In 1997, the United States Department of Agriculture released a report admitting it had routinely discriminated against Black farmers by denying them loans and technical assistance. As a result, Timothy Pigford, a Black farmer in North Carolina, sued the USDA. The case known as Pigford versus Glickman would ultimately become the largest class action civil rights lawsuit in US history. A judge ruled in favor of Mr. Pigford and the 30,000 other Black farmers who joined the suit. These farmers were promised a collective payout of nearly $2.2 billion. But like any race-related thing in America, the ruling wasn’t as black and white as it seemed. 

My name is Shirlette Ammons, I’m a storyteller, musician, and host of this podcast we call TENDING. But most importantly, I’m the granddaughter of a Black farmer.

With TENDING, our goal is to use the historic Pigford case to try and answer this question

Over six episodes, TENDING takes a look back at the creation of the USDA, its favoring of agribusiness and its penchant for racism. I travel the south and sit on the porches of Black farmers who were claimants in the Pigford case. I visit their small middle-of-somewhere hometowns and listen to their stories of discrimination at the hands of the USDA and its local affiliates. I walk rows of crops, break bread, take in the natural sounds, meet kinfolk, and remember farmers who didn't live to see justice served

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I also invite you to bear witness to the exhausting, generations-long fight that continues against skewed odds.

TENDING seeks the harvest at the end of a long row. Hope you'll join us.