In the decades after slavery was abolished, Robert Tatum became one of an untold number of Black Texans who bought their portion of the American dream.
His 300 acres in East Texas were fertile, providing corn, peas, okra, watermelon, cantaloupes, apples. He and his neighbors, many of them freedmen or their children, would take turns hunting wild boar and sharing the meat. There were cows and chickens, butter and eggs.
“No one ever came to our house and left hungry,” his grandson, Autry Tatum, 76, reminisced.
This summer, a network of lawyers and advocates, known as the East Texas Heirs’ Property Initiative, launched to help families hold onto such properties.
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A fault line ran through the Tatums’ self-sufficiency, and through that of other families throughout the region and the South. In 1900, 99% of Texas attorneys were white men. Many families lacked access to a lawyer, and they wouldn’t necessarily trust one. So after Robert Tatum’s death, his land, like the land of many others in the region and throughout the South, didn’t go through probate court to change the name on the deed or officially split the property between heirs. In such cases, the heirs inherit a share of the property. Tatum had 12 children — each inherited an 8% share…