Federation of Southern Cooperatives
Land Assistance Fund

A Call To Support the Federation of Southern Cooperatives

Federation Evolved FromStruggles For Justice
     I said to you this morning that at the foot of a little bridge in Selma, Alabama the blood of innocent women and children was spilled all across the highway. But what I didn’t tell you this morning was that on that occasion I saw grown men, state troopers and special deputy sheriffs on mounted horse with billy clubs the size of baseball bats coming down on the heads of women and children splitting and them like they were watermelons. I didn’t tell you this morning that you could hear ribs crack as horses ran over the chests of people. I also didn’t tell you that they were being beaten because we were trying to change a system that in my little home town of Selma had resulted in only 150 African American out of 20,000 being registered to vote. Each Black person had to be vouched for by white person. If some white person didn’t say ‘ole Ned was all right, ‘ole Ned didn’t get registered. There were Black and white water fountains; Black and white restrooms; my mother, my wife couldn’t try on a dress or a pair of shoes in some cheap department store; no Black person in the entire state of Alabama had served on jury - not one in one hundred years. That’s what that struggle was about out there on that bridge. 
     And I mentioned to you this morning that the Black Farmer case and other freedom movements were born in the blood on that bridge. One of them was the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.  It came from the blood on the bridge and it has been there now since 1967 serving poor, almost powerless, Black farmers who have to suffer against problems some of you can’t even imagine. And the Federation’s been there since the bridge. And because it serves poor Black people, you might guess it has been the target of one of the longest investigations by the FBI in the history of the country. I don’t know what the hell the fumbling Bureau of Investigation thought it was going to find, but it investigated these poor people from around 1979 to 1981 and then announced they found nothing. But it had the impact of intimidating people who and already been repressed, abused, and just pushed almost in a corner. 

Federation’s Development Work is Essential
     I don’t believe poor Black farmers in the southeast can survive much longer or would have survived to this point without the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. It is incumbent upon everybody here, it is incumbent upon freedom loving people everywhere to make certain that the Federation lasts forever. And the way you do that is by giving up some money and helping to secure this endowment. Ralph and his devoted staff ought not to have to spend 90% of their time begging for money - that ought to be spent servicing Black farmers. And those of us who talk about loving freedom, here’s our chance to become a part of it. 
     The Federation has established credit unions all over Alabama whereby poor Black folk can pool their resources and work together to advance their cause - people who can’t get loans at the regular bank. And it teaches poor rural Black folk about how to work together, about how to pool our resources. I usually don’t wash dirty linen in public, especially if there are a lot of white people present - but you folk are Bioneers so you are not really white folk. Black Americans take in and spend nearly $900 billion dollars a year. If we were a nation we would be the 14th richest nation in the world. Now why is it that a people who are taking in $900 billion dollars, yet have folks on food stamps and living in public housing? What is the disconnect here and why is Ralph at the Federation dealing with credit unions? The disconnect is that we spend everything we take in and we don’t spend it with each other we generally spend it with our enemies. If that is not a recipe for disaster I don’t know what is. To try and deal with that the Federation is in Mississippi and Alabama teaching poor rural Black folks what credit unions are all about. You can’t afford not to support that!
     You ought to help Ralph and them to get not a $1 million dollar  endowment but a $10 million dollar  endowment because you are investing in yourself - you are investing in your nation. Quickly let me tell you something else. The Federation is up to its neck providing housing - not substandard housing.  Housing for people who otherwise would never have a chance at owning a home. You can’t afford not to support that! There is cooperative development all over the south by these people - going from one Black farm to the next Black farm teaching...advocating. In Washington whenever a brand new Farm bill comes out and if you don’t have somebody there speaking for you, you’re out of luck. The Federation is there every time fighting for people who otherwise would never be heard. 

A Call To Support The Federation’s Endowment
     When you help with an endowment for the Federation you are contributing to all of these things I’m talking about. You are contributing to your nation. If you want to fight terrorism start by making a donation to the endowment fund for the Federation. If you were to come into the areas where the Federation operates, I’ll show you some real terrorism - where they pollute the water, where they make our folk live on toxic waste dumps, where the corporations have more rights than we’ve got... the Federation is a power balance to all of that. 
     I end with a beg. Search your heart...search your mind and be honest with your soul. Ask yourself whether or not what these people struggle day in and day out to do is worth your best effort. Ask yourself whether or not you ought to sacrifice and give even more than you intended to give. Or whether you can really live with yourself and don’t do it. It isn’t Ralph’s fight - it’s our fight. 

God Bless You.

J.L. Chestnut is a nationally known civil rights attorney in Selma, Alabama