Growing justice: BIPOC farmers reclaim Richmond soil

The Central Virginia Agrarian Community Land Trust (CVACLT), a BIPOC-led nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) control of land for building resilient regional food systems, today announced the historic transfer of more than 60 acres of land in Henrico County, Virginia — land that once served as an encampment for the United States Colored Troops (USCT) before their victorious march into Richmond, effectively ending the American Civil War.

This extraordinary land conveyance, made possible through a partnership with the Capital Region Land Conservancy (CRLC), is one of the most symbolically and historically significant acts of Black land reclamation in modern Virginia history — and arrives at a profound national moment, as the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th Anniversary in 2026.

A NATION'S WOUND, HEALED IN PART BY RETURNING THE LAND

Since 1910, Black Americans have lost an estimated 19 million acres of farmland — a catastrophic dispossession driven by systemic racism, discriminatory lending practices, heirs' property vulnerabilities, tax sales, violence, and legal manipulation. In just over a century, Black land ownership has collapsed from approximately 16 to 19 million acres to fewer than 3 million acres today. This land loss has not only stripped generational wealth from Black families but has severed communities from their agricultural heritage, food sovereignty, and economic self-determination.

Against this backdrop of dispossession, the transfer of these 60+ acres to CVACLT is far more than a real estate transaction. It is an act of restoration. It is a reckoning. It is a reclamation.

"The biggest risk to farming is development pressure and rising land values. The biggest impediment to farmers is having land tenure and ownership of the property where we work and invest to improve soil health and provide needed food for the community," said Duron Chavis, Board Chair of the Central Virginia Agrarian Community Land Trust. "CVACLT was founded to help address both of these challenges and we appreciate the partnership that CRLC has afforded us to secure these 60 plus acres."

SACRED GROUND: WHERE THE USCT MARCHED TOWARD FREEDOM

The historical significance of this land cannot be overstated. These 60+ acres sit entirely within the core of the Darbytown and New Market Road Battlefield and partly within the core of the Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights Battlefield — two of the most consequential battlefields of the Civil War's final chapter, as documented by the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. The property overlaps with core battlefield or study areas of seven different Civil War battles.

Following the heroic Union victory at the Battle of New Market Heights on September 29, 1864 — a battle in which Black soldiers of the USCT distinguished themselves with extraordinary valor, earning 14 Congressional Medals of Honor in a single day — the Union Army established a formidable line of earthen fortifications stretching from Fort Harrison northward along Route 5 to what is today Doran Road, just 7 miles from the Virginia State Capitol.

Approximately half of this property lies directly behind those Union defenses. Physical evidence of the earthworks remains visible on the land today. Confederate forces launched three separate assaults in October 1864 to dislodge the Union Army from these positions — and failed each time.

It was from this very ground that the soldiers of the USCT's XXV Corps — men who had been enslaved, men who had been told they were property — stepped forward on April 3, 1865, and marched into Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, as liberators. Their march did not just end a war. It announced, to the nation and to the world, the dawn of a new America.

Now, 160 years later, the descendants and heirs of that legacy are reclaiming the land where those men stood.

AMERICA AT 250: A RECKONING AND A RENEWAL

As the United States commemorates its 250th Anniversary in 2026, Americans are called to reflect not only on the ideals upon which this nation was founded, but on the distance between those ideals and lived reality — and on the courageous work of closing that gap.

The transfer of this land to CVACLT embodies that spirit of renewal. It is a living monument to the USCT soldiers who fought and died on this soil. It is a challenge to the legacy of Black land dispossession. And it is a beacon pointing toward an America where the promise of freedom, land, and self-determination is finally, fully extended to all.

There is perhaps no more fitting tribute to America's 250th birthday than returning sacred land to those whose labor, sacrifice, and blood built this nation — and watching new life grow from it.

GROWING A FUTURE: COMMUNITY IMPACT

Beyond its historical and symbolic importance, this land will serve an immediate and vital community purpose. With Varina Elementary School, Dorey Park Farmers Market, and hundreds of homes within less than a mile of the property, the farm will provide fresh, healthy, locally grown produce to a surrounding neighborhood that is majority Black. CVACLT will make the land available to future BIPOC farmers to grow their skills, build agricultural experience, and strengthen the region's food system.

The property carries statewide conservation significance as well, overlapping with ConserveVirginia 3.0 in five of seven priority categories: Agriculture and Forestry, Cultural and Historic Preservation, Natural Habitat and Ecosystem Diversity, Scenic Preservation, and Water Quality Improvement.

This land will grow food. It will grow farmers. It will grow community. And it will grow justice.