African American Cooperatives and Land Ownership in the South: Increasing Access to the Records of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund

FAIN: PW-269094-20

Amistad Research Center (New Orleans, LA 70118-5665)
Laura J. Thomson (Project Director: July 2019 to present)

The arrangement and description of 600 linear feet of archival materials from the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (1967-1990) and the Emergency Land Fund (1971-1986), which document African American land ownership and agricultural communities in the southern United States.

This project will assist the Amistad Research Center to increase access to two large sets of related organizational records that pertain to African American land ownership and agriculture in the rural south from the 1960s through the 1990s. This project will entail the completion of archival processing for the two targeted organizational records collections, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF) and The Emergency Land Fund (ELF). Largely unavailable to researchers, due to their size and lack of organization, these records document an overlooked, but fundamental aspect of African American civil rights – access to land and to sustainable economic prosperity.

Associated Products

Amistad Awarded NEH Grant to Organize Collections on Black Agriculture, Cooperatives and Land Ownership (Blog Post)
Title: Amistad Awarded NEH Grant to Organize Collections on Black Agriculture, Cooperatives and Land Ownership
Author: Jasmaine Talley
Abstract: The Amistad Research Center is pleased to announce that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded funding assistance of $302,217 to complete archival processing and preservation for the records of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF) and the Emergency Land Fund (ELF).
Date: 04/07/2020
Primary URL: https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/amistad-awarded-neh-grant-to-organize-collections-on-black-agriculture-cooperatives-and-land-owners
Primary URL Description: Amistad Research Center Blog
Website: Amistad Research Center

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives Rural Training and Research Center (RTRC) (Blog Post)
Title: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives Rural Training and Research Center (RTRC)
Author: Courtney Tutt
Abstract: Formed out of the civil rights movement, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives was established in 1967 to create community-based economic development opportunities throughout the rural South for black farmers and rural communities. As the organization grew from a tiny office in Atlanta so did their vision for the future. Member cooperatives voiced a great need for practical vocational training and the FSC decided to build a training center to meet these demands.
Date: 02/5/2021
Primary URL: https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/federation-southern-cooperatives-training-research-rtrc
Primary URL Description: Amistad Research Center Blog
Blog Title: Amistad Research Center Blog
Website: Amistad Research Center

Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Fight against Black Land Loss: A Look to the Past in Hope for the Future (Blog Post)
Title: Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Fight against Black Land Loss: A Look to the Past in Hope for the Future
Author: Amanda Lima
Abstract: For the past 53 years, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund has dedicated their time and effort to serving disadvantaged Black farmers, land owners and cooperatives. It is no secret that since 1920 Black farmers have faced incredible pressures politically, socially and environmentally, forcing a decline of Black farmland ownership. In 1989 in “The Minority Farmer: A Disappearing American Resource,” a report issued by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Governmental Operations, it was feared that “minority operated farmers [were on] the verge of extinction.” A 1982 Civil Rights Commission report noted that “...unless government policy is changed, there will be virtually no black farm operators by the year 2000.” Black-owned land still exists in the year 2021, but the pressures to limit Black land ownership remain.
Date: 03/15/2021
Primary URL: https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/federation-southern-cooperatives
Primary URL Description: Amistad Research Center Blog
Secondary URL: http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org
Secondary URL Description: Amistad Research Center Home Page
Website: Amistad Research Center

How the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Used Films About Water Management to Inspire Action (Blog Post)
Title: How the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Used Films About Water Management to Inspire Action
Author: Brenda Flora
Abstract: Water is something that is on our minds often here in South Louisiana. How will it be managed? How can it be moved to a more convenient place? And during those times when it is simply uncontrollable, how can its damage be mitigated? To the farmers of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (FSC), water is a way of life. It is life-giving to their crops and vital to their shipping, but too much can be a destructive force with the potential to wipe out their livelihoods. The manipulation of water is one of the keys to agriculture and an advanced society, and education surrounding that subject appears as an organizational priority within the records of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, highlighted within the collection’s moving image materials.
Date: 04/12/2021
Primary URL: https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/federation-of-southern-cooperatives-films-water-management
Primary URL Description: Amistad Research Center Blog
Secondary URL: http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org
Secondary URL Description: Amistad Research Center Home Page
Website: Amistad Research Center

