Using CLTs as tools for progressing social equity is not a contemporary invention. Prior to colonization, most land was seen as communal. However, the first operating Community Land Trust in North America is recognized to be New Communities, a nearly 6000-acre farm collective started by Black farmers in 1969 in Albany, Georgia.
New Communities grew out of the Civil Rights movement in Albany as a direct response to Black farmers being displaced from their land through White Supremacist violence, mechanization, and retaliatory evictions for participating in Civil Rights protests or actions. White farmers who owned the farmland were evicting Black tenant farmers for registering to vote, enrolling in integrated school, or attending activist meetings. After purchasing the property through grants and sizable, over 500 black families applied to take part in New Communities.
Since then, community land trusts have been established throughout North America to preserve affordable housing, create community spaces, and provide and protect land for urban gardens and agriculture.
For information on active community land trusts throughout the continent, see Existing CLTs.