Over the years, Black landowners have fallen victim to property developers seeking to flip land.
As Black Americans inherit land, they are overwhelmed with pressure from developers to sell so that it may be repurposed.
Historically, Black Americans have been systematically threatened and harassed in an effort to force them to forfeit land ownership to developers. Others have been priced out of their homes, citing rising property taxes, according to AP News. This reality has led several Black people to lose their land, a significant source of generational wealth among families, NBC News reports.
Some families have managed to preserve their proprietorship and have no plans of ever selling outside of their family, such as the Smith family. “We’ve established that if anyone wants to sell their property, they will do so to a sibling and not an outsider,” said Evelyn S. Booker, who, alongside her seven siblings, inherited a 60-acre plot of land from their mother, Esther Smith Morse.
Though the Smiths have covered all legal avenues to ensure that the land remains within their family, their avid refusal has not deterred developers with hopes of transforming the occupied mass of land into a viable real estate investment or other plans. And, as it turns out, this is a similar tale for other Black landowners.