Former Black Panther Kathleen Cleaver Fights For Land and Justice

The Harris Neck Land Trust is an organization compromised of 70 African-American families and community members dedicated to returning 2,687 acres of land  taken from African-American families in 1942.

Harris Neck, GA was once home to a group of Gullah Geechee people, descendants of West African slaves in South Carolina and Georgia.  The Gullah have preserved a significant part of their African language and culture.  West and Central Africa influence their language, food, music, and crafts. The Gullah have been fighting to keep control of their traditional lands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia and resort development has pushed many Gullah off their lands.

The Harris Neck Gullah people thrived on the lush land that they inhabited until July 27, 1942. They were an insular community that lived by fishing, farming and gaming before they were forced to move from their home by federal government officials.

1942 America was still in its separatist, Jim Crow era.  The Gullah people were self-sustaining and had plenty of land to continue a flourishing community while many of their white Southern counterparts struggled. Jim Crow laws still circulated the South in word and in deed. African-Americans were still legally separate and inferior to whites.  They could neither vote nor hold office leaving them vulnerable in land rights disputes.

Land ownership was a sign of wealth, prosperity and power in Georgia in 1942. The Gullah had plenty of land which made them autonomous and independent. This independence gravely disturbed the prevalent attitudes of racial and social subservience that whites imposed on African-Americans. During World War II, German submarines were spotted in American waters off of the Southern coast. Federal government was looking for land to establish an air force base in Georgia. At this point the McIntosh County officials directed federal government agents to Harris Neck and to the black community of Harris Neck. Their directive overlooked the land 200 yards Southwest of Harris Neck called Julienton which was more than 3500 acres and “virtually uninhabited” as noted by research provided by the Harris Neck Land Trust. Yet, McIntosh County led federal government officials to Harris Neck

The families were displaced through improper execution of Eminent Domain by the federal government. Eminent Domain stipulates that residents asked to leave their land are allowed to have the land appraised independently. The people of Harris Neck were not made aware of this stipulation. In an interview with David Kelly of the Harris Neck Land Trust, he emphasized that 4th and 5th amendments of the Eminent Domain clause were outright ignored. Kelly pointed out that the whites of Harris Neck received 40% in compensation than the displaced African-Americans. The 75 African-American families were not given due compensation to move. Rather, they were told to evacuate Harris Neck in three weeks time with an oral promise that the land would be returned after World War II. On July 27, 1942, homes and the livelihood of Harris Necks’ residents were bulldozed and burned to the ground to clear space for the air force base.

Research and advocacy work of Cleaver and the Harris Neck Land Trust shows that Harris Neck was unfairly taken in 1942. The families were given only three weeks to find suitable living arrangements. According to Reverend Robert Thorpe, a living elder who was displaced in 1942, the new move created: “Hardship. [We] moved without a place to go. In prime of crops and farming season we moved. There  was corn loaded on the back of trucks and watermelon.” They never reaped the fruits of the arduous work they sowed.

After the war, McIntosh County contracted with the War Assets Department to build a civilian airbase which never materialized. Instead, from 1942-1961 the land became an illegal haven for drug-trafficking, prostitution and gambling. Due to the improper use of the land, the federal government seized it in 1961 and entrusted it to the Fish & Wildlife Services. At this point, the land should have been returned to the displaced families of Harris Neck. However, when the Fish & Wildlife Services acquired the land, they set up a fish and wildlife sanctuary on it.  The Harris Neck Land Trust claims that it should have been returned to the families.

On April 28, 1979, former Harris Neck residents and other civil rights leaders camped on the land in protest. Four people were arrested. Now, Cleaver and several others have joined forces to combat this injustice and to restore the livelihood and autonomy of the families of Harris Neck.  This is not the first time the federal government has been in the hot seat for confiscating land belonging to a racial minority.  Japanese Americans were awarded reparations for the harsh treatment and racial injustice that they suffered when their land was taken away during World War II.  Professor Cleaver pointed out to me that the House Committee on Natural Resources  awarded the Bering Strait Natives Corporation 18,000 acres of land in Alaska to be distributed by the federal government. With the prior two precedents set in motion, one can hope that equal consideration is imparted to the Harris Neck Land Trust by the Department of the Interior, Fish & Wildlife and the House Committee on Natural Resources.

In 1979, the Sheriff of McIntosh County apologized for not returning the land to the Geechee poeple when they had the chance, and, on his death bed, asked to see two of the community’s leaders. In 2007, the County Commission passed a resolution that admitted their role in the improper acquisition of the Gullah Geechee land and expressed support for the return of the land to its rightful owners.

This week, Kathleen Cleaver honored me with an interview.  Once a prominent leader in the Black Panther Party, she is now Professor of Law at Emory and Yale University. We discussed the case of Harris Neck in detail. Please read our interview below.

Q: How did you get involved with the Harris Neck Land Trust?

A: I had gone down there and visited and met people [before]. I was really very taken by that area of the country. And, I had also visited and spent some time in St. Helena’s Island, South Carolina, which is Gullah area and …it’s a culture that fascinates me and is extraordinarily beautiful…what I’m familiar with are very Southern Black communities and the people that I saw in St. Simone, they were probably Geechee but I didn’t know what they were. I mean they were just so distinct, so African. So I just loved it. I was drawn to it…It’s a compelling issue when you have a case of land that has been taken away by the government and the people from which it was taken away are still there and making an effort to get it back. It’s like there’s no downside to trying to get the land back other than time. It’ll take time. But no downside. What can you possibly do wrong by giving people the land back?

