The National Black Farmers Association held a rally at Battlefield Park Tuesday morning, a step in the group's effort to encourage Congress to spend $1.15 billion to help black farmers.   A national rally is planned for the USDA offices in D.C. this coming Monday.

"We want our money. We want our money," NBFA President John Boyd said, leading a parking lot full of farmers and supporters in a chant. "We want it now."

Jackson is one of seven regional NBFA rallies leading up to a national rally Monday in front of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.

Boyd encouraged farmers at the rally at Battlefield Park to help each other and spoke positively of President Barack Obama. He said he and the president began talking about problems facing black farmers when Obama was a senator.

"He is trying to help poor people and he is facing opposition, even from his own party," Boyd told the crowd.

The crowd - which filled most of a parking lot - encircled a recreational vehicle.

"The government refused to give us justice," said James Earl Hall, a Magnolia farmer. "We are demanding that now and nothing will stop us from reaching that goal."

Black farmers, mostly from Southern states, allege agriculture officials have denied them loans and assistance based on their race.  They want Congress and the Obama administration to increase the $100 million set aside in the 2008 farm bill to pay thousands of farmers as part of a 1999 settlement of a discrimination case.

They also say payments have not been disbursed.

The Department of Justice, in a motion filed last spring, estimated 65,000 black farmers could file claims totaling about $4 billion and that the existing fund would run out after the first 1,600 successful claims.

The tour started Saturday in Little Rock, Ark. The last regional rally is Saturday in Richmond, Va.