... Many Black farmers experienced blatant discrimination at the United States Department of Agriculture. And, as a farmer, I had my loan application torn and tossed in the trash can. I have been spat on by the person responsible for making farm loans in my county here in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. So, discrimination was very, very pervasive, where many Black farmers was just flat-out denied an application. And they would come into the office and the local officials would say, we don't have any money available. And when white farmers came in, they would process their loans less than 30 days. And, for Black farmers, it took 387 days, on average, to process our loans.

I have to circle back. You were spat at by a federal official?

Yes, chewing tobacco. ...And he would speak loudly and boastfully and downward towards elderly Black farmers, calling them boy... and [saying] how he wasn't going to lend us any of “his” money. ...

...Black farmers in this country from 1910 to 1997 lost 90 percent of their acreage. I wonder, ...will [the targeted farm aid bill] expand the number of farmers of color?

...So, if a farmer can have his debt removed or forgiven, that gives that farmer a little bit of time to look at his farming operation, revamp, regroup. And it also gives us an opportunity to stop some of the foreclosures that have been happening against farmers—Black farmers. So, we will be able to keep more Black farmers on the farm...

What do you say to white farmers who see this as reverse discrimination...?

And I could hear somebody saying that. But $29 billion that went out under the previous administration, the Trump administration—...billions of dollars and loans and subsidies and debt forgiveness. Black farmers have been left out of the equation for decades.

— John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers Association, interviewed on the PBS Newshour by Lisa Desjardins about a new federal law targeting financial aid to Black farmers