Spent a cloudy morning and afternoon tooling around the Baskerville, VA area with Dr. John Boyd, Jr. the president of the National Black Farmers Association. He is leading a coalition of black farmers looking for a settlement of claims of loan discrimination against them by the Federal Government. President Clinton approved the settlement but the case has been ongoing with missed deadlines for payment and many of the claimants dying before receiving their settlements.
We spent the day driving from farm to farm, as he leases land all over to raise cattle and grow hay with his father, feeding cows, checking tractor oil levels and all the never ending tasks that go with being a farmer, especially one who makes regular trips to DC to lobby congress.
I love photographing agricultural stories, the landscape, the quiet, the people above all. There is a certain naïve romance to it for me, what do I really know about farming, but I do know that to survive as a small farmer is nearly impossible and it was nice to spend time with someone who speaks out against discrimination and grows things, to boot.
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