It fit to come to that part of Georgia. I had done it before and the Human Rights Research Fund is working at issues of how government policies have damaged or destroyed the rights, heritage and lives of American citizens. So they’re American citizens. Their lives were destroyed. So it fit.

Q: What is your role precisely?

A: Advisor. When I met them there was no Harris Neck Land Trust. And once they created the Harris Neck Land Trust, then they made me an advisor to the Harris Neck Land Trust.

Q: What are some of the core issues or conflicts that are taking place as the Harris Neck Land Trust works to reclaim its land?

A: The transfer of Harris Neck Land [Trust] to the Department of the Interior was improper because it shouldn’t have been taken in 1942…It’s an issue of a lack of respect for black people. That’s the issue. And that’s the issue that McIntosh County was guilty of in the sense of steering–see this is what’s the key–McIntosh County officials steered  the War Department to the place where Harris Neck Community lived…”

When the Department of the Interior obtained the land, they obtained the land because McIntosh County did not fulfill their contract of 1947 with the War Assets Control which meant that since they didn’t fulfill it, why didn’t the land go back to it the original owners? Instead, the Department of the Interior acquired it and handed it over to the Fish & Wildlife to administer a natural wildlife sanctuary. So where does this come from?

Q: Why did McIntosh County specifically target the land belonging to the 75 African-American families in Harris Neck?

A:It’s clear then. It was clear in retrospect that McIntosh County had an agenda in taking the land because they had been trying to get the land. They used all kinds of little devices. In fact, I was reading that people from Harris neck who ended up in trouble with the law they got arrested, they needed bail money. But they didn’t have cash. But they had land. So they were always trying to get the land and destroy their independence. And they were unsuccessful because they [the Gullah people] owned it collectively and they wouldn’t sell…that [the land] was the basis of their independence, their autonomy, their livelihood.”

Q: So the Gullah Geechee live off the land historically but how can we be sure that once the land is returned, they will live off the land?
A: I mean the way the Geechee live, they live on land and waters so it’s like of course they’re going to care for it. It’s part of their livelihood. To care for the land and the fish and the birds. You’re dealing with a real culture clash here. That’s what it is…We’re talking about 2700 acres of land. It’s perfectly possible for humans and wildlife to coexist on that much land!

Q: How is it a culture clash?

A: Well in the sense of what the land is for. The people who live on the land care for the land. The Fish & Wildlife people don’t live on land. They’re administrators of government property. I mean that’s what I mean. It’s a bureaucratic ownership as opposed to a human participation which is part of their [Geechee] livelihood. But their livelihood has been destroyed.

Q: You stress that this is a land issue (rather than a monetary issue). Can you explain that?

A: Very much a land issue! That’s what they want. It’s called the Harris Neck Land Trust. In fact, they specifically reject monetary compensation.

Q: What could this mean if the 70 families of the Harris Neck Land Trust got their land back? What are the implications?

A: Well, the implication if they get it back is that justice can occur. The implications are also that there has been an acknowledgment on the part of Congress that the Department of the Interior is a participant in a fundamental injustice and they have to rectify it.

Q: What is the opposition to Harris Neck Land Trust getting their land back?

A: Department of the Interior, Fish & Wildlife and all the white bureaucratic Republicans and other type who think that what the government does is perfect, should be done I mean, whose interest is being represented here?…They’re controlling it but the control can shift. That’s my point. It can shift if you have enough interest in Congress and that’s part of the difficulty because the Geechee are a small population. Geechee are not politically powerful so if it’s seen as only affecting Geechee’s then why should anybody care? But it doesn’t. It’s about citizenship. What does it mean? What does it mean to control your own destiny? If you own land, how is the law going to protect the land?

Q: What are the next steps in getting Harris Neck Land Trust back?

A: There have been statutes, bills initiated in Congress twice.  They never get out of committee. The issue is how you get enough members of Congress to vote for it. You can get the bill on committee. To get a bill initiated in Congress is not the problem. They’ve had that twice. It just never gets out of committee. So the issue is how to get the political head of steam to get it out of committee and on to the floor and actually voted for. That’s the problem right there….So the next step is to actually hold a Congressional hearing in which Harris Neck is able to present, in Congress, it’s testimony…so at least there will be a transcribed hearing at which these issues are coming out…”

Q: What can the average American do to help the Harris Neck Land Trust?

A: Well you can print a list of the Congressional members of the various Caucuses that will be involved. There will be a Black Caucus, Georgia delegation, and there will be individuals Congressmen. Individuals could write to their Congressmen and say this is a matter that I care about…But it has to get visibility and for Congressman Kingston (R-GA) whose the Representative in Harris Neck, he wants to see sort of a ground swell. Therefore, he’s representing something for which there is substantial support behind it.”

At the conclusion of our interview, Professor Cleaver aid these powerful words:

Race changes everything. So that’s one of the things that’s intriguing to me. This is situation in which the issues involved in how race alters the legal protections of citizenship is pretty obvious. It’s helpful. It’s clear…I think, and this is hard for a lot of people to figure out, but I think that really fundamental racism in the country begins with land….

Please listen to this audio of a surviving elder who was displaced by the government from Harris Neck, GA in 1942: Testimony of Evelyn Greer

Please write to your Congressmen to express your concern for Harris Neck Land Trust. Click Here to Write Your Representative

Congressmen you contact include the following: Jack Kingston (R-GA), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)

Reprinted from Conducive Chronicle

Posted by Eryn-Ashlei Bailey on Jul 20 2010. Filed under People & Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry