Release No. 0435.97 Remarks OF SECRETARY DAN GLICKMAN PROFESSIONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKERS CONFERENCE TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY -- DECEMBER 8, 1997 Thank you, Dr. Payton. Thank you for inviting me here today, and thank you for the work you, Dr. Hill and everyone here do for agriculture, education, rural America and our nation. On my way over, I took a quick detour past the new Center for Excellence. I hear good things about the work going on there, especially on food safety. From the ag sciences, to rural business development, to minority outreach, to the Carver experiment station, USDA has a strong partnership with Tuskegee. You've even given us some of our leaders. With me today is Art Campbell, USDA's Deputy Undersecretary for Rural Development. Where's Art? He's doing a great job, and I have no doubt that's got something to do with the fact that he got his architecture degree here -- Class of 66 ... That must be 96. Sorry about that typo, Art ... Anyway, I want to strengthen USDA's ties here and throughout the 1890s community. And, I want to thank all the folks who work with our 1890s Task Force to help us build a strong partnership for the future. I understand that I missed quite a performance last night. I regret that I couldn't make your Christmas concert, but it reminds me of a lighter moment at President Clinton's recent town hall meeting. He was in Ohio leading a conversation on race like the one I'll lead here later today. In the President's group were 2 preachers -- one from a predominantly black church, one from a white church. They became friends through joint congregation activities and said they'd learned a lot from one another. In fact, the white preacher claimed that his church was currently teaching the other how to sing. That brought a few chuckles. Then the other preacher said, don't laugh, we need that help. We've never been too good at country music.' I like to sing myself, but my staff advises me not to in public. That's one of the sacrifices I make in this job, I guess. Nevertheless, I'm honored to be able to speak to you today. Tuskegee is a national treasure, rich in America's history and progress. Whether we're talking about agriculture's future, rural challenges, the plight of small and socially disadvantaged farmers or the task of building one America -- the fault lines of some of the most critical debates of our time run straight through this campus -- as they have for more than 116 years. America's progress can be tracked alongside the rise of this university which first opened its doors on the grounds of an abandoned plantation ... starting out with $2,000 in state funds and a priceless vision. That vision is captured at the heart of this campus in the image of your founding father, Booker T. Washington, lifting the veil of ignorance' from a downtrodden slave ... lifting a people and our nation in the process. I have come here today to talk about our future -- not just agriculture's or rural America's, but our nation's and its people. Over the past year, I have come to understand just how tightly all these threads are intertwined. I'd like to talk today about what -- without question -- has been one of the more educational years of my life. And, I come here today to talk about the future in the most honest and productive way we can, and that is in the context of the past. President Clinton recognized that truth when he said, Without remembering (the past), we cannot make amends and we cannot go forward.' He said those words not in reference to slavery -- although the truth certainly applies. President Clinton said those words in apology for the terrible wrongs perpetrated on people here in Macon County by their government decades ago. We at USDA today are also facing up to the burden of history. It is a history that I regret is known all too well here at Tuskegee and throughout the 1890s community. I am not here to make excuses for this past. I am here to make the same promise to all of you that I have made to President Clinton: Civil rights will be my legacy at USDA. We will have a new day. It has been almost a year since the release of what I believe will prove an historic document -- USDA's civil rights report. I have here with me its author, Mr. Pearlie Reed. He's now my top lieutenant on civil rights matters. I asked Pearlie to put together a team, travel the country and talk to people -- farmers, USDA employees, rural Americans. I joined him at many of these listening sessions. Then, I asked Pearlie for a report not on the problems, but concrete solutions. Pearlie delivered not one idea, not 10, but 92 -- almost all of which are now in place. When President Clinton began his One America initiative, he was greeted with a virtual brick wall of cynicism. A lot of folks appeared to have given up on the task of turning the promise of America -- the dream -- into reality. To them, I say we certainly can make that transformation. Look at how far we've come at the Department of Agriculture in just one year. -- It is now a condition of employment at USDA that every employee treat every customer and co-worker fairly and equitably, with dignity and respect. I've made it clear to USDA managers that their performance on civil rights is as important as their performance on any farm program. -- We have a new no-nonsense policy for USDA foreclosures: When a discrimination complaint is filed, that foreclosure stops immediately until an independent review determines the merits of