Three activists who’ve spent their lives fighting systemic injustice share their stories and tactics for organizing communities.
This Black History Month marks 100 years of commemorating the contributions of Black Americans to our society.
To mark this occasion, we spoke with three Oxfam allies in the fight for economic justice who have dedicated their lives to activism. Read on to get to know Shirley Sherrod, executive director of the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc; Bonita Green, executive director of the Merrick-Moore Community Development Corporation; and Ben Burkett, Mississippi State Coordinator for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.
They share their triumphs, lessons from organizing, and most of all, show us why we can’t afford to allow Black history to get erased.
Can you walk us through your journey as an organizer and activist?
Shirley Sherrod: My work started as part of the Civil Rights Movement. I joined after my father had been murdered by a white farmer who was not prosecuted. On the night of my father's death, I decided I would stay in the South and devote my life to working for change.
Initially, the fight was the injustices occurring right there in Baker County [Georgia], where we had a sheriff who had killed a number of Black people, and just ruled everything in the county. We ended up getting an injunction by the end of the summer. I later married Charles Sherrod, who was one of the founding members of SNCC (The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), and our work included organizing to get people elected to city and county commissions, and then working in counties throughout Southwest Georgia.
I ended up working with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives for 25 years, and that gave me the opportunity to work closely with people in rural communities here in Southwest Georgia initially, and then across the South working on saving Black-owned land. Then around 2000, I had the opportunity to work with women from Mississippi and Alabama to create the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative for Economic and Social Justice.
Bonita Green: My parents were both active in community, and I got to experience first-hand what it means to be of service to others.
Being born in Segregation and going through Integration, I learned about the ways the Black Community was self-sufficient. If a family in the neighborhood was taking a road trip, it wasn't like we could stop and go to restaurants. The neighborhood would come together to prepare food so nobody would go hungry. Somebody would fry chicken, there would be loaves of bread, potato salad, someone else would bring cake.
And really, that's what our neighborhood organization—which was born about 1952/53—did. If the lady of the house felt ill or needed support, the women of the community would cook, they would clean, they would shop, do whatever needed to be done until she was back on her feet. The men came together to support the exterior of the household and the face of the community. They actively helped each other build their houses or repair so you're not really paying out labor costs.
Ben Burkett: I'm 75 years old and I've been a farmer all my life. I'm sitting on the farm where I was born, this land has been in my family since 1889.
I went to attend Alcorn State University for a year, and I came back with the intention of leaving Mississippi when my generation was going to Chicago. Then in 1973 my father took sick, and my mother asked me to come help harvest. Been here ever since.
We started the Indian Springs Farmers Association in the ‘70s [to fight] racism. When you sent watermelons to distributors, they were paying the white farmer one price and the Black farmer one price. We decided to buy our own truck and haul our own watermelons.
I got into activism during the farm crisis in '78 or '79, when farmers were going out of business from borrowing a whole lot of money we couldn't pay back. There was a Tractor Cade in 1979 where 58,000 tractors went to Washington; we saved up enough money to send one. After the Credit Act of 1980, where you could go in and renegotiate your loans, I did mine and other farmers wanted me to help them.
That's how I really got involved with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, and we became involved in the National Family Farm Coalition, the Rural Coalition, other organizations that were trying to help Black farmers. And because of that, I've been to 40 to 50 different countries visiting with other farmers.
What is your focus right now?
Sherrod: We in the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative have organized what we call human rights councils, and those councils really stay on top of issues in their counties. But also, we help women to be able to organize, to get people registered to vote, to get them to vote, and in some cases, get them to run the office themselves.
Green: There are several things. The main road that goes through our neighborhood, Cheek Road, has always been a dangerous road. We've had a degree of success in getting the Durham Department of Transportation to add Cheek Road onto their Vision Zero Plan to eliminate death by vehicle for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Since 2019 we have also been developing a community garden and food forest. We donate the food and then work with a local organization called Feed Durham to distribute the food. We have a cohort that does home repair, in particular working with disenfranchised seniors so that they can get the necessary home repairs done on their home for free.
