800 million settlement spread to black farmers across the country for discrimination by the USDA.

“This is a huge lawsuit which effects the very fabric of this nation,” Chestnut said. “The reach of this lawsuit is probably more extensive than any other class action that I have been in.

In terms of its civil rights potential, it lifted and revived hope in some of the most vulnerable and weak people in the United States.”

The suit accused the USDA, the second largest entity within the U.S. Government, of discrimination by distributing funds unfairly. Chestnut says the settlement has paid more than $800 million to 80,000 black farmers all over to the country and $2 million to farmers in Alabama.

Part of the process was an amendment passed by Congress, allowing the Black Farmers to bypass a statute of limitations law and go ahead with the lawsuit.

Part of the problem, Chestnut believes, is that there aren’t enough votes in both houses to make that exception for the 65,000 black farmers not included in the class action.

“Congress knows they are not going to be able to get it through both houses a bill amounting to another $900 million payout,” Chestnut said. “They are going to say the case was flawed, open the case.”

According to Chestnut, the USDA set up committees in each area that handle distribution of money.

Many of these committees, he said, discriminated against black farmers.

“It was a huge mess,” Chestnut said.

The settlement, splits the members of the action into two categories, A and B.

In A, the farmers kept complete records and the case stands on it’s own merit with no limit on how much the farmer can win in damages.

They are entitled to a four-hour mini-trial to make their case.

In Class B, the farmers who didn’t keep their paper work but can substantiate their case are entitled to a cap payment of $50,000 plus another $12,000 to cover taxes on the $50,000.

There were other injunctive relief measures added, including allowing black farmers to bypass the local USDA officials if they deem it necessary.

Also Black Farmers whose land has been foreclosed upon, but not auctioned off are entitled to take the land back. Black Farmers also get to move to the head of the line for any other USDA programs.

Chestnut said that of the $800 million paid out, only $15 million has gone to lawyers nationwide.

In fact, Chestnut added that his law firm took out a $2.5 million loan locally to cover expenses until the government paid, only to find out the government would not cover the interest on the money.

“This is not a lawsuit the lawyers got rich in,” he said.

In the end, Chestnut said the lawsuit is about helping small black farmers who were mistreated.

“Twenty years ago there were 50,000 small black farmers in the country,” Chestnut said. “It is now less than 8,000.”