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By Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III

Two months ago, my sons and I attended our family reunion in rural Virginia. My mother’s side of the family has its roots in Northumberland County, Va. – a place that I grew up calling “down the country.” For many summers during my childhood, my parents would take my brothers and I “down the country” to spend time with our rural relatives. This wasn’t always a welcome idea for me as a boy born in the urban environs of Baltimore City, Md. However, when I look back today, I have deep appreciation for my parents who overruled my protests and carefully connected me to our family roots.

Now it was my turn to pay it forward to my sons.

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The Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III argues that Black family reunions must serve as more than social gatherings — they should also be strategy sessions for preserving and leveraging family-owned land. With billionaires purchasing rural acreage and African Americans owning less than 1 percent of U.S. rural land, Brown says reunions are the perfect space to plan for food security, generational wealth, and collective power. (Courtesy Photo)

I pulled up to the designated location of our 2025 family reunion and parked in a tree-lined field next to the community center that was rented for the occasion. A sea of more than 450 people filled the hall and spilled over onto the grounds outside; welcoming me to the gathering. Almost every single person had on a purple family reunion t-shirt emblazoned with the theme and details about our lineage.  

I walked up to join in the festivities and saw that outside the front door, there was a table filled with pictures of our deceased family members. The table served as an “Ancestor Altar.” It was a public display communicating the importance of remembering those with us in spirit but gone from this physical realm. Inside the hall, the program had already begun. With striking similarities to a Sunday church service, there were announcements, prayer, musical selections and seats of honor reserved for the oldest members of the family. There was even a short comedy show! After the program, of course came the food. Pans and pans of delicious food were set out on tables. A very long line of hungry family members snaked through the building as loved ones waited patiently to get their plates. After the food, there were games, line dances and the DJ. The Family Reunion Committee dedicated themselves for almost a full year to the process of planning, raising money, signing contracts and promoting this year’s gathering. They did a wonderful job.

My experience is not atypical. The scene I just described is very similar to what happens with many other Black families as well.

The Black family reunion is a time-honored tradition that dates back to emancipation when formerly enslaved Black people would seek out loved ones from whom they had been separated. The family reunion is an opportunity to celebrate our heritage, lineage, elders and the young ones among us. It is a space where family members meet one another, sometimes for the first time. Important introductions are made and milestone moments are recognized.

The Black family reunion also provides us with the chance to return to our roots. While resorts and vacation destinations have become more popular with families for their gatherings these days, many of us remember reunions of yesteryear which included returning to family-owned land.

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The Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III is the founder and executive director of the Black Church Food Security Network. Here he reflects on calls for preserving Black-owned land and using reunions as strategy sessions.
(Photo Credit: Facebook (meta)/ Black Church Food Security Network)

This aspect of the Black family reunion must have special emphasis right now. 

At a time when billionaires such as Thomas Peterffy, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and others are buying up land (especially in rural communities), Black families must focus intently on land that they own–how to preserve it and ways to maximize it for the family’s benefit.

Despite African Americans making up 13 percent of the population, we own less than 1 percent of rural land in the United States. The value of this land, however, is $14 billion. Imagine what would happen if we increased our land ownership to 5 percent?

Land preservation is not just about passing land from one generation to the next, it’s also a key to food security, food justice, health and economic opportunity. If your family owns land, you can grow whatever you want on it, whenever you want, and for whomever you want. You can build on it, create opportunities from it and use it to leverage your family’s power to control your destiny. The Black family reunion is the perfect opportunity to deliberate, plan, strategize and organize in this way.

Given the political, economic and social challenges confronting African Americans, our reunions have to evolve with respect to their purpose. These sacred gatherings can play an integral role in establishing family protection and land-based power.

Gaining power for the Black community is exactly the aim of the organization that I founded 10 years ago: The Black Church Food Security Network. Through this organization, we help Black congregations grow food on their land and partner with Black growers to host farmers’ markets on church grounds among other things. We do this because we are clear that a community that has the ability to feed itself is a powerful community; one that can’t be easily pushed around.  

We pay attention to our history and understand our food sovereignty work to be in the lineage of people like Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Rev. Vernon Johns, Georgia Gilmore, The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and so many more. Jim Crow forced our forebears to develop and strengthen their own ecosystems of communal care. We have no choice now but to do the same.

Reunions, then, can become the meeting place where we draw up plans to grow food on family land, establish fruit tree orchards, grow timber, build facilities, review legal resources to establish a trust and so much more. We could leave the family reunion with the satisfaction of knowing that we not only had a good time, but we handled family business that can benefit the generations to come. 

Family reunion season is now over, but the work of the planning committee for next year’s event doesn’t have to wait. Leveraging family land should be on the agenda and part of the focus of next year’s reunion. There are a host of organizations that can help your family navigate this issue. Black families should connect with groups like the Black Family Land Trust, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Land Loss Prevention Project, Justis Connection or the Black Church Food Security Network. 

The time is now, the need is great, opportunities abound and resources exist that can help your loved ones leverage your land and assets for collective power. If we take this charge seriously then our family reunions will not only be the places where we strengthen our bonds while having a good time, but they’ll also be the place where we do all that is necessary to use what we have to make things better for our bloodline and community.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.