Brenda D. Gibson

Volume 26.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

This article enters the conversation about Black poverty in a new way—discussing the phenomenon of the heirs’ property ownership model as an impediment to Black wealth. Though heirs’ property seems a rather innocuous concept in property law, juxtaposed with the history of Black people in the United States, particularly through the lens of the South Carolina Low Country and American systems that have birthed and nurtured incalculable inequities for us, it becomes clear that heirs’ property ownership is much more. It is both cause and effect: cause as it was birthed out of America’s racial caste system; and effect in that it has led to continued Black land loss, which ultimately threatens the culture of America’s slave descendants.

The article begins with an overview of property law’s Estates Systems, discussing the rather antiquated manner in which property rights are enjoyed in America, generally, before moving to the history of Black property ownership in America. This discussion necessarily begins with slavery, a dark but relevant period in this country’s history, as it informs the way Black people, specifically those in the South Carolina Low Country, enculturated themselves and exist to this day. In Part II, the article unpacks the systemic manner in which American institutions have coalesced to impede Black wealth and explains why the loss of Black land and the consequent wealth gap persists in America today. Particularly, Part II discusses the loss of Black-owned land in the Low Country and the threatened loss of a unique Gullah-Geechee culture that exists there. Finally, Part III of the article, considers several solutions to the prolific loss of Black land and the resulting impediment to Black wealth.