Black farmers urged to lobby Senate ag panel

(AP) — The head of the National Black Farmers Association is urging African-American farmers to strongly lobby lawmakers to get them to approve a $1.15 billion discrimination settlement.

The proposal to pay claims filed by the farmers who say the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against them was included in the budget President Barack Obama sent to Congress last week.

NBFA founder John Boyd Jr. told about 200 supporters at a rally in Little Rock on Saturday that supporters now need to make sure the plan gets through.

He urged them to "light a fire" under Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat and the new head of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who faces a tough re-election campaign this year.