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.**

---

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.