Courtney “CW” and Nicole Mallery believed they had moved to greener pastures after being displaced by a hurricane.
They moved to Yoder, Colorado, an unincorporated town where they could nurture their animals and grow food on their 1,000-acre ranch. What the married couple say they’ve encountered, however, nearly cost them their lives.
They faced being doxxed and surveilled, as well as vandalism, and discovered their animals dead on their property. Guns were pointed at them. They were even charged with felony stalking, petty theft, and tampering with a meter, but the charges were later dropped by prosecutors.
At the center of it all, they say, were their white neighbors and deputies with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, who they alleged were complicit in the discrimination they faced. The sheriff’s office has denied the allegations. The Mallerys believed it was part of an effort to take their land. The sheriff’s office did not respond to Capital B’s request for comment.
Their experience is a classic tale of how to force Black farmers out of an industry where they are already in decline. What was meant to silence these ranchers brought them national attention, from packed-out rallies at the state Capitol to a powerful feature in Jordan Peele’s High Horse: The Black Cowboy documentary released in 2025.
Now they’re working with lawmakers to push for legislation and are thinking of running for office.
“There are so many other Black people that are dealing with this that don’t know what to do. I hope that maybe following our journey gives them some hope, and maybe some kind of outline as to how they can overcome it,” Nicole said. “Go down to the legislature and get some laws passed so they know they can’t stop you.”
A hurricane led to displacement and purpose
For CW, farming had always been a “childhood dream.” His grandparents, who are from Louisiana, were the first farmers he’d seen.
It wasn’t until he met his wife, and a catastrophic event later, that they were forced to think about growing their own food.
It was 2017. Hurricane Harvey hit and forced them out of their home in Texas.
“I had never experienced a hurricane in my life, and being on a roof and not being able to drink water. No food being accessible. The highway being underwater. It really was at that time where I started to think about how fractured the food system was,” Nicole said. “Depending on what side of the tracks you stayed on, that was your access to food.”
The duo started farming in their backyard. By 2020, the pandemic exposed deeper cracks in the food supply chain. They relocated to Colorado and purchased more than 1,000 acres of land to start Freedom Acres Ranch, where their mission is “farming saves lives.”
More than 744,000 people call El Paso County home. Only 6% of its population is Black. In the county sits Yoder, a predominately white community of 1,300 people and where Freedom Acres Ranch is located. It’s nearly 32 miles from Colorado Springs.
When they moved, Nicole thought they’d be in “their own world” and create an oasis where their families and others could learn and be free.
But the freedom they hoped to build didn’t come.
After purchasing the property, the two said they began to encounter racism. Strangers trespassing on their property. They were followed, and CW was even chased off his land. They were called racial slurs and found their animals dead. The Ark Republic’s two–part series broke the news of the couple’s yearslong battle with their neighbors.
It resulted in the Mallerys getting a temporary protection order against their neighbor, Teresa Clark, who also had restraining orders against the couple. One of the points of contention has been an easement between the two properties. In September 2022, Teresa Clark was arrested for violating the restraining order. Clark did not respond to Capital B’s request for comment.
“We came here to be safe from being flooded out, but to then try to flood us out through hate, it just makes me really frustrated and upset,” Nicole said.
The situation escalated in January 2023 when the Mallerys learned of a warrant. They were arrested and faced a number of charges, including stalking. They were later bonded out with the help of the Rocky Mountain NAACP, and charges were dropped.
“We’re not just making this stuff up in 2020. Y’all been doing this stuff. This is part of y’all game,” CW told Capital B, referring to the discrimination. “The sheriff’s has been part of y’all weapon. He’s been weaponized against us for a long time, and to see it play out in real time … it really makes my blood boil.”
In protest of their treatment, hundreds showed up at the state Capitol to rally in support of the duo. The Mallerys created a petition, which received over 12,600 signatures, to fire El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputy Emory Gerhart. They alleged Gerhart used the police department to instigate actions of “racism, discrimination, terrorism, [and] denial of police service.”
In response, the sheriff’s office released a statement in February 2023 saying for two years, it investigated over 19 complaints filed by the Mallerys and responded to over 170 calls for service. At a press conference, El Paso County Sheriff Joe Roybal said the situation caused “unnecessary tension between our community and our neighbors.”
He added that the Mallerys claims about the sheriff’s deputies were misinformation.
Creating Black joy
Three years later, they say they are still being surveilled — and neighbors are even writing down visitors’ license plate numbers.
In episode 2 of Jordan Peele’s High Horse, the Mallerys can be seen near their fence when a police officer approaches them during filming.
“And you guys were just down filming your story?” the officer asked.
“Why?” Nicole responded. “Let me be clear. We don’t call the police when white people are driving around the roads, when they come and they sat in front our property and take photographs.”
The police stopping by wasn’t scripted.
“That’s the police rolling up because the folks in the community said, ‘It’s a bunch of Black folks over there,’ and unbeknownst to them, they didn’t know [it was the film crew],” Nicole told Capital B after the documentary was released. “You coming out here to just harass us on our own land and try to check us about what we’re doing and intimidate people, but they picked the wrong crew that day because it was captured in real time.”
Despite their trials, all people, but especially Black folks, are still showing up and experiencing joy.
The Mallerys have welcomed over 12,000 visitors for tours and farm demonstrations, engaged with more than 2,500 youth in their Concrete to the Countryside agriculture program, and donated food to local pantries. Their goal is to provide education on land stewardship and healthy eating, as well as experiences on their ranch.
They’re preparing for a series of events, including Bayou at the Barn, to bring more people to their land. They’re not packing their bags or going anywhere anytime soon, because growing food creates a healthier community, and exposing young people to agriculture grows the number of Black farmers.
“We got the future [generation] behind us, looking at us, so packing up and running is not an option,” CW said. “We ain’t doing nothing illegal here. We’re trying to feed America. It’s my mission to get fresh food into the Black communities.”