Georgia Democrat works to remedy decades of USDA discrimination against Black farmers

WASHINGTON — The arrival of U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in Congress earlier this year coincided with an overdue recognition of the historic discrimination inflicted on Black farmers by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The farmers’ plight has emerged as a major priority for Warnock, a Georgia Democrat whose victory in a January special election runoff handed his party a slim majority in the Senate for the first time in a decade.

Senate Democratic leaders who want him re-elected in 2022 are also highlighting Warnock’s key role in moving legislation and crafting policy to provide economic relief to Black farmers across the U.S. and in the Peach State.

On top of that, the House Agriculture Committee—long a bastion of mostly white farm-state lawmakers—now is headed up by its first Black chairman, Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat whose inaugural hearing reviewed the decades of losses faced by Black farmers in the U.S.

Read more: https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/georgia-democrat-works-to-remedy-decades-of-usda-discrimination-against-black-farmers/