Liberating Futures: Ties to the Land

Liberating Futures series discussion topic: “Ties to the Land: Sharecropping, Black Land Ownership, and Black Land Loss”

The panel brings together a group of policy analysts, activists, attorneys, and farmers to reflect on the systems that have simultaneously connected Black farm families with the land and challenged their ability to own the fields in which they’ve labored for so many generations.

Panelists:
• Patrick Brown – Fourth generation Black farmer, using conservation and regenerative agricultural practices and promoting Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs

• Phyllis Craig-Taylor – Professor of Law and former Dean of the NCCU School of Law; a member of the Heirs Property Retention Coalition, and a board member of Land Loss Prevention, Inc.

• Mary Sommerville – Minister, lifetime farmer, community activist, and North Carolina’s first Black female jailer

Moderator:
• Tracy McCurty – Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Black Belt Justice Center, a legal and advocacy nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and regeneration of African American farmlands and land-based livelihood

Free and open to the public