Osborne & Francis attorney Greg Francis served as lead counsel for the team of lawyers that went up against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a historic case. The team reached a $1.25 billion settlement with the USDA on behalf of black farmers from around the country.
The case showed how tens of thousands of black farmers suffered systematic and repeated discrimination at the hands of the USDA from 1981 through 1996. During that period, black farmers were allegedly denied loans, subsidies, and other benefits provided to white farmers.
As a result of the settlement, more than 33,000 individual black farmers or their heirs received payments of $50,000, plus an additional payment of $12,500 paid to the Internal Revenue Service to cover the taxes owed on the awarded amount. This is the largest civil rights settlement in U.S. history.
Francis has compiled lessons from his experience litigating the lawsuit for a new book, titled “Just Harvest.”