New Communities
Pioneers in Land Trusts and Farm Collectives
PRESERVE. FARM. CULTURE.
New Communities, the original model for community land trusts, was an intentional community supporting full self-sufficiency among rural Black families in Southwest Georgia (New Communities, 2017).
Today, New Communities continues their work to address issues of land loss in Black farm communities, racial equity, and social justice (Arc of Justice, 2015).
They focus on empowering the community through wealth building in land ownership and agricultural business management using revenue-generating crops.
The mission of New Communities is to become a thriving organization that is a global model for community empowerment.
INSPIRATION
New Communities was established by civil rights leaders in 1969.
Charles Sherrod, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), endeavored to establish a safe haven for black families who were being forced out of their homes and off their land for participating in the Civil Rights Movement (Arc of Justice, 2015).
The video shows an excerpt from the Arc of Justice documentary.
Listen to the interview with Charles Sherrod, Shirley Sherrod, and Mtamanika Youngblood who together explain the inspiration for New Communities as a land trust and cooperative in their own words (New Communities, Inc., 2015).
PROGRESS
In the 1960s, organizers worked together to raise funds for a new community, acquiring over a million dollars to purchase a 5,735-acre parcel in Lee County, Georgia (Weingarten, 2019).
At the time, New Communities had the largest parcel of land owned by black people in the nation (Hill et al., 2021).
Between 1969 and 1985, New Communities was home to 500 families who farmed the land with a successful farmers market selling meat and produce directly from the farm (Axel-Lute, 2019).
The members of New Communities built homes, a day care center, a grocery store, and a butchery (Weingarten, 2019). They were considering the things that a community needed to thrive holistically.
Their primary focus was on the farm. They grew peanuts, corn, soybeans, okra, muscadine grapes, flowers and vegetables, focusing on economic sustainability, productivity, and profitability. They raised livestock, both hogs and cattle, and sold cured meat (Arc of Justice, 2015).
"Land is power. Land is equity. Land is wealth." - Bummi Anderson, who grew up in New Communities during the 1970s
OPPOSITION
New Communities' first run would last only 16 years because of opposition from white farmers and policy makers, who committed violence and sabotage against the collective farm and its residents (New Communities, 2017).
In 1976, a drought struck southwestern Georgia. The drought lasted for two years, devastating farm communities all over the region.
Despite the natural disaster, the local Farmers Home Administration office rejected New Communities’ request for an emergency farm loan to help them (Arc of Justice, 2015).
Shirley Sherrod recalled a white Farmers Home Administration loan officer scoffing "You will get a loan here over my dead body" (Elliot, 2019).
In 1985, New Communities land trust was foreclosed upon, even though other farmers in the region received federal assistance to install irrigation and survive the drought (SNCC, 2016).
The video shows another excerpt from the Arc of Justice documentary.
Listen to Charles and Shirley Sherrod explain the hopeful beginnings of New Communities, as well as the impacts of the violence and discrimination on the organization (New Communities, Inc., 2015).
BLACK LAND LOSS
The experience of New Communities was a mirror of the history of Black land loss in the United States overall.
This land loss was like a blight, caused by a combination of institutional and economic factors. These included farm consolidation, the growth of large agri-business corporations, mechanization in agriculture, and institutionalized racism (Arc of Justice, 2015).
For many decades, racial discrimination was rampant in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and local farm lending services like the Farmers Home Administration (Arc of Justice, 2015). Black farmers were mistreated by government and private programs.
They were misinformed about government programs that would have benefited them, they received less money from the loans than they had requested, and they did not receive loans in a reasonable amount of time. This was in contrast to white farmers, who received favorable treatment and loan terms.
The consequences of these discriminatory actions and market shifts have resulted in the incredible loss of land by Black farm communities across the country.
The map on the right shows the number of farms with Black operators as a percent of all farms in 2012 for each county in the Southeast (USDA, 2012). This proportion has decreased dramatically since 1920.
INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION
Because of the settlement of the civil rights lawsuit, Pigford vs. Glickman 1999 , the USDA had to recognize that between 1981 and 1997, it had discriminated against farmers based on race with unfair lending, aid, and land ownership rules that benefited white farmers but were denied to black farmers (NSAC, 2017).
Shirley Sherrod and others realized that New Communities qualified for benefits from the class action lawsuit because they were operating during that time (Sherrod, 2012).
They became a major claimant in the lawsuit in 1999, and in 2009 the organization was finally awarded $12 million for their losses from the discriminatory actions of the USDA (Arc of Justice, 2015).
New Communities used the proceeds of the class action lawsuit to re-establish itself in 2011.
NEW BEGINNINGS
The organization purchased a 1,638 acre tract of land outside of a town called Albany, which was once the plantation of the largest slaveholder in Georgia (New Communities, 2017). The land is now called Resora.
The farmland is used to grow satsuma oranges, muscadine grapes, pecans, zucchini, and other profitable crops. The buildings are used for retreats, educational training, and conferences (Elliot, 2019).
New Communities provides programs and support to help rural Black farmers and people interested in farming learn how to run a productive, profitable agriculture business (Hill et al., 2021).
New Communities is focused on the long movement toward racial justice, economic justice, and healing from Black land loss and agriculture system disparities (New Communities, 2017).
"It is a place where we could both farm the land and also nurture the minds of people." - Shirley Sherrod, Co-Founder of New Communities
This is a StoryMap created for the North Carolina State University class Landscape Architecture 535: Environmental Social Equity and Design. This StoryMap was created by Sarah Lipuma. All sources are listed in the references section below.
