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Just Harvest: The Story of How Black Farmers Won the Largest Civil Rights Case against the U.S. Government
When a class-action lawsuit against the US government results in a billion dollar settlement for the aggrieved parties, you’d expect the story to be headline news . . .to be posted on social media everywhere . . . to be adapted to film or even to a popular legal procedural series on TV . . .
So why then have so many people never heard of Pigford vs. Glickman?
Or the follow-up lawsuit, Pigford II?
Or the Black Farmers Case, as the pair of these legal actions is often called?
Could it be that the heart-wrenching story of Black farmers in America, and the monumental legal case that brought long-sought justice to them, is rarely told because it reflects so poorly on the US and its treatment of those whose ancestors helped make the nation an agricultural giant in the first place?
Whatever the reason, the time to tell the full story has come and the person to share the gripping details is Greg Francis, one of the lead counsels in the historic case that finally helped Black farmers achieve equity. In Just Harvest, Francis narrates the dramatic twists and turns of the legal battle fought and won, and evidences the many years of ingrained discrimination and racism that preceded it. Awareness of this story makes us all witnesses to the history still unfolding— and while parts of what is recounted herein will enrage you, the hope is that this book will also inspire, inform, and motivate you to join the continuing fight for the rights of all Black farmers now and in the future.
So why then have so many people never heard of Pigford vs. Glickman?
Or the follow-up lawsuit, Pigford II?
Or the Black Farmers Case, as the pair of these legal actions is often called?
Could it be that the heart-wrenching story of Black farmers in America, and the monumental legal case that brought long-sought justice to them, is rarely told because it reflects so poorly on the US and its treatment of those whose ancestors helped make the nation an agricultural giant in the first place?
Whatever the reason, the time to tell the full story has come and the person to share the gripping details is Greg Francis, one of the lead counsels in the historic case that finally helped Black farmers achieve equity. In Just Harvest, Francis narrates the dramatic twists and turns of the legal battle fought and won, and evidences the many years of ingrained discrimination and racism that preceded it. Awareness of this story makes us all witnesses to the history still unfolding— and while parts of what is recounted herein will enrage you, the hope is that this book will also inspire, inform, and motivate you to join the continuing fight for the rights of all Black farmers now and in the future.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published May 18, 2021
9 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 13, 2021
I found this book quite accident, I was actually shopping at Target & went thru the book section, just for a peek & I found this book. Go Target!! Purchased it immediately.
I first heard about the Pigford case while listening to the radio podcast "Reveal".
The story was called "Losing Ground".
I was simply stunned at this actual story.
How could the USDA do this & get away with it?
How....?
So..here is the link to that show
https://revealnews.org/podcast/losing...
I hope you can click it & listen.
Mr. Francis gives us a deep historical dive into how much discrimination Black farmers have faced.
He does not shy away from some of the violence & racism.
It is powerful & still shocking.
I gasped on page 92.
I Literally GASPED!
He writes about how they attempt to unionize.
And the violence they encounter. And the deaths.
He doesn't flinch when he writes about how their labor was used & used & then they were tricked into believing that eventually, when freed, they would be allowed to farm in peace & quiet & earn a proper living.
That was not to be.
It has not been allowed to be.
From the Southern Homestead Act to the white farmer's using the New Deal to wrench the land from under them & leaving them homeless.
They did this to the tenant farmers & share croppers, the very people who worked the land every day & of course, when the New Deal monies came in - NONE were shared with the tenant farmer or sharecropper.
For the government purposes they simply did not exist.
In 2021, the recent headlines reveal yet again how more attempts to thwart Black Farmers receiving monies from the American Rescue Plan.
There was a reason that the USDA was called the Last Plantation.
This book is deep & an excellent read. I will admit that it is a hard read. Especially after the past few years we have had to endure where racism was barely veiled.
Mr. Francis writes of Pigford II & how he worked hard to ensure that many families who lost so much during the first settlement, after decades & decades could finally be made whole.
This was a really interesting historical read from one of the attorneys on the front line.
I first heard about the Pigford case while listening to the radio podcast "Reveal".
The story was called "Losing Ground".
I was simply stunned at this actual story.
How could the USDA do this & get away with it?
How....?
So..here is the link to that show
https://revealnews.org/podcast/losing...
I hope you can click it & listen.
Mr. Francis gives us a deep historical dive into how much discrimination Black farmers have faced.
He does not shy away from some of the violence & racism.
It is powerful & still shocking.
I gasped on page 92.
I Literally GASPED!
He writes about how they attempt to unionize.
And the violence they encounter. And the deaths.
He doesn't flinch when he writes about how their labor was used & used & then they were tricked into believing that eventually, when freed, they would be allowed to farm in peace & quiet & earn a proper living.
That was not to be.
It has not been allowed to be.
From the Southern Homestead Act to the white farmer's using the New Deal to wrench the land from under them & leaving them homeless.
They did this to the tenant farmers & share croppers, the very people who worked the land every day & of course, when the New Deal monies came in - NONE were shared with the tenant farmer or sharecropper.
For the government purposes they simply did not exist.
In 2021, the recent headlines reveal yet again how more attempts to thwart Black Farmers receiving monies from the American Rescue Plan.
There was a reason that the USDA was called the Last Plantation.
This book is deep & an excellent read. I will admit that it is a hard read. Especially after the past few years we have had to endure where racism was barely veiled.
Mr. Francis writes of Pigford II & how he worked hard to ensure that many families who lost so much during the first settlement, after decades & decades could finally be made whole.
