MCAP and East Thomas Residents Collaborate to Create Dynamite Hill-Smithfield Community Land Trust

Magic City Agriculture Project and East Thomas Residents Collaborate to Create
Dynamite Hill - Smithfield Community Land Trust

Birmingham, Ala. – On Tuesday, September 15th, Birmingham, Alabama mourned the death of six black children - four young girls and two young boys – who died in bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church and subsequent aftermath. Birmingham’s history of systematic attacks and bombings on black citizens include fifty bombings between 1947 and 1966, largely occurring in the neighborhood of East Thomas, or “Dynamite Hill.” East Thomas and other Smithfield Neighborhoods were built as middle-class black neighborhoods, and are home to the family residence of Angela Davis, an internationally known human rights activist, an iconic leader in the black liberation movement, and Professor Emerita at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

In 2005, upon moving to the East Thomas Neighborhood in the Smithfield Community of Birmingham, Susan Diane Mitchell, a 24-year resident of Birmingham, educated herself on the historicity of the area. She became inspired by the legacy of resistance and self-determination of the residents of “Dynamite Hill.” In 2015, Susan decided to form the Dynamite Hill – Smithfield Community Land Trust in honor of the bravery of the black families who defended their homes and resisted the egregious oppressions of the Bull Connor era. The land trust would also serve as a community effort to resist gentrification and preserve the cultural integrity of the Smithfield Community.

In May 2015, the Regional Planning Commission and City Council approved the Western Area Framework Plan, which includes the community of Smithfield. In this plan, Magic City Agriculture Project (MCAP) was listed as a partner organization to help communities develop Community Land Trusts (CLTs) to develop low-income homeownership programs and create affordable land options for community-based businesses. The Dynamite Hill – Smithfield Community Land Trust would be historic, as it would be the first CLT in the Birmingham Area.

MCAP has created a crowdfunding campaign funding the launch of the Dynamite Hill CLT, which will raise $9,000 by November 9, 2015. This money will be used to purchase the Dynamite Hill CLT’s first plot of land. They will also use the funds to send two East Thomas community members to the National Community Land Trust Network training. The NCLTN is a resource providing research, advocacy, education, and support for CLTs, which is hosting an annual workshop this fall in Lexington, Kentucky, site of one of the most successful land trusts in the nation.

Susan Diane Mitchell urges Birmingham to support the crowdfunding effort: “Be a part of history by giving today! Together, we are creating a democratic and sustainable Birmingham, now.”

**September 28th announcement on Alabama Public Radio.**

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Magic City Agriculture Project's mission is to engage in value-based community organizing to reweave the threads of the community, develop sustainable urban agriculture as a solution for economic and food justice, and to dismantle racism.

Smithfield State of Emergency: Organizing Against Gentrification

This is a state of emergency. After going to pick up my comrade in Smithfield today I got another shock to the heart. They are moving to gentrify Smithfield faster than I expected. They are not playing. This is not cute. This is not funny. This is colonialism.

We cannot combat this by simply having "white and black keys organizing together." Why? Because if we did, if we bring white people into Smithfield, it will only expedite the gentrification process of the community. We cannot be inviting masses of white folks into a poor black community and think that is a good organizing strategy.

White folks need to organize and fundraise from white folks. Brown folks need to organize and fundraise from brown folks. Black folks need to organize and fundraise from black folks. The black, white, and brown organizers should be the ones working and strategizing together to create one organized cohesive strategy, so when they go back to their own community they can be clear of what they need to be organizing and fundraising for.

Let me repeat, white folks, except for the lead organizers in appropriate ways and times, should not be in the black and brown communities. They should be in white communities organizing and fundraising from white folks to give to poor communities and black and brown communities around anti-racist and anti-capitalist strategies.

This is not a game. This is a state of emergency. This is colonialism, and colonialism is a war. We need to treat it as such. We need to be as intentional organizing for peace as those organizing for war. Gentrification is war. Poverty is genocide. We need to organize and stop this.

