Agraria_Journal_Summer_2022

AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 27 A land trust is an entity, often a nonprofit, which conserves land for specific uses—natural resource protection, preservation of historical or cultural sites, cooperative farming, permanently affordable housing, or intentional community. The land is held in a trust, and leased to tenants for up to 99 years. Agraria’s involvement with land trusts extends back to 1937, when our founder Arthur E. Morgan secured financing to purchase 1,200 acres of land near Asheville, North Carolina. He formed a nonprofit corporation to hold the land and established the Celo Community. The early community mostly consisted of Quakers and conscientious objectors to World War II and remains an active, democratically held land trust today. Over the decades Agraria has continued to partner with intentional communities, land trusts, and aligned organizations. Today, we hold land on our 138-acre farm to train and incubate beginning farmers, as well as a 40-acre intentional community near Yellow Springs called the Vale. Community Land Trusts in their modern form emerged from the civil rights movement in the late 1960s. Unlike white-dominated communities that had used land trust models in the past, this new model was conceived as a political strategy embedded in the national conversation and movement for racial justice. Community Land Trusts allowed Black families to own land, generate wealth, organize, and exercise their legal voting rights without facing eviction. In 1970, real estate broker Slater King, Charles and Shirley Sherodd, and other Black leaders came together to purchase 5,735 acres of land in Georgia to establish New Communities, Inc. Located on a former plantation, it became the largest tract of Black-owned land in the United States. New Communities faced many challenges. Despite some federal support for developing a community on the land, local government and officials would not allow houses to be built. White residents from the surrounding areas sabotaged farming equipment and activities and harassed members. Even with all of this opposition, occupants successfully farmed the land, created buying and selling cooperatives, and established a market that became well known for specialty products. After two years of drought — and denial of USDA loans that provided emergency aid and other financing to local white farmers — New Communities lost their land in 1985. Harassment, sabotage, and USDA discrimination were common problems for Black farmers, leading to the loss of 90% of Black owned farms since 1920. In 1997, some remaining members of New Communities joined a class action lawsuit brought by Black farmers over racial discrimination in USDA programs. Over a decade later the suit was settled for $12 million, and the surviving members of the trailblazing Community Land Trust established a new property in Georgia to support Black farmers. Today organizations such as The Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, Black Family Land Trust Inc., Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and many others leverage the CLT model to reclaim and protect land for Black, Indigenous and people of color, and advance racial justice initiatives. CLTs dedicated to housing justice have also expanded. A 2019 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy study found that homes held in Community Land Trusts are increasingly allowing BIPOC families to achieve financial security and generate wealth (Wang, Ruoniu, et al.). Dayton Unified Power follows this tradition and works to promote racial justice on multiple fronts. They partner with multiple community groups and organizations in Dayton such as Sister Baby Solutions, Operation G.O.O.D., and the Black Panther Party of Dayton to do neighborhood clean ups, address areas of blight, and establish community gardens. Unified Power is one of the organizers of the annual African Liberation Day celebration in Dayton, which attracts 300–500 attendees a year. They are also collaborating with Know4Life and EOL Dayton to offer youth programming. These programs, titled “Liberation Generation Through Academic Enrichment,” focus on STEM, health/wellness and nutrition, theater and liberal arts, mental health, and physical activity. “Community engagement is the key,” says Baker. You can learn more about Dayton Unified Power and get involved by contacting Kenya Baker at daytonunifiedpower@gmail.com . Rose Hardesty is grants manager for Agraria. DAYTON UNIFIED POWER Kenya Baker, Malik Akbar, and Mama Olabisi celebrated at the Ground Blessing/Land Acknowledgement for Gem City Market. Unified Power partner Design to Build held a visioning session at the public library to share conceptual designs for the Salem Avenue real-estate cooperative project with the community.