by Paul Ham for the Autumn 2026 issue
(Impossible Love by Daniel Johnston)
In Melungeon Heritage Association v. Commonwealth, Department of Agriculture, Judge Shaffner held that co-plaintiff Dan Tolliver and others of Melungeon ancestry qualify as “socially disadvantaged farmers” under Federal law and therefore the Commonwealth erred in denying Tolliver’s application for a low-interest farm loan.
Jay wanted Willa to fall back in love. So Willa started planning. She loved him before, but she couldn’t anymore–her capacity drained. May as well be with Jay, whom she at least knew how to love.
They met three years ago at an HR conference in Boston, in the Berkeley Room. Jay was in from Pittsburgh, to present on false-positive misclassification by financial auditing systems. He worked in HR at Pitt, harassment and discrimination cases, in and out, every day.
“Our software was looking for anomalous expense data, but instead it was inadvertently flagging ethnic minorities based upon their quote-unquote outlier behaviors.”
Willa was at Sanofi, risk-auditing expense reports from the finance side. Ironically, she had been flagged, investigated, and reprimanded for bodega receipts that were “too ethnic” and thus outliers.
“Jay, but understandably these are truly outlier conditions. How do we train the software to know, for example, that plantain chips and beef patties could be legitimate expense options?”
“I don’t think we can.”
*
The Melungeon Heritage Ass’n (MHA) in their lawsuit recounted:
10. Melungeons are a racial and ethnic population whose ancestors settled in the Appalachian Mountains (from Mississippi to the edge of New York state) for 200 years, tracing back to the 1800s.
11. Colonial and state governments classified Melungeons as “free persons of color,” “mulatto,” or similar designations that marked them as racially “other.”
12. Based on these classifications, Melungeons were subjected to racial violence, denied the right to vote, barred from white schools, prohibited from testifying against white persons in court, and subjected to antimiscegenation laws.
13. The federal government participated in this classification. Census records from as early as 1830 forward categorized Melungeon families using racial designations including “free colored,” “mulatto,” and “negro.”
In the case, MHA represented Dan Tolliver, a Pittsburgher claiming Melungeon descent. He wanted to buy out his grandmother’s 62 acres—she’d borrowed $50,000 against land now worth ten times that. The government denied him. Melungeon wasn’t on the approved list. Not Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific Islander, and therefore not “socially disadvantaged.”
The judge granted summary judgment on the papers, ruling that Melungeons, based upon decades of government-sanctioned discrimination, do qualify for the farm loans. Dan took that to the bank and got his $50,000. A few days later, the government appealed.
The news took a liking to Dan’s cause. Jay had heard the word Melungeon scattered throughout his childhood and started doing his research. Sure, he was darker, but his bone structure was Anglo, and he had always identified as white. His mom’s name was Yoder–typical PA Dutch. Her mom was Grammy Sis, a Deel. But his great-grandmother, Nonna, was a Tolliver.
“Willa, my mom said they never called themselves Melungeon because of racism, but she always knew she was. I’m Melungeon, I don’t give a fuck what color that means I am.”
“Uhm, OK.”
“Willa, that means we don’t have to rent or buy a townhouse in the suburbs. We can get a loan and buy a whole fucking farm.”
*
Willa planned to tell Jay that she’d take his name; planned to have children; planned to have two SUVs and a house. But if they could get a loan to buy a farm–she could raise chickens for eggs and sheep to tend the fields; her kids could be in the sun all day long and get lost amongst the corn and sorghum; she could build the house she wants, not just a house she gets. She bragged to her best friend Stella that she could wear overalls all day, every day–and not much else.
Willa printed three copies of the Motion for Summary Judgment with the judge’s five words (“MSJ granted for the plaintiffs”) scribbled in the top left-hand corner. A few weeks later the email approving them for $150,000 showed up, enough for about 15 acres somewhere like Claysville.
*
Fanning from downtown, up over Mount Washington and the old funicular incline, over the Point where the Allegheny and the Monongahela meet and make the Ohio. Follow the southward gaze along the hip of the mountains, and you’ll find Claysville. The land of Carnegie (Car-NEG-ee) Steel. Of coal miners with divining rods. Of moonshine and dirty meth.
Jay went to Claysville every Sunday morning, looking for 15 acres. He didn’t mind hills, but he needed water near. Willa wanted room for chickens and sheep, and no more than a few acres for food. They wanted to build a family farm, enough for them, and enough for some dough on the side–and to fulfill the regulatory requirements of being a “farm.” They’d start in a prebuilt modular and add on as their family grew.
*
“Jay, the government just filed an appeal against the Tolliver case.”
“What does that mean? Do I want to know?”
“I don’t know, but maybe we’re going to lose the loan.”
“Well, we better get fucking moving then. Let’s buy some fucking land.”
*
Later that night, Willa called up Grammy Sis. “And where did you say you grew up?”
*
If you’re going over 35, you’d miss the turn-off. 13.75 acres a little up a hill off of Route 231, on the side so you get the sun in the winter. He put the whole thing under his name. He didn’t even tell Willa until after he signed.
Willa printed out three copies of the deed, noting only one signature. OK, she thought. Then this is all on him.
*
Melungeon Heritage Association v. Commonwealth, Department of Agriculture
The lower court’s order is VACATED and the matter REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this Opinion. Jurisdiction relinquished.
*
“You’re a lawyer, Stella, what does this mean?”
“I’m a paralegal. I don’t know. Looks like the government won their appeal and the judge who approved the Melungeon loans was wrong? I think it means the rules have changed? You don’t have the loan anymore?”
“What? Do we have to pay it back? Stella, we already bought the land!”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you talk to one of your lawyers, your friends?”
“Willa, I’m just a paralegal. They barely know my name. I’m like a servant, a butler. And I can’t just drop a bomb legal case on them out of nowhere. They’ll think I’m a problem.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Just wait? I don’t know!”
*
“What the fuck does that mean? Willa?”
“Jay, we don’t fucking know.”
“Do we lose the farm? What the fuck are we going to do?”
“Jay, we just don’t know. Stella says the best thing to do is wait.”
“Stella, what does she know, she’s just a paralegal.”
“But she’s smart and she knows the law better than you do.”
“Fucking A.”
“Jay, I know it’s not fair. I hope it’s a mistake. Maybe Tolliver lost on some technicality. Maybe we can explain it, and they’ll listen.”
“Like they listened to you about your loco expense reports?”
“That’s not fair.”
Jay had that look in his eye, and Willa stepped out for some fresh air, the sweetgrass smelled like vanilla that time of year.
*
“But, Willa, you don’t love him.”
“I would never say that, Stella.”
*
Past few weeks, every morning Jay sits up at the top of the hill, whittling toy cars, looking over the crick in the distance. And every morning Willa wakes up, alone, pulls on her overalls, but not much else. 🏁
To be continued…
Noisy Joy Z Opinions
Got good vibes to bounce back to the author? Gift them your gut reactions!
The Joy Z Journal 
Leave a comment