Brussels Presentation Notes: Connection of the CLT Origin and Civil Rights Movement 1961- Albany Movement – the first Civil Rights era mass movement begins to protest the unequal treatment of African-Americans all across the United States and particularly the rural Southern states.Slater King,the owner of a local real estate and insurance brokerage firm & his brother a local Albany lawyer C.B. King (cousins of the famous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)are the founders of the Albany Movement.

During 1 year,over 1000 protesters are jailed in Albany including–Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, Charles Sherrod who is a young college student organizer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) attracting young supporters to the Civil Rights Movement.

Slater King’s pregnant wife Marion is violently attacked by police for bringing food and supplies to jailed protestors, she lost their child as a result.

1963 Slater King and Bob Swann meet by accident – Swann a white civil rights supporter comes to Albany to help organize legal aid for his jailed friends and meets lawyer CB King. Many years before Bob’s wife Marjorie Swann met and became the lifelong friend of Coretta Scott who later married MLK Jr.

1965 In Albany 17 year old Shirley Miller’s her father, Hosie Miller, a deacon at the local Baptist Church, was shot to death by a white farmer, reportedly over a dispute about livestock. No charges were returned against the shooter by an all-white grand jury. This was a turning point in her life and she decided to stay in the South to bring about change. She eventually attends college, joins SNCC, eventually meeting and marrying her husband Charles Sherrod.

1968 – Slater King and Faye Bennett who is the head of the National Sharecroppers Fund, seized the idea of buying land for a leased land agricultural cooperative for black farmers. Faye Bennett funds a trip by 8 people including Slater King, Bob Swann and Charles Sherrod, who travel to Israel for a month to study the kibbutz and other ground leasing concepts used there.

In a July meeting of many Civil Rights leaders is heldin Atlantato explore a new solution to the issue of African American land ownership, resulting in the formation of a planning committee to start a new organization and achieve land ownership for rural Black farmers.

1969 – C. B. King drafts by-laws for the first Community Land Trust called New Communities, Inc. which are approved by the planning committee and they execute an option to purchase over 5,700 acres 30 miles north of Albany, Georgia. Slater King is killed in an auto accident one month later but Charles Sherrod assumes the role of president and carries on.

1970 – In January New Communities completes the purchase of land, borrowing most of the over $1M cost.

1980s – Facing a prolonged drought, crushing debt, persistent racial attacks and lending discrimination, New Communities is forced to sell 1,300 acres of its land. According to the findings of federal arbitrators in 2009, unlike similar requests from area farmers that were white, New Communities' application for an emergency loan from the United States Department of Agriculture(USDA) for an irrigation system was denied with no clear explanation. In 1982, the drought continued and the operation sold lumber for $50,000 to remain viable. The USDA demanded its receipt of these funds as a condition for a loan to New Communities. In 1983 the USDA requested and received the deed to a portion of the New Communitiesland holdings and provided nothing in return. Five years later New Communities is forced to sell the remainder of its property.A federal class action lawsuit is filed to contest the discriminatory practices faced by New Communities and other black farmers from across the rural south, with Shirley Sherrod leading the effort as a career long advocate for rural farmers.

2009 – New Communities receives a settlement of nearly $13M out of nearly $1B paid to more than 13,000 black farmers. Charles Sherrod and his wife Shirley receive additional compensation for “mental

anguish”. A former historic plantation near Albany, has been recently purchased by New Communities with a former staff person now managing the rebirth of the CLT organization today.