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Black Land Ownership

When we say equity, we mean ownership. Thriving Black communities require control and agency over land. We prioritize Black land acquisition as a foundational pillar to our work.

Seattle, Martin Luther King Jr. County has historically been the base for the vast majority of Washington State’s Black population. Decades of racist covenants and anti-Black racial hostility narrowed places where the Black community could call home. In spite of such hostile and adverse circumstances, Blacks in Washington created vibrant communities in the spaces afforded, particularly in the Central District of Seattle and South Seattle.

As demand for land grows at an unprecedented pace, the rapid gentrification and exclusion of Blacks from Seattle is important not merely due to the dismantling of historical Black cultural and societal spaces, but also due to the socio-economic, health, wealth, and education implications resulting from Blacks being pushed out of the State’s largest economic and cultural engine.

Below is a list of active Black land acquisition campaigns. Read, engage and tap-in below to support immediate opportunities to impact the material conditions of Black peoples locally, right now.

Related Links

William Grose Center for Cultural Innovation & Enterprise

William Grose Center for Cultural Innovation & Enterprise

After seven years of Black community advocacy, the William Grose Center for Cultural Innovation and Enterprise is finally moving forward! The soon-to-be William Grose Center reflects a deep history of local Black activism to reclaim the property and other parcels of unused public land in the region. Read on to learn more and support this work.

Africatown Plaza

Africatown Plaza

The [Africatown Plaza ](https://africatownplaza.com/) project symbolizes the collective mobilization of the Black community saying “No” to the development of a whole block of extreme cultural importance in the Central District. While this project has been recognized nationally and internationally for its importance, it has received far too little state support. Help make this iconic project viable after lying dormant all of these years by tapping-in below.

The Petah Village

The Petah Village

The Petah Village project pilots an outdoor preschool located on 1.4 acres of green space, and a 2700 square-foot facility to serve 81 children. The expansion of Petah Villages serves as a pro-Black programmatic service within a continuum of care to address systemic inequitable barriers for Black, Brown and Indigenous communities toward accessible, high-quality early childhood education, housing stability, and economic, workforce development services. Click to learn more and support.

Elizabeth Family Homes

Elizabeth Family Homes

In the midst of a citywide affordable housing crisis, Catholic Housing Services and Equity Alliance of Washington, in partnership with the Rainier Beach Action Coalition (RBAC) seek to develop the community-oriented Elizabeth Thomas Homes Project in Rainier Beach.

Ethiopian Village

Ethiopian Village

Spearheaded by The Ethiopian Community in Seattle (ECS), The Ethiopian Village Project will provide many critical services including after school programing, senior meal programs, health workshops, social services, summer camps, coding training, cultural immersion courses and more along with 90 units of affordable housing for seniors in South Seattle. Learn more and support.

City will transfer Central District properties to Black community ownership

City will transfer Central District properties to Black community ownership

The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Monday to transfer two long-sought Central District properties back to the Black community after years of hope and promises including pledges from Mayor Jenny Durkan this summer as Black Lives Matter movement demonstrations grew in Seattle.

Sustainable Seattle Hosts Virtual Leadership Award | Honors King County Equity Now

Sustainable Seattle Hosts Virtual Leadership Award | Honors King County Equity Now

The Aligning Forces for Sustainability award will honor King County Equity Now (KCEN) for its work against systemic and superficial racism, wasteful capitalist models, and extractive relationships that lack reciprocity. KCEN's solutions for Black equity include maximizing underutilized land under the leadership of Black-led community organizations, halting gentrification in the Central District and other historic areas of color, and establishing a $1 billion land acquisition fund to help the Black community acquire property.