the case. This is 1997. I will not tolerate a single person losing their land to discrimination. -- Thanks to an aggressive Farm Service Agency recruiting effort, state farm committees today are 10% more diverse than they were just one year ago. This means they can better serve all the people of their state. Look at the new leadership at USDA's headquarters, and you can see a difference there as well. I want the same progress with our county committees. Where there is no diversity, I want the power to appoint someone from the community. That change will require legislation, and I'm working with Congress to get it. -- I am also working with Congress to see that the 1890s universities finally get some guaranteed state matching funds. We cannot have equality of opportunity if we have separate and unequal funding. I've talked with your university presidents and our 1890s Task Force about this. I am 100% committed to enhancing your funding formula. It is the morally right thing to do. -- There is so much potential to build our partnership and better help the communities that we all serve. Today, I'd like to announce $1.6 million in USDA rural business development grants to Tuskegee and 14 other 1890s schools. The money will fund outreach and technical assistance to help low-income rural communities diversify beyond a totally agricultural base and grow stable, successful economies. University folks will help with grant applications and business plans, and together build BISNet -- a web page that can be accessed through the schools and will provide community leaders with information on how to turn economic dreams into reality. -- We can't talk about equity and access without considering economics. A National Commission on Small Farms will soon report to me on the rural, economic and civil rights challenges that make it hard for small-scale farmers of any color to stay on the land. I won't let our small farm heritage slip quietly through our fingers. I want creative credit, outreach and marketing solutions to help smaller operations grow and prosper in the global economy. These are just a few examples of what's been done. And, we're not through yet. Next week, President Clinton and I will meet with about 2 dozen minority and limited-resource farmers -- Black, White, Hispanic, Native American. We'll talk about the economic and civil rights factors that have proven such lethal challenges to many minority-owned and limited-resource farms. Being from the rural South, the President understands and is committed to addressing these issues. One place to start is righting a wrong of the 96 farm bill. It defies reason to declare every farmer who had a debt write-down many years ago ineligible for government farm loans. For-profit commercial banks aren't even that tough. Farming is uncertain. Good people lose their shirts. Our credit policies must include some redemption. We can do it in a way that's fair to farmers and to taxpayers, but it will require legislation. When I get it, I will move quickly to fix this. I want to thank all the people at Tuskegee's Small Farmer Outreach Training and Technical Assistance Project. They've gotten more than $3 million in loans out to folks here in Alabama. And, they've gone the extra mile or 10 or 20 to do it -- visiting people in their homes, churches, community centers. They're connecting USDA programs with people who have been underserved in the past. I thank them for helping USDA break out of the old mold. When it comes to lending, I'm proud of the Clinton Administration's record to date. Since 1993, we've increased farm ownership and operating loans to women and minorities by 74% -- an increase of more than $34 million. That's a strong record, but it's certainly one we can build on. We all know that reaching underserved communities takes more than money it takes people who are committed to bridging that gap. One of those people is Sam Thornton who is also here with me today. Sam's been an adviser to me on civil rights. Now, he will be the director of USDA's new Office of Outreach. I know he'll do a good job, too. You see, Sam doesn't worry too much about me. If something goes wrong with civil rights, his grandma's on the phone. I'm told he'd take me upset with him any day over her. The Office of Outreach is a major deliverable of our civil rights report. Time and time again, we heard: No one tells us about your programs.' I don't know how to apply.' Can someone help me?' ... Sam is your man. He and his staff will get the information out. They can also help -- whether it's giving tips on applications or connecting people with the right person in the right agency. From forestry to nutrition to conservation to rural development to farm loans, these folks are here to bird-dog the bureaucracy and improve USDA's record in underserved communities. To that end, I'd like to announce a new hotline. Take out a pen, if you want. The number is 1-800-880-4183. It rings the outreach office, and the folks who answer are there to help. Our next big task will be to find someone to try and fill Lloyd Wright's shoes. Lloyd's been with USDA for close to 40 years. He's a Virginia State alum. He heads our Office of Civil Rights. Now he's retiring on us. We'll search far and wide for a strong successor. Lloyd's position is critical to one of the most difficult challenges we face at USDA -- wading through a decades-old backlog of hundreds of unresolved civil rights complaints. I saved this for last because I wanted to talk about it in the context of the broader