by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

The theme of "Steps to Healing the Land" was forcefully presented by Gary Grant,
President of BFAA, at the 4th National Black Land Loss Summit held in Atlanta, February 8-10, 2002.
Mr. Grant emphasized the importance of land ownership and what the lack of such would mean to Black
people in the 21st century.

According to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in "Message to the Black Man", "We want
freedom IN DEED" "IN DEED" to him meant a "deed" on a piece of land.

He and his followers did just that in the state of Alabama in 1961. However, that state declared
a "legal war" on these land sales according to a book called "The Messenger" by
Earl Evanzz. This war was successful in part because a 1961 state law made it "illegal for a
Muslim to remain in Alabama more than a few days without registering his presence and disclosing ‘such
matters as finances and membership roll.’" It seems that Alabama had some
"anti-terrorists" provisions long before the birth of the "Al Qaeda" (smile).

Of course the Muslim followers of Elijah Muhammad were taught then, and now, not to carry
weapons. However, violence was not what whites in Alabama, and southern whites in general, were
afraid of. They simply would use any means necessary, legal or non-legal method to deny progressive
Black people land. Of course one might naively say, "well them Blacks should stay good
Christians, then they would have no problems with whites." Oh, please! These series of articles
that I have written under the rubric of "The Farmer Newsletter" since 1997 and the AP
series entitled "Torn from the land" clearly show that good Christian Black people were
torn and terrorized from the land. In fact history shows that the "law of the land" in
America since 1865 has been the "law of no-land" for her former slaves.

Over a hundred participants came out representing 16 states, the District of Columbia and one
African nation. According to their testimonies given on Sunday morning, they were completely floored
by the wealth of information that flowed in these proceedings. The proceedings were video taped and
will be made available to the public in the near future. I have enough materials to fill a series of
articles, and we will begin to share those with you.

According to the participants they were made aware of a "war" on a broad scale which
they as individuals had seen waged on themselves and their family members. However, they felt
isolated and alone until this point. The participants were also delighted to leave the conference
with more than just an in-depth knowledge of the problems, but with specific doable methods to stem
the tide of land loss, fight the system and "heal the land". Those strategies will unfold
as time goes on.

Kenneth Sumpter spoke on the "Loss of Black Land in the Sea Islands" and demonstrated a
very recent example of "the law of no-land." It seems that the Black residents of St.
Simons were tired of being harassed to sell their land so they put up signs on their porches
stating, "Don’t Ask, Won’t Sell". However, the city counsel on St. Simons produced an
ordinance which makes it illegal to have such a sign on their property and would be fined $1,000 if
not removed in 10 days. Of course it is still legal to post "For Sale" signs.

There are also penalties assessed against those who dare to report the story of Black land loss
and the struggle of Black farmers. In Pete Scott’s, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal
Constitution, awards acceptance speech stated that he could not say for sure that his son’s
student loan repayment was accelerated because he wrote some articles on the Black farmers, but it
happened soon after.

The Black farmers had a chance to tell some of their stories during the open mike session. Mrs.
Vannie Howard told the story of how she was "legally" swindled twice by lawyers, surveyors
and the court as she bought land. The first time, she thought she had purchased a 192 acre tract,
only to find out recently that it is now surveyed to be 75 acres. She purchased what she thought was
46 acres, only to find out that her lawyer had registered 1.6 acres on the deed books in the county.
She cut some timber off of this land, and the man who claimed to own her land took her to court and
took her land.

Mr. William Miller related how he found that someone had borrowed $32,000 in his name in another
county in 1981 and used his land as collateral. The lenders are now trying to foreclose on his farm
because this loan was never paid on and the interest has now brought that debt up to $770,000. He
stressed how everyone who owns land needs to go to the county court house in his own county and all
the surrounding counties to find out what you own and what you owe.

Mr. Napolean Hughs choked with tears as he described how he saw his father’s manhood being
stripped, as they reduced his farming operations from 3000 acres down to 500 acres.

