(Tues. August 3, 2010) Hours after he will hold a press conference in front of the USDA building in Washington, D. C. calling for the resignation of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Mr. Thomas Burrell, President of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalsts Assoc. will talk with Cyrus Webb on Conversations LIVE Radio.
This will be a live interview beginning at 8:30p.m. EST (7:30p.m. CST/5:30p.m. PT), and the two will talk bout the lawsuit brought by the Black Farmers, the firing and events surrounding the dismissal of Shirley Sherrod and why Burrell feels that the USDA Secretary must go.
At the press conference that will be held at 10a.m. EST that day (Tues. Aug. 3, 2010, the Black farmers cite the hasty, unwarranted firing of Sherrod and the reluctance to honour a Settlement Agreement, that provides restitution to Black farmers who were discriminated against by the USDA, as but two reasons why Secretary Vilsack should step down. "Secretary Vilsack's quick actions in the firing of Shirley Sherrod was unfortunate and it proves that there continues to be an untenable culture of racial discrimination at the Department of Agriculture," says Tom Burrell, President of the BFAA, Inc.
"On his watch, some 70,000 Black farmers and their families stand to lose their homes and land, because he is also trying to avoid giving them the restitution that they were awarded by a federal court under the Pigford Consent Decree Settlement Agreement," Burrell continued.
The Settlement Agreement was the result of a 1999 lawsuit filed against the USDA because of decades of discrimination against Black farmers. The suit stemmed from Black farmers being denied access to farm loans and other credit and benefit programs that were readily available to their white counterparts, a practice that continues today.
Watch the national news for coverage of the press conference, but tune in to Convesations LIVE on Tues. Aug. 3, 2010 @ 8:30p.m. EST (7:30p.m. CST/5:30p.m. PT) for the full story from Mr. Burrell himself. To listen to the show online, visit http://www.blogtalkradio.com/conversationslive/2010/08/04/radio-hostauthor-freeman-michaels-and-thomas-burrell-of-bfaa-on-conversations-live-radio at show-time.
