By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – Nearly 900 black farmers in Alabama have filed new lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and more are expected to follow.
The filings come after Congress reopened a discrimination settlement case.
One suit was filed this week on behalf of 550 black farmers this week. Another was filed earlier. They claim that a large percentage of farmers were treated unfairly in the consent decree for the original 1999 settlement and that their compensation claims weren't decided based on merit.
An estimated 73,000 black farmers were denied payments of their claims under the original settlement because they missed the claim deadline. But many of the farmers said the six-month filing period was too short and that they were unaware of the settlement before it was too late.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)