Who are the Partners?
Black Oregon Land Trust (BOLT): was created and is led by powerful Black women. BOLT’s vision is that Black farmers in Oregon own their own land. Permanently, securely, forever. With the land assured, they build their soil, their health, their wealth, and their communities for generations to come. BOLT will do this by acquiring land for Black farmers to steward in perpetuity, and connecting those farmers with training, technical assistance, equipment and infrastructure, and operating capital.
Mudbone Grown: Mudbone Grown is a black-owned farm enterprise that promotes inter-generational community-based farming that creates measurable and sustainable environmental, social, cultural, and economic impacts in communities. They believe in creating kinship, fostering cultural pride and community through the cultivation of land ownership, food production, and community building.
Oregon Black Pioneers (OBP): is Oregon’s only historical society dedicated to preserving and presenting the experiences of African Americans statewide. Since 1993, OBP has illuminated the seldom-told history of people of African descent in Oregon. They are inspired by the tenacity of Black Oregonians who have faced discrimination and hardship to make a life for themselves here over the past 400 years. OBP honors their sacrifices by remembering their stories and by sharing them with the public.
Linn-Benton Counties NAACP Branch: since its founding in 1909, the NAACP has worked to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. Since the local branch’s founding in 1971, they have strived for justice and inclusive excellence by providing opportunities for members to get involved in one of many standing committees and initiatives that directly combat all forms of racial injustices and white supremacist ideologies.
Oregon State University (OSU): Oregon State University is an international public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon with a student population of nearly 30,000. OSU leadership has acknowledged deep racial inequities and systemic racism in our nation, our state, and at our university. OSU has committed to becoming an anti-racist institution, recognizing that “We have work to do” across all three land grant missions (OSU Office of Institutional Diversity). In addition, as an 1862 land grant university, OSU shares the national responsibility of the land grant university system to acknowledge and address Indigenous history.