Hilton Head Resident Gets Celebrity Support in Land Battle

Josephine Wright, 93, lives on a chunk of land on Hilton Head Island, S.C., that has been in her husband’s household because the Civil War — and she or he needs to maintain it that method.

A risk stands on the opposite aspect of her property line, the place noisy development work generally shakes her one-story house. Despite this, Bailey Point Investment, the corporate that owns the event, sued Ms. Wright for encroachment in February.

About 5 years in the past, the corporate supplied Ms. Wright $39,000 for the land, she mentioned, however she refused.

“They have been dealing with people who probably think $39,000 is a lot of money for your property, but it’s more than monetary value,” Ms. Wright mentioned. “It’s a family thing, and we want to keep it that way forever.”

Celebrities, together with Snoop Dogg and Kyrie Irving, are supporting Ms. Wright’s authorized battle. It follows many years of land acquisitions which have displaced Black households with deep ties to Hilton Head to make room for golf programs and waterfront trip properties.

Ms. Wright mentioned her husband inherited the 1.8-acre property from his mother and father, and it was put in her identify after he died in 1998. Two properties sit on the land, which is a gathering spot on holidays for her intensive household: Ms. Wright has seven youngsters, 40 grandchildren, 50 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren.

Many of the majestic, sweeping timber that they used to see from the home windows have been changed by empty grime heaps to make method for the event. Bailey Point Investment, which relies in Georgia, plans to construct a 29-acre neighborhood with 147 housing models, The Island Packet, an area newspaper, reported.

Bailey Point Investment filed a lawsuit in February accusing Ms. Wright of encroaching on its property. The firm mentioned {that a} satellite tv for pc, shed and screened porch trespassed on its land and “significantly delayed and hindered” growth.

A lawyer for Bailey Point Investment, Helen Bacon Hester, didn’t reply to requests for remark. The firm couldn’t be reached for remark.

Ms. Wright’s granddaughter Charise Graves, who lives on the property, mentioned that loud development has generally begun round 6:30 a.m. and that she and different relations have typically handled noise and development employees. An aunt who had additionally been dwelling there, and is a defendant within the lawsuit, moved to Florida in February as a result of she couldn’t deal with the noise and stress of the scenario, Ms. Graves mentioned.

Ms. Graves estimated that she has spent $6,000 to cowl the prices of responding to the developer’s complaints and to rent a lawyer. The household created a GoFundMe to assist pay for the authorized battle and property taxes. Snoop Dogg donated $10,000 to the fund-raiser and Kyrie Irving donated $40,000.

Ms. Graves mentioned she deliberate to make use of among the greater than $300,000 raised up to now to create a basis in her grandmother’s identify that goals to assist different households who’re attempting to maintain their property.

Family land possession is a decades-old challenge on Hilton Head, which was owned by many Black households earlier than builders got here to the island within the Fifties and turned it right into a trip vacation spot. Many of the Black households who first settled there had been West and Central Africans who have been enslaved and labored on rice, Indigo and cotton plantations.

Their descendants, the Gullah Geechee, established communities alongside the coast in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.

Mel Campbell, 75, a Gullah Geechee elder on Hilton Head who works for his household’s enterprise, Gullah Heritage Tours, mentioned actual property legal guidelines and an absence of financial and authorized sources had diminished the flexibility of households to retain their property.

“You can find a different Josephine Wright story on every corner on Hilton Head and up and down this coast, I’m sure,” Mr. Campbell mentioned.

On Hilton Head, the full acreage of Gullah Geechee-owned land has decreased by an estimated 70 p.c since 1995, The Greenville News reported.

One widespread challenge in Gullah Geechee communities is heirs’ property, which is when land is handed down with out a will or deed. When this occurs, each descendant, which could possibly be a whole bunch of individuals, will get an curiosity within the property. Financial establishments and governments are sometimes reluctant to again loans or grants for most of these properties, and they’re weak to loss by way of tax and actual property gross sales mechanisms, in response to a 2019 U.S. Department of Agriculture report.

Ms. Wright mentioned she hoped that her story would encourage different households to struggle for his or her land.

In latest weeks, Ms. Wright has been capable of finding just a little extra peace and quiet.

The Town of Hilton Head Island instructed Bailey Point Investment in mid-July that it might proceed to develop the land, however that the approvals wanted to erect buildings wouldn’t be obtainable till it reached a authorized settlement with Ms. Wright.

Ms. Wright mentioned she had just one request of the developer: “To leave me alone and let me live in peace on my property.”

Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.