The Myth of ‘Forty Acres and a Mule’: African American Land Ownership in the South and the Work of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Emergency Land Fund (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Myth of ‘Forty Acres and a Mule’: African American Land Ownership in the South and the Work of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Emergency Land Fund
Author: Courtney Tutt
Abstract: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund is the largest and oldest Black-led cooperative organization that focuses on preventing Black land loss and building cooperatively-owned businesses. For over fifty years, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund has provided education and technical assistance to thousands of rural farmers across the South. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF) and Emergency Land Fund (ELF) are two records collections being processed at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The project is supported by an NEH grant to fund a processing project that spans over three years. These records represent some of the largest sets of organizational records documenting the Southern cooperative movement and Black land ownership. The FSC/LAF was founded in 1967 by twenty-two rural cooperatives and credit unions in the South, while ELF was formed five years later following a study, entitled, Only Six Million Acres: The Decline of Black-Owned Land in the Rural South, by economist Robert S. Browne. This paper highlights the history of Black agricultural cooperatives and the role of the FSC/LAF and ELF to address the systemic decline in land ownership by African Americans through the extensive documentation provided in these two historic records collections.
Date: 06/06/2021

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Nicaraguan Revolution (Blog Post)
Title: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Nicaraguan Revolution
Author: Courtney Tutt
Abstract: Nicaragua was ruled for forty-three years by the Somoza family as a dictatorship before the rulers were overthrown by the Nicaraguan people. On July 19, 1979, a new government was established that focused on land reform, redistributing 5.7 million acres taken from the dictator Somoza and his associates to small and medium-sized farmers to create private farms, cooperatives and government-owned farms. The new Nicaraguan government realized the importance of creating partnerships with North American farmers. Their impoverished country needed investment, technical expertise and skilled farmers. Partnerships formed between the two regions to provide literacy programs, agricultural development training and educational tours in both Nicaragua and the United States.
Date: 11/17/2021
Primary URL: https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org
Primary URL Description: The Amistad Research Center website
Secondary URL: http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/federation-southern-cooperatives-nicaraguan-revolution
Secondary URL Description: The Amistad Research Center blog
Blog Title: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Nicaraguan Revolution
Website: Amistad Research Center

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and International Collaboration (Blog Post)
Title: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and International Collaboration
Author: Jasmaine Talley
Abstract: As we process the records of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, I find myself drawn to its many projects and programs that focused on Black rural communities in the South—much like the community in which I grew up. I also learned that the Federation had aspirations of international collaboration and pursued mutually beneficial partnerships with groups in Central America, Asia and Africa.
Date: 01/12/2022
Primary URL: http://amistadresearchcenter.org
Primary URL Description: Amistad Research Center website
Secondary URL: https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/federation-of-southern-cooperatives-collaborations
Secondary URL Description: Amistad Research Center blog
Blog Title: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and International Collaboration
Website: Amistad Research Center

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives’ Housing Program (Blog Post)
Title: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives’ Housing Program
Author: Courtney Tutt
Abstract: In 1966 in Sumter County, Alabama, forty black families of former sharecroppers formed the Panola Land Buying Association (PLBA). The families formed the association following their evictions resulting from a dispute involving the correct share of deferred acreage payments from the Department of Agriculture. No longer able to live on the land which they had worked, the group chartered the PLBA in 1967 and, with the aid of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (FSC), was able to redeem a 1,164-acre parcel of land in a foreclosure sale. The land was located in Epes, in Sumter County, Alabama, and was used to build homes for PLBA members and to house the FSC’s Rural Training and Research Center.
Date: 03/01/2022
Primary URL: http://amistadresearchcenter.org
Primary URL Description: Amistad Research Center website
Secondary URL: https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/federation-of-southern-cooperatives-housing-program
Secondary URL Description: Amistad Research Center blog
Blog Title: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives’ Housing Program
Website: Amistad Research Center

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