Black Land & Liberation Initiative

Take Action

  • A CALL TO RECLAIM
  • A CALL TO REPAIR
  • WHY LAND
  • LEARN MORE

40 Acres. 40 Cities. One Day.
LAND IS POWER. LAND IS LIBERATION. LAND IN THE COMMONS.

On Juneteenth 2017 (Monday, June 19th) Black people across the country will be taking back land and reclaiming space, from vacant lots to empty school buildings. We are taking back land that should be used for the good of the people; land that has historically been denied access to Black people. Through these actions, we will confront the institutions that have been built off the extracted wealth of Black bodies and Black land and the individuals who have profited from them.

CALL TO REPAIR RELATIONS THROUGH REPARATIONS

While we take action with our own labor, we also call for a return of accumulated wealth to Black people in the US and Black people across the diaspora. We call on folks across the U.S. to take up this annual call for repairing our relations. For white folks and others who have access to or benefit from accumulated wealth, this means identifying ways to transfer land title, capital, and other resources to Black-led self-determining sanctuary projects.

We call for both institutional and individual reparations this Juneteenth and every Juneteenth.

READ THE CALL TO REPAIR

Land is essential in the fight for self-determination and liberation for Black folks. The Call to Reclaim is an intervention to shift the national narrative to incorporate both reparations from a land-based lens as well as to make the connections between land and liberation for Black folks. We see Black folks collectively engaging in land reclamation with the goal of shifting our relationship to the land, engaging in healing while creating hubs for movement work to be housed, cultivated and birthed. We believe Black folks, in this moment, can call on our Maroonage legacy to support the creation of Black safe spaces.

We call for a return of accumulated wealth to black people in the US and black people across the diaspora. We call for a release of stolen land. We vow to work with integrity and build partnership with those whose lands were stolen and with the land itself. We vow to continue the struggle, to build black community, institutions, and power until we are returned what is rightfully ours.

JOIN THE INFO CALL

Join us May 24th at 5pmPST/8pmEST to learn how you can join us in your city on June 19th. Register today

We call for a return of accumulated wealth to black people in the US and black people across the diaspora. We demand a release of stolen land. We intend to work with integrity and build partnership with those whose lands were stolen and with the land itself.

Our Manifesto

READ THE FULL MANIFESTO
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We are a people who have been enslaved and dispossessed as a result of the oppressive, exploitative, extractive system of colonialism and white supremacy. In this system, our labor and its products have been forcefully taken from us for generations, for the accumulation of wealth by others. This extraction of wealth – from our labor, and from the land – formed the financial basis of the modern globalized world economy and has led to compounded exploitation and social alienation of Black people to this day. The original harm has not been healed and in fact, the extraction of lives, our work, our culture, our language, our children, our homes, and our dignity continues both here and abroad.

The beneficiaries of the harm done to our people have a moral responsibility to address that wrong. Apologies are not sufficient.

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We continue the legacy of those who have fought before us and have sought the return of stolen accumulated wealth. We assert the fundamental right to the resources required to create our own, dignified and sustainable livelihoods through our own labor and self-governance. Key among those resources is land. The basis of all wealth is the combination of land and labor, and to be self-determining we must liberate both. We know the fight for the liberation of Black people will require us to build thriving movement hubs, to meet our basic needs, and to practice and engage in self-governance. Access to land gives us the greatest opportunity to realize those steps towards liberation.
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Let us be clear that the value of suffering can never be calculated and the lives lost never returned. However, reparations is about repairing our relations. While it must include amends for past harm, it must also transform our relationships to each other and the living world so that such harm can never happen again.
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We call for a return of accumulated wealth to Black people in the US and Black people across the diaspora. We call for a release of stolen land. We vow to work with integrity and build partnership with those whose lands were stolen and with the land itself. We vow to continue the struggle, to build liberated black spaces, institutions, and power until we are returned what is rightfully ours.

These are the collective words of Black farmers, Black healers, Black educators, Black dreamers and Black organizers who are a part of the Black Land and Liberation initiative.

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About Us

Black Land & Liberation!

The Black Land and Liberation Initiative is a vision, strategy and training program grounded in black liberation and anchored by black leadership. Our aim is to develop diverse and interdependent strategies that move us away from the current extractive economy which depends on the violent enclosure of land, labor, culture, power, wealth and spirit. We are asserting the fundamental right to the resources required to create our own productive, dignified and sustainable livelihoods through our own free labor and self-governance. Key among those resources is land. We will co-create strategies for transformation which are grounded in a long-term vision, guided in the resilience, culture, and creativity of our ancestry, rooted in our sovereignty, and which we can begin putting into place NOW.

The Black Land and Liberation Initiative is anchored by BlackOut Collective, Movement Generation and a diverse cohort of Black organizers from across the country.
We are working with groups of folks across the country to launch a trans-local, Black-led land reclamation and reparations initiative co-created by us and the participants. We are guided by reverence for ancestral knowledge, black love, and collective responsibility.

Our Frameworks & Values

BlackOut Collective’s 4 R’s of Direct Action

We view direct actions in 4 frames.  We value these frames because it reminds us that there is a diversity of tactics.

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Movement Generation’s Just Transition Framework

A Just Transition requires us to build a visionary economy for life in a way that is very different than the economy we are in now. Constructing this visionary economy calls for strategies that democratize, decentralize and diversify economic activity while we damper down consumption, and (re)distribute resources and power.

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Reparations Framework

These 4 models are examples of land-based reparations.

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BLLI Values

These values were created with the 1st cohort of the Black Land and Liberation Initiate, we offer these values as guides for your actions on June 19th,2017

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We are working with groups of folks across the country to launch a trans-local, Black-led land reclamation and reparations initiative co-created by us, the participants. We are guided by reverence for ancestral knowledge, black love, and collective responsibility.