The neighborhood is also surrounded by industrial businesses, highways, freeways, and a freight railroad system. We do a lot of climate justice work because we've been designated as a heat island. We do education ... and we host monthly meetings with the community residents, and we do block party events to connect people.
Burkett: We’re trying to get young farmers in the cooperative. The vast majority are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Unless we change that narrative, by 2031 or ‘32 the co-op will no longer exist.
What keeps you motivated to keep doing the work, even when there are setbacks?
Sherrod: Well, one of the things is you have to “keep your eyes on the prize” and “hold on”, so to speak—that's from one of the songs of the Civil Rights Movement. If you allow the setbacks to stop you in your tracks and don’t do anything, then you can't accomplish anything.
Green: When an opportunity comes along that is going to be beneficial to the community, I can’t say no to it. Even though we’re short staffed, we’ll figure it out. It’s tiring and it gets frustrating, but we’re always going to keep moving forward.
Burkett: Farming will teach you a lot of things. Patience is a part of it. Be patient, do what you can, and enjoy what you're doing. We want to keep Black farmers in business. We have to work a little hard at it under this administration and climate.
What are some lessons from the movements of the past that we can apply to movements that are happening today?
Sherrod: You can't work from the top when you organize. You have to work from the community level and understand the people. You really cannot think you can go into a community with all of the answers. You have to accept people where they are and help to move them forward.
Green: I think this country is inherently a very racist country. Black people have experienced this all of our lives; now it's affecting other nationalities, other races, and white people are being affected by it. [It’s like] the old adage, if you don't know your history, you're destined to repeat it. History, and particularly Black history in America, is actively being erased. People need to take the time and not just believe what they see on television or believe everything they're being told, do your due diligence.
I think one of the best lessons I ever learned was to listen to hear and not to respond. Most of us, we listen and we're trying to build our argument back when we're listening. Really try to hear and understand what the other person is saying.
Burkett: All of us want the same thing. We want to be at peace, good schools, good healthcare, clean water, clean air. Just to have a comfortable living doing what you want to do farming. Everywhere I've been, people want the same thing. That’s the basis of life.
Are there any specific grassroots tactics you’ve seen work for organizers in the past that we as community members can adopt?
Sherrod: Going back to the Civil Rights Movement, we had to organize. We could not depend on the sheriffs or the leaders in the community to protect us when it was really supposed to be their job. We had to help people understand that we needed to look out for each other.
I can remember a thing that happened at my mother's home: White men came to burn a cross at our home. This was just a few months after my father's death. We were so organized. My mother went out on the porch and was calling out names because she could recognize some of them. One of my sisters got on the phone and started calling men who were part of the movement. Before these white people knew anything, they were surrounded. We had to learn to be our own police force, so to speak.
Do you have any advice for people who are interested in getting involved in their community and don't know where to start?
Sherrod: When I started working with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, I needed to organize farmers to fight for the things they needed from the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA was the main culprit for the loss of Black-owned farmland. What I learned was farmers would talk to each other, but they didn’t really talk. I used a tactic to get them together, so that they would start talking. What I did initially was to get farmers together in a county. And then I would get farmers together across counties. And then finally, I got some of them to attend the Federation's meeting in another state. I even took a group of farmers to Farm Aid.
Green: Just do it. You can't keep waiting because if you keep waiting, you're never going to get anything done. If people are waiting for someone else, it's not going to happen. There are so many organizations that that are working within a community, within a city, within an area, to get involved with on one level or another. You just got to do it, even if it's starting your own thing. It's hard work. It's thankless work. But it's very rewarding. You know, when you get your wins, it's very, very rewarding to know that you're actually making a difference in helping people.
Burkett: Yeah, get involved in your community. Get involved in the food issues. Learn about land issues, the value of hold along the land. Come out and visit farmers. As a consumer, you can put the pressure on companies to know where your food come from, who produced and how we're producing.