Community land trusts were pioneered by civil rights leaders Charles and Shirley Sherrod to help break Black farm workers free from the trap of sharecropping in Bakers County, Georgia. At the time, Black farm workers were in constant threat of being dispossessed from their homes and communities by wealthy white landlords who took advantage of their position to extract as much wealth as they could from their Black tenants. It was 1969 when New Communities, the first community land trust in the US, was established, bought 5700 acres, and became home to over a dozen Black farm workers and their families.
Fast-forward to 2021 and wealthy white landowners are using the same playbook to extract wealth from Black people, dispossess Black people of their homes, and remove Black people from their communities. But like the saying goes “No history, no self. Know history, know self.” Enter Liberty CLT (@liberty_clt). When neoliberals are on the attack, what do they do? Stand up! Fight back! You could call it poetic justice that a new community land trust has risen up in defense of Black people and Black LA.