Mr. Henry Douglas, ex-county commissioner, admonished those who own land to check their
boundaries. "White people have a habit of moving the land boundaries and once they get them
moved and listed in the courts, it is hard to get those boundaries corrected." He said that
once he caught some white surveyor trying to put up false boundary markers on his land. He got his
shot gun and ran him off of his land and took up every stake that he has falsely placed within his
boundaries.

The problem of "legal" stealing of Black people’s lands are not limited to America.
The Honorable Simbi Mubako, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the United States, explained how white
British soldiers who fought in World Wars I and II were given the best farm land in Zimbabwe while
the Black soldiers were given bicycles. Over time this gift to white British soldiers grew to 46.6%
of Zimbabwe’s agricultural land and was comprised of the best land. At the time of Zimbabwe’s
fight for liberation from the colonial rule of Britain, the white population was 60,000 while Black
population of Zimbabwe was 12,500,000. Of the 60,000 whites only 4,000 were farmers, but that class
owned 46.7% of Zimbabwe’s farm land. These white farmers held 40% of their land for speculative
purposes and did not farm them, but would not lease them out to Blacks to grow food. The
"mystery" of Blacks starving in Africa is now revealed; whites own the best agricultural
land.

Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, and America, under Jimmy Carter, agreed in 1980 to provide the
liberated colony of Zimbabwe with $2 billion to buy the land from the white settlers who did not pay
a dime for this land. This land would then be turned over to Zimbabwe to be dispersed to her
landless poor and former liberation fighters. Britain and America reneged. And now after 20 years,
the people of Zimbabwe warned President Mugabe that they were ready to seize the land that was
rightfully theirs in an orderly or disorderly manner, depending on the government’s decision. The
government of Zimbabwe bowed to the wishes of her people, so land reform is now almost 90% complete.

We asked the Ambassador how will America’s threatened embargo affect the Zimbabwean people? The
Ambassador responded by saying, "We are willing to accept and overcome all obstacles, including
defending ourselves if necessary."

Attorney Stephon Bowens addressed the issues of land loss and retention by providing an overview
of legal tactics to use and be aware of to keep land from being taken. The document that he
presented "Ten Ways to Save Your Land" can be obtained by contacting the Land Loss
Prevention Project, PO Box 179, Durham, NC 27702 or calling (800)672-5839 or go their website at http://www.landloss.org.

Dr. Alton Thompson, Dean of the School of Agriculture at NC A&T State University, brought us
the welcomed news of a revived commitment of the 1890 Land Grant Institutions towards the needs of
Black and small farmers. Such a role was greatly reduced in the era of Chancellor Dr. Edward Fort of
NC A&T, who had almost redefined the "A" in A&T to mean "art" instead of
agriculture. And indeed in the document authored by him entitled " Strategically Approaching
the Future: 1890 Land-Grant System — A Strategic Plan", Dr. Fort significantly reduced the
emphasis on agriculture at the Historically Black Land Grant Institutions. However, leaders like Dr.
Thompson at A&T and Dr. Walter Hill, Dean of Agriculture at Tuskegee, made a commitment to those
in attendance to reverse this philosophy and resultant trends.

The conference was properly closed out in a spiritual manner by a sermon delivered by Rev. Marcus
Tillery, who also holds a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and a department chair at NC A&T State
University. He started his sermon by saying "You haven’t been fighting this fight just for
Black folk, but for all folk… We are going to let the world know that we intend to free them, not
just from the USDA, but from the power emanating from the darkness of this world. That’s who we
stand against. USDA is just one vehicle that we intend to move."

Rev. Tillery asked everyone to read the book "Image
of the Beast" alongside their Holy Bible and Holy Quran to get a better understanding of
the war being waged. He said that we must put on the "full armor of God" to prevail, but
we will prevail.

Pictures from Summit