Who Really Runs Louisville?

As more and more folks are exposed to Nobody Owns Land; our website, our team, and the content of our zine; it has been very telling that so few people who are interested in bringing about change in Louisville have any awareness of who is really running this city. The very first line of our core guiding principles reads: “We are a Revolutionary Communist publication that seeks to uplift the voices and conversations of racialized, Queer workers everywhere, but particularly in our local area of work: Louisville, KY.” While we are committed to this principle, the manner in which we practice is something that can only be discovered through direct actions in Louisville combined with a deep understanding of the power structures and class forces currently active in Louisville; including who is behind these power structures and, therefore, identifiable as tangible enemies of the struggle. Even more troubling is the way that the non-profit industrial complex (more on that later) has functioned as a smokescreen to allow the controlling powers to appear benevolent. This has led to those most oppressed and in need of systemic change existing in a state of dependency on the very people responsible for their oppression.

So, who is really running Louisville? Surprisingly, it is fairly easy to see how few people, and specifically, one family, have both historically and currently wielded incredible power in this city. Dear reader: meet the Browns. For those not familiar, these are the current owners, principal operators, and heirs to the Brown-Forman Corporation and its vast wealth. A Forbes article from February 2024 lists the net worth of the family at $16.5 billion. Regardless of how they have achieved such wealth (another long article for another time), the facts show that they have parlayed it into a vast network of foundations, nonprofits, and political entities that give them both economic and political control over much, if not most, of Louisville. Because of the current rules surrounding these entities, the very wealthy are able to benefit in multiple ways from “giving” much of their wealth, at least in appearance, away. An article from the Institute for Policy Studies, published in November 2023, states:

Our report estimates that the direct taxpayer subsidy for charitable giving is $111 billion a year, not including potentially hundreds of billions in lost capital gains tax revenue. For every dollar a billionaire donates to charity, taxpayers chip in as much as 74 cents in lost revenue. This is because the wealthiest donors use charity not only to reduce their income taxes, but also capital gains, estate and gift taxes.

While most of this information is still publicly available, it has become increasingly difficult to “follow the money” as the matrix of tax laws becomes increasingly complex. One example of this is that nonprofits can now “restrict” public access to individual donors on Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. In other words, it is harder to uncover how local nonprofits are funded and, therefore, who actually controls how they function.

Why does it matter? For starters, many people do not know that our current mayor, Craig Greenberg, was employed by the Brown family at 21c Museum Hotels from 2006 - 2020. Unsurprisingly, Greenberg announced his candidacy for mayor in April 2021. Two of his strongest potential primary opponents, Barbara Sexton Smith and David James, withdrew from the primary and threw their support behind Greenberg. Both were promptly rewarded with deputy mayor positions after Greenberg won the election. While it is a clear requirement that any 501c3 (nonprofit) steer clear of any political involvement, it’s impossible that the current level of influence and wealth the Browns maintain in Louisville is not a major factor in local elections, local policy, and picking their preferred candidates. The political action committee formed as the primary fundraiser supporting Greenberg, Forward Together, lists the following contributions in an article in The Courier Journal, dated April 26, 2022:

The largest contribution was $100,000 from Christy Brown, who bankrolled a similar PAC in 2019 to support the gubernatorial ticket of Adam Edelen and Gill Holland, her son-in-law. Other members of the Brown family to contribute to Forward Together were Laura Lee Brown and her husband Steve Wilson — the cofounders of 21c Museum Hotels, where Greenberg was CEO — who together contributed $75,000. Campbell Brown, the chair of the board of directors at Brown-Forman, also contributed $25,000.

The list of additional foundations and other philanthropic entities fully funded by the Browns and their extended families is another clear indictment of their influence. A quick Google search reveals such creative names as Sociable Weaver Foundation, The Brooke Brown Barzun Philanthropic Foundation, and the Sutherland Foundation. The Venn diagram of who heads these various foundations is damn near a circle. The amount of “earnings” that come from various “investments” is nicely sheltered in these foundations. As detailed above, this is a total tax dodge and PR campaign.

One individual stands out among the rest — Gill Holland. After marrying into the Brown family fortune, he has used that money for an endless parade of gentrification and personal wealth building. While academic studies show how gentrification usually leads to negative impacts such as forced displacement, a fostering of discriminatory behavior by people in power, and a focus on spaces that exclude low-income individuals and People of Color; we can see these effects in real time here in Louisville. In addition to displacement due to rising property values and coercive techniques, low-income individuals and people of color also can face exclusion from the newly planned spaces in the gentrifying location. And yet, even with this in mind, nobody seems to want to discuss how NuLu actually came about. Nobody wants to discuss how the Portland Investment Initiative (also headed by Holland) is working day and night to gentrify the Portland neighborhood. Nobody wants to talk about the manner in which his fellow developers are consistently enriched and favored as countless tax incentives are handed out by, you guessed it, Mayor Greenberg’s administration. That’s a lot of info and a pretty clear indictment of how things are done in Louisville.

What is to be done and, more importantly, what can be done by groups such as Nobody Owns Land? Can the various groups that already exist to confront this reality in Louisville come together to form a cohesive bulwark against such an entrenched and powerful enemy? What have we learned from past efforts along these lines? What has worked and, more importantly, what has failed? A decisive movement to uncover these individuals; to actively create and distribute agitprop that shows how they are consistently using their influence ($$$) against the working class is only a start. Building a network of individuals determined to bring about change and turning that into a militant organized force in this power dynamic is going to be difficult and full of conflict. Embracing this truth is critical to moving the process forward. Some may struggle with identifying as Communist or revolutionary. Nobody Owns Land does not apologize for clearly identifying as such. This still leaves room for many ways forward. It’s our firm belief that this can only be determined through practice as outlined in On Practice, by Mao Zedong:

Marxist philosophy holds that the most important problem does not lie in understanding the laws of the objective world and thus being able to explain it, but in applying the knowledge of these laws actively to change the world… If we have a correct theory but merely prate about it, pigeonhole it and do not put it into practice, then that theory, however good, is of no significance. Knowledge begins with practice, and theoretical knowledge is acquired through practice and must then return to practice.

Being transparent about our long-term goals and methodology is something that will be measured out as we move forward. In most cases, while calling out specific structures, systems, and individuals that we desire to impact, how we choose to do so will be revealed after the fact. Hopefully, it is clear why this is necessary.

Stay tuned!