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Black Organizations Honor Slavery’s End By Taking Over Property

REUTERS/Craig Lassig

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Amber Randall Civil Rights Reporter
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Various black groups are taking back abandoned buildings and parking lots Monday in an effort to celebrate the day slavery ended.

The Movement for Black Lives, an umbrella group for various black organizations, is partnering up with the Black Land and Liberation Initiative to organize people in 40 cities around the world to get back 40 acres of land, reports Colorlines.

“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,” the group said on its website.

The groups are trying to honor Juneteenth, the day slavery ended in Texas and much of the South, as part of a year-long project by the Black Land and Liberation Initiative. Activists are focusing on land because it is “the basis of freedom, justice and equality,” a video pitch explained.

“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,” the Movement for Black Lives explained on their website. “We believe Black folks, in this moment, can call on our Maroonage legacy to support the creation of Black safe spaces.”

One event has people protesting schools losing funding and being built over as lofts by property developers while police officers get more money. Activist group Just Resisting plans to “reclaim” a school building that has now been turned into a loft.

“Vacant school buildings are being sold to developers in an effort to gentrify our neighborhoods while police officers are being funded more and more money to not protect Black and Brown people,” the event description reads. “On Monday, Just Resisting will reclaim a school building that is owned by a developer in Miami, and has been turned into lofts. We also call on our Indigenous allies as we acknowledge that this is not our ancestral land.”

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Amber Randall