Whose Land? Our Land: Racialized Capitalism, Predatory Capitalism and the Permanence of Community Land Trusts in Baltimore
Speaker: Dr. Nicole Fabricant
This event looks at the long history of industrial development which has used land for resource transport, storing, and export (primarily non-renewable fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas). As a result, the Southern region of Baltimore has been a hub for environmental justice organizing around the cumulative health concerns (asthma, respiratory illness and lung cancers) tied to toxic industries. The environmental movement in South Baltimore sparked a broader movement for fair development and affordable housing borrowing from the successes of Boston's Dudley Street Land Trust Movement. It is within this context that community land trusts (CLT movement) become a response to racialized capitalism, industrial land use patterns (of housing toxic materials in low-income communities of color), and environmental health concerns. Yet the daily battles of collectivizing land and building Afro-centric solidarity economies will also be explored.