The Miseducation of July 4th (from an ancestor of a founding father)

239 years ago my ancestor, William Blount, started recruiting for the "American Revolution" to end Britain's colonialization of what we now call the USA. He was also a paymaster and fought in a few battles himself. 13 years later he became one of the 39 people to sign the US Constitution. He knew all of the founding fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Additionally, Andrew "Indian Killer" Jackson was one of his closest, most trusted allies. Amongst other political offices he held during his life, President George Washington appointed Blount Governor of the Southwest Territory in 1790.

But what all does this mean? For starters it means he helped negotiate the 3/5th compromise. As a representative for North Carolina this meant that he advocated for a slave to count in the census as more than 3/5th a person. Of course, this was not because he cared about black folks. The south had a higher concentration of slaves, so the higher the ratio the more power the south held in the new Federal Government. This type of negation to me shows exactly how little they cared about black folks. They were nothing but pawns for controlling power and wealth to white folks. This also means he helped write a document saying women could not vote or own property. It also means he helped intentionally craft a document to keep all poor folks from having the right to vote (because you could not vote unless you owned land).

He had a lot of self-interest in making sure only rich white male land-owners could vote. In part because he was known as an aggressive land speculator, and owned over 2.5 million acres of [stolen Indigenous] land to the west of the Appalachian Mountains by the 1790's. Under his watch, as Governor of the Southwest Territory, his administration, which included Andrew Jackson, was involved with various battles and treaties to steal Indigenous people's land and perpetuate genocide against the Indigenous.

This is the same Blount that Blount County, TN is named after, and Blount County, Alabama is named after his half-brother, who was a part of William's Administration in the Southwest Territory.

I have no intention in celebrating my ancestor William Blount's legacy today, July 4th, or any of the other people involved in this legacy that today represents.

The Flaw in "Teach a Man How to Fish"

The saying goes, "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, feed him for a lifetime." Though this is very incomplete, and thus needs to be edited.

Do they own their own fishing pole? Do they have communal ownership over the watering hole? Until those questions are addressed the knowledge of knowing how to fish is rendered useless.

We can address this through organizing democratic community based institutions. This includes, but is not limited to, cooperatives and community land trusts.

‪#‎DemocraticEconomies‬ ‪#‎FreeTheLand‬ ‪#‎FoodSovereignty‬

Poetic Justice: The Unspoken Pain Behind Mother’s Day

Poetic Justice: The Unspoken Pain Behind Mother’s Day

To the Children whose Mothers have died

Whose mothers were alcoholics and addicts

Whose mothers ran away or were abusive

Whose mothers truly cared but didn’t know how to mother

Whose mothers were negligent or just not always there for you

To the Mothers who became a mother due to rape

To mothers whose children lashed out because their father died or ran away

To mothers who were not ready to be a mother

To mothers whose spouse was physically, verbally, or sexual abusive

To mothers who were scared to be a mother because their parents were never

there, or were abusive

To the Women who wanted to be a mother, but never got the chance

To the women who are told they are not allowed to be a mother because they are

queer

To the women who had miscarriages or are living with the grief of aborting their

child

To the women who are told their self worth is solely based in bearing children

To the women who had to make the difficult decision to put their child up for

adoption

To the women who endure the hardships of patriarchy

To the women who rise up with strength in the face of adversity

To the black and brown women who have undergone racist forced sterilizations

Who fight against our patriarchal and racist unjust wars, and for better public health

Who bleed for freedom, justice, and democracy, and are willing to die fighting for revolution

To women and mothers who are the bearers of life in this world

To women and mothers who have All raised or mentored societies children in one

way or another

To the children who are in pain due to the loss of their mother

To the women, children, and mothers who come from broken homes

To the fathers or grandparents who raised children without a mother

To peace, to love, and to Justice. Solidarity.