Shirley M. Sherrod & New Communities, Inc.
Black History Month, day 21
The story of New Communities is thoroughly entangled with the lives of Charles and Shirley Sherrod. Charles was one of the founding members and one of the first field coordinators of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). It brought him to Albany to establish the Civil Rights Movement where he met Shirley and together they worked to support black families who were being driven from their land for participating in the movement.
To provide a safe haven for black farmers, New Communities was founded in 1969 as a farm collective on 5,735 acres in Lee County, Georgia, and became one of the original models for community land trusts in the US . The vision for the land was to become fully self-sufficient. Despite personal, cultural, and institutionalized discrimination, New Communities acted on that vision through the 1970s. They eventually would farm over 1,800 acres and operate a farmer’s market and greenhouse. They even earned a reputation for their cured meats. Unfortunately, all was lost in 1985 following a severe drought in southwest Georgia where black farmers were refused emergency loans offered to white counterparts.
In a foreclosure engineered by white-owned plantations and the political establishment, New Communities’ dream was lost. After a decade-long court battle as part of the Pigford v. Glickman class action lawsuit, New Communities was eventually granted restitution. A powerful site was found on which to continue addressing contemporary controversies such as African American land loss, food-related disparities, environmental and economic justice, and related efforts like social justice and racial healing.
The vision of New Communities is to become a thriving organization that is a global model for community empowerment through agribusiness, education, social awareness and wealth building. Distilled, the vision can be summed in three words — “PRESERVE. FARM. CULTURE.” The unannounced but well followed motto of New Communities is that of “cooperative living, learning, earning and doing together empowers a collective group of people.” (Adapted from: New Communities)
