MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Mid-South farmer is headed to the White House to handle unfinished business.
He has a meeting with President Trump and there’s at least $1 billion on the line.
The fed-up farmer says he wants the president to settle a decades old fight.
“I hope that it is game changer,” farmer Bishop David Hall said.
Hall says he’s been denied over and over the money he is owed.
“We think if he has an ear to listen it’s a good time for us.”
The farmer is hoping President Trump will take his side.
“He as a president has the opportunity to right a wrong.”
It’s a wrong that happened almost 20 years ago when a federal judge ruled some farmers had been denied loans because they were black.
“They said you have been discriminated against because of your color,” Hall said.
By 2011 nearly 16,000 farmers had collected settlements totaling almost $ billion. But tens of thousands of other farmers missed the deadline to collect.
So Congress set aside more money and offered another opportunity for farmers, but then The Department of Agriculture initially denied their claims.
However, an appeals court has now ruled these black farmers, who’ve been mired in debt and bankruptcy, are entitled to the settlement money.
Now it’s time for ink to flow, and perhaps the money too.
On Tuesday, Hall will meet with President Trump in hopes the president will instruct his justice department to follow the court’s order. The order was issued by Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s court nominee.
Judge Kavanaugh who has just been nominated for the Supreme Court was there when we went into court.
“If he would pick a Judge Kavanaugh, why wouldn’t he listen to us,”
The hope is that getting that money will help pull some of those farmers out of debt and back into business. That will allow them to again be able to put food on the table for their families.
