Freedom Acres Ranch: The Mallery Family’s Fight for Their Home

In 2020, Courtney and Nicole Mallery bought a huge, 1,000-acre piece of land in Yoder, Colorado. They named it Freedom Acres Ranch. They just wanted to work hard, raise animals, and live a quiet farm life.

Instead, the Black couple, who are also military veterans, found themselves in a terrifying fight just to stay safe on their own land.

Their story is a sad reminder that racism is still a very real danger for Black farmers in America today. Here is what is happening to the Mallerys and why they need our help.

Scary Attacks on Their Farm

This wasn’t just a normal disagreement between neighbors. The Mallerys have faced real danger meant to scare them into moving away. They have dealt with:

• Harming Their Animals: Their farm animals have been hurt or killed. Farm dogs and pigs were poisoned. Goats were killed, and someone even set their chicken coop on fire.
• Damaging the Property: Strangers have cut their fences, turned off their security cameras, messed with their power lines, and even stolen their water.
• Physical Threats: People have driven by slowly, pointing guns at them. Courtney was chased off part of his own land by someone in a car, and hateful, racist words have been painted on their property.

When the Police Don’t Help

Usually, you call the police when you are in danger. But the local sheriff’s office did not protect the Mallerys.

Instead of going after the people causing the trouble, the police actually arrested Courtney and Nicole! The arrests were based on lies told by the same neighbors who were harassing them. The charges against the couple were finally dropped after civil rights groups like the NAACP stepped in to help. Still, the whole nightmare cost the Mallerys a lot of money and proved that they could not count on local police to keep them safe.

Heartbreaking Betrayals

To make things even harder, the Mallerys also had to deal with people turning their backs on them.

A white neighbor named Dylan seemed to support them at first, but later he completely turned against them. What hurt even more was that some Black women in the area decided to take Dylan’s side instead of supporting the Mallerys. When you are already dealing with so much hate, having people you thought were on your side turn against you makes the fight feel lonely and exhausting.

How You Can Help

The Mallerys are brave and refuse to leave their home. But they cannot fight this battle alone. Here is how you can stand up for Freedom Acres Ranch today:

1. Help Them Pay Their Bills The legal fights, broken fences, and lost animals have cost the family a huge amount of money. You can give money directly to their Freedom Acres Ranch GoFundMe to help them keep the farm running.

2. Support Their Business Visit the Freedom Acres Ranch Website to learn more about their story and support their actual farm business.

3. Call the Leaders in Charge Let the local leaders know that the whole country is watching how they treat this family!

• Call the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office: Call (719) 520-7100 and ask them to treat the Mallery family fairly and properly investigate the people attacking them.
• Call the Colorado Governor: Call Governor Jared Polis at (303) 866-2471 and tell him to protect Black farmers in his state.

4. Share Their Story Talk about this online with your friends and family. Use the hashtags #SaveFreedomAcres, #FarmInPeace, and #BlackFarmersMatter to make sure their story isn’t hidden.

No one should have to live in fear just to work on their own farm. Stand with Courtney and Nicole Mallery and help them keep their freedom.