This was a really interesting historical read from one of the attorneys on the front line.
November 27, 2021
From a combination of personal interest in the legal advancements made as a result of inequality and strong recommendations from friends who have met the author, the overlooking of this book would be a mistake.
Before even reading, my expectations were set. From descriptions given by friends and other sources, the book appeared to lay out the pigford v glickman trial by a “timeline” style of writing. Just Harvest does this in one of the most detailed and cumulative ways I have experienced. Facts and dates are often spit out in a linear fashion (and this story is dependent on many specific points of data), but Greg Francis puts traction onto his writing. Traction of which is fueled by real accounts of the human experience, emotion, and in many ways, an unsatisfying ending.
This book bonds specific emotions and memories to the pigford v glickman trial and promotes a general idea that has often been deemed a foreign outcome and thus ignored, even when applying to history. Francis makes it clear throughout his story that happy endings aren’t practical, however not in a pessimistic sense. Rather the conventional “hero’s story” that is filled with large shifts(of good and negative), a peak, followed by a resolution, an issue such as human inequality and exploitation has its own unique structure that cannot be predicted.
With this into consideration, Just Harvest is not a book of few stories surrounding a traditional plot structure. Instead it’s a collection of many real world accounts and statistics that work together to accurately depict the largest civil rights case against the U.S. Government.
Before even reading, my expectations were set. From descriptions given by friends and other sources, the book appeared to lay out the pigford v glickman trial by a “timeline” style of writing. Just Harvest does this in one of the most detailed and cumulative ways I have experienced. Facts and dates are often spit out in a linear fashion (and this story is dependent on many specific points of data), but Greg Francis puts traction onto his writing. Traction of which is fueled by real accounts of the human experience, emotion, and in many ways, an unsatisfying ending.
This book bonds specific emotions and memories to the pigford v glickman trial and promotes a general idea that has often been deemed a foreign outcome and thus ignored, even when applying to history. Francis makes it clear throughout his story that happy endings aren’t practical, however not in a pessimistic sense. Rather the conventional “hero’s story” that is filled with large shifts(of good and negative), a peak, followed by a resolution, an issue such as human inequality and exploitation has its own unique structure that cannot be predicted.
With this into consideration, Just Harvest is not a book of few stories surrounding a traditional plot structure. Instead it’s a collection of many real world accounts and statistics that work together to accurately depict the largest civil rights case against the U.S. Government.
April 5, 2022
I was browsing Borders with a gift certificate, which caught my eye. I had listened to a podcast about "heirs' property and had seen several articles about the subject. This book is not about heirs' property but about how government policies from FDRs New Deal in the 1930s right up to today and the USDA have disenfranchised Black Farmers. It is written by the attorney involved in the lawsuit seeking justice. There is no atoning for the treatment of Black farmers. The injustice is passed from generation to generation. I grew up naively during the Jim Crow era. The Civil Rights Law was passed less than a month after graduating from high school. School children can learn more about racial relations in America by reading the history rather than having a teacher tell them that they are privileged and need to apologize for it. Children are smart and can deduce the truth. My mother taught us as much about George Washington Carver as George Washington. My kids and grandkids have many more Black role models they can learn from, whether this author or John Lewis. It is not critical, and it is not a theory. It is the right way to educate.
December 31, 2022
My eyes were opened with this book. After reading this book I have a different understanding of current media topics that give us just the headlines and not the whole picture. I learned a lot about the history of agriculture in America in this book and why there are changes & retributions that needed to be made.
May 24, 2022
I’m surprised this book has not received more fanfare that it has. This an amazing story, especially the back stories concerning the generations of racism that our government perpetrated against the Black farmers in the South.
I highly recommend this book.
I highly recommend this book.
October 1, 2021
Awesome history of how black farmers struggled for equality and still struggle to gain equilibrium financially! It also reveals how systemic racism is in America.
August 1, 2023
A bit dense but great story telling. America is so deeply broken it’s insane
April 30, 2023
Greg Francis was one of the lead counsels on the historic Pigford v. Vilsack case, which followed the initial Pigford v. Glickman case. Combined, these cases granted black farmers over $2 billion in restitution for decades of discrimination which resulted in lost profits, acreage, and crops due to the denial of loans from the USDA. The cases themselves are incredibly insightful as they brought to light the systemic racism present in the local county USDA offices. Unfortunately, this book focused too much on the attorneys that represented these farmers than the farmers themselves. Francis focused the first 60 pages of the book (25%!!) describing his upbringing in Panama and Florida and his path to law school and practice. This information would be great if this book was his memoir…but it is not. Once we actually got to the cases, some great information was provided, which pointed me to some other resources that I’ve saved to further explore. I felt this book was too light on the details that I would have expected to find, and heavy on the author’s personal feelings and thoughts while representing this class action suit. I do look forward to reading other books on this topic, and this book did provide enough of an introduction to the plight of black farmers in the US.
November 12, 2021
A good quick read that highlights how oppression of America's black citizens specifically impacted the black farmer. From share cropping to later 20th century loan discrimination Greg Francis does a good job of highlighting the uphill battle America's blacks had to take to keep their farm or enter into the agriculture profession. No doubt his ability to tell this story also led to his substantial financial success as a result of a class action lawsuit. The injustices against black farmers are indisputable and the damage is real. I do struggle with how to make these wrongs right (deliver justice) as the individuals that suffered the most harm have long since deceased and government policies targeting specific races may have the affect of creating more resentment and reverse discrimination.
January 31, 2022
Lots of interesting background but not as much was written about the actual case itself. I was expecting more.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews