Concerned Citizens of Tillery, USA

Tillery, located in Halifax County, USA is typical of many rural cross-roads communities in north-eastern North Carolina in which poverty, high unemployment, persistent racial inequalities, and isolation create a visible atmosphere of apathy and hopelessness. Tillery is a farm community whose population is 98% African-American. Since the mechanisation of farming and the subsequent loss of family farmers, most of the farm jobs have disappeared and have been replaced with low paying factory jobs 15 to 45 miles from the community. These factories, which employ a significant number of Tillery residents, are known for their unfair labour tactics and union-busting. Partly as a result of this lack of desirable jobs, there has been a sizeable out-migration of working-age adults from the community, leaving behind a large senior population.

Concerned Citizens of Tillery was founded in 1978 in order to fight the closing of our community school, which had seen a dwindling student body as a result of this out-migration. During its 17 years of existence, the organisation has grown from a group of 7 founding members to a membership of more than 350 families. Our expanded focus now includes the environment, health care, land loss, youth, seniors, young adults, and economic development. CCT is truly a grassroots volunteer organisation with a strong sense of the needs and hopes of our community.

CCT is committed to developing a community whose residents educate, organise and become advocates for themselves. Among the many accomplishments of the community are the creation of a Free People's Health Clinic offering services twice a month, a renovated community centre in which residents can come together for educational activities and meetings, and an ordinance regulating the corporate hog industry which had been threatening the area.

CCT has been especially concerned with the economic and social standing of the community, and has taken a number of steps to ameliorate the situation. Tillery has a large but dwindling concentration of African-America owned land. CCT is forthright in its belief that land ownership is a key source of political, social, and economic power. Members of CCT established the Land Loss Fund in 1983 to provide education and organise assistance to small economically disadvantaged land owners at risk of losing their land. The Land Loss Fund aims to ensure the stability of African-America land ownership in Halifax County and eastern North Carolina because land ownership is a significant building block in our vision for an economically and socially stable African-American community.

With these same goals in mind, CCT established an Economic Development Committee (EDC) in 1993 to help generate jobs and businesses in the Tillery area. Residents are anxious for sustainable, environmentally sound economic development. A major problem in eastern North Carolina is that national and multi-national corporations have targeted poor black communities in search of an easily exploitable work force. The EDC is aiming to create community-based economic development so that money earned in the community stays in the community and so that employers are answerable to their employees. Among the short-term goals of the EDC are the creation of a community-based investment group and affordable housing in the community.

Tillery has improved noticeably as citizens of all ages, professions, interests, and backgrounds have formed a coalition and become stakeholders in the future of the community. Empowerment and education within the community serve to promote a realisation that residents hold the potential to challenge exploitative forces and create a thriving economic and social living environment.