civil rights revolution that is clearly underway at USDA. We are laying the groundwork for a positive future. But I know that we cannot fully achieve that future without dealing with our past. Back in the 80s, the folks who ran USDA disbanded the civil rights investigation team. Some cases piled up and gathered dust for years. I won't venture to guess why that team was disbanded. I don't know. But I will say that I've wracked my brain for an acceptable explanation and come up empty. This problem didn't start on my watch, but I promise you: it will end on my watch. Justice may have been delayed, but it cannot be denied. That said, I don't want to be Pollyannish about this. I want to be up-front: I will live up to my promise, but it's going to take time. This is a monumental task involving hundreds of cases. There is no simple, immediate solution. Justice -- for people who've lodged complaints and for taxpayers -- requires that each case receive individual care and attention. Given the number of cases we have in the backlog, this will not get done overnight ... at least not responsibly. We are committing massive amounts of resources to moving as quickly as we can. I'm involved on a daily basis now. We've hired a full-time, permanent investigation team. We've contracted with a number of private firms to help us do these old investigations that were never done. So far this year, we've resolved 131 program discrimination complaints -- through everything from settlements to program fixes to dismissals where there were findings of no discrimination. I don't like to talk too much about numbers when we're dealing with people's lives and livelihoods, but there is one statistic that I do want to briefly discuss, and that's the number of cases filed this year. That number is about 450. Understandably, this causes some folks to say, Dan Glickman, you say you're changing things, but look at all these new complaints. How can you be serious?' I want to explain what that number really means. We've actually had 60 new complaints -- meaning incidents that allegedly happened this year. They involve minority farmers, women, farmers with disabilities, older farmers. Without question, it's 60 too many. But it's a dramatic drop from years past, and I credit our civil rights effort. What about the other 390 cases? These are people who feel they were treated inappropriately 2, 10, 20 years ago. They kept quiet. They felt they had nothing to gain from speaking up. Now, they see a new USDA, and are finally filing their complaints. One year into our civil rights effort, it's clear that we still have a ways to go, but it's equally apparent that it is already a different world at USDA. That makes a lot of our folks happy. It gives them a sense of pride in their work as public servants. Other folks are a little uncomfortable. Neither response is unique to USDA or to agriculture. They are the same reactions of Americans across the country as we grapple with our ever-increasing diversity. Many Americans truly believe it can be a source of great strength. Just look at the new global economy where countries have to compete in Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim. No country is more ready for this new world than ours. From Bosnia to Rwanda, we've seen the consequences of mindless divisions. It's up to us to use our heads to forge a new path ... following the wisdom of Dr. King who said, we must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish as fools.' This is the work of one America. We must seek ways in our own lives to heal America's old wounds and help build a more United States. By lifting up the black farmer and rural America, Tuskegee has long lived this mission. My goal is to have USDA emerge in the dawn of the next century as the federal civil rights leader. Some are skeptical that can happen. Agriculture, after all, has deep roots in the darkest chapter of U.S. history. Our nation fought a civil war over the right Southern plantation owners claimed to enslave men, women and children. Some say that dooms agriculture to being a perpetual straggler on civil rights. I say it makes us ground zero. Dramatic progress on civil rights in agriculture and rural America could be the catalyst for a just and lasting change in the content of our national character. We shouldn't forget that out of the old South, out of agriculture, out of this university, also came George Washington Carver. His portrait hangs in my office. Born a slave, he died the South's savior -- having spread the gospel of crop rotation and alternative crops. His work saved big and small farmers, black and white. While his genius was sought worldwide, he made time for any farmer who knocked on his door. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford offered to make him rich. But Carver chose to stay here. His epitaph explains it best: He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.' As this conference pursues the theme of equity and access,' I hope we recognize the connection between that quest in agriculture and our nation's happiness and honor. I want to thank the people of this great university -- past and present -- for your many contributions to our nation. But as prestigious a history as you have here at Tuskegee, it is my hope that your greatest chapters have yet to be written. Thank you for inviting me here, and thank you all for the work you do every day on behalf of American agriculture, our nation and the world. # NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.usda.gov