Black farmer runs for Congress

By Tim Wheeler

WASHINGTON - John Boyd, a Black farmer and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), is running hard to win a House seat Nov. 7, to represent Virginia's 5th Congressional District.

Running as a Democrat, Boyd has won backing from House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Ca.) and John Conyers for his leadership of the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) which he founded in 1995. Boyd played a leading role in the militant protests backed up by a lawsuit charging the U.S. Department of Agriculture with decades of racist discrimination in refusing to award Black farmers USDA loans. A Washington judge last year ordered USDA to pay Black farmers $2 billion in restitution.

Boyd stepped down as president of the NBFA to run against incumbent Rep. Virgil H. Goode who bolted the Democratic Party last February and announced he would seek reelection as an "independent." Goode voted nearly without fail for then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich's "Contract on America." He was one of five House Democrats who voted to impeach President Clinton.

The Virginia GOP voted unanimously at their convention last summer to endorse Goode, who distributed campaign buttons with pictures of himself, Republican presidential nominee, George W. Bush and former Virginia Governor George Allen who is trying to unseat Democratic Senator Charles Robb.

Goode is a deeply entrenched reactionary politician who enjoys lavish financial backing of the tobacco interests and the gun lobby.

But Boyd is a skilled grassroots fighter. Royce Adams, a Philadelphia longshoreman a member of the International Longshoremen's Association, is an active supporter of the Black farmer's movement and knows Boyd well. "John Boyd is not only a leader of the Black farmers, he is also a trade unionist, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers," Adams said. "The AFL-CIO in Virginia is giving solid support to John Boyd. The Congressional Black Caucus is also fully in support of his campaign."

This reporter spoke with Boyd at the Rally for Rural America on Capitol Hill last March 21. He was greeting farmers from across the country who had gathered to protest the deep crisis that is driving farmers out of business.

Boyd vowed if elected to fight to defend family farmers from being driven off the land. His platform also includes increased federal funding for public education, reduced class size, increased teacher salaries, and the construction of new schools and renovation of old schools.

Conscious of the high jobless rate in Virginia's 5th District, especially among textile workers, Boyd also vows to bring new jobs to the region and new markets for farmers. He is a tobacco farmer himself and promised to seek government debt relief for tobacco farmers.

Boyd told a recent press conference, "I will offer the 5th District sound leadership, integrity and vision to ensure that all Virginians will prosper and have adequate healthcare, Social Security, solid educational opportunities and affordable housing."

Of Goode's defection from the Democratic Party, Boyd said, "I think that any time you take Democratic funds and skip the party, I think you have done a wrong to the people that supported you and the people who voted for you. That's something I promise you I would not do."