Atty. Ben Crump Is Fired Up About Black Farmers — Speaks at Black Men Xcel About Launching a Lawsuit Against Biden Administration Close to Midterms

Journalist Ed Gordon sat down with civil rights Attorney Benjamin Crump for a conversation Thursday at the BLACK ENTERPRISE Black Men Xcel Summit in National Harbor, Maryland.

Crump, who was fresh off of receiving his Black Men Xcel Award Wednesday night, discussed environmental racism, Black farmers, and more.

The conversation started with Crump, coined as “Black America’s attorney general,” discussing the class action lawsuit Black farmers have filed against the Biden administration, which unveiled a $4 billion program for them in 2021 that was part of the American Rescue Plan. However, Black farmers were left on the hook for months before the program was reworked and broadened after white farmers halted the program in court, claiming racial discrimination.

“You may all remember there was a big celebration at the Rose Garden, during the American Rescue Plan ct where they said they were going to give $5 billion to Black farmers for relief for the discrimination they’ve faced and the fact that the Trump administration gave out $16 billion to farmers of which less than 1% went to Black farmers,” Crump told the audience.

According to Crump, the Biden administration expanded the program to allow white farmers, which led to the lawsuit. The suit has upset some in the Biden administration. Crump responded to those politicians who believe the class-action suit is coming at the wrong time.

“Now a lot of people are saying this is an inconvenient time to be doing this so close to the midterms, and I’m here saying, ‘Y’all understand that the USDA is foreclosing on Black farmers. Is it not inconvenient for them?” Crump added.

“So y’all want us to wait until after the midterms when we have no leverage at all and think you’re going to do right by us?”

Crump has represented families of victims of police brutality, including the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others. Graves and Crump also talked about standing up and fighting for the rights of Black people, who have pushed Democrats into control of the government but are still not seeing the fruits of that labor.

“Everybody watched them change the water supply to the Flint River, it wasn’t a secret, it was written about in newspapers and everything,” Crump said. “The federal government kept saying this water is safe while scientists said this water is bad. We went out, and we delivered for the party in power the House, the Senate, and the White House, and you would think that the first thing they would do is say, let’s really look at Flint, Michigan, or Jackson, Mississippi, these enclaves of African Americans that are so loyal to us and we can always count on them, let’s give something back to them, but they didn’t do that.”

Crump did credit the Obama administration, which according to him, was sued more than 40 times for saying the agency can’t make it legal to build toxic chemical plants in Black and Latino neighborhoods that pollute the groundwater and harm residents.

“It’s that type of stuff when we say environmental racism,” Crump told the audience. “It’s legalized genocide when you let these companies come, and you know it’s going to shorten our lifespan what else can we call it?”

Crump added that to create change, we need to start with the Black men and women in the room, who can help the vulnerable and disenfranchised Black people in this country.

“We’re the talented 10% that W.E.B. DuBois talked about,” Crump said. Ten percent of us are going to be fine, but 90% of our people are going to struggle, and if we don’t fight to help them, they’re not going to be saved, so we all have to make a commitment, and I’m not saying everyone has to be on the front lines, but you got to say I’m going to do something, I don’t care what it is.”