BLACK LAND LOSS: JUST COMPENSATION FOR SHILOH

BLACK LAND LOSS: JUST COMPENSATION FOR SHILOH

Black History Month Theme

The Bullard Center theme for Black History Month this year is Black Land Loss: Just Compensation for Shiloh. This theme was selected because of the urgency of not wanting to see historic Black land loss patterns to be repeated.  Our goal is to raise awareness of Black land loss over the decades and to highlight the fact that this injustice is a major economic and civil rights issue facing Black Americans today. We recommend you view the award-winning Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land documentary.

Black landownership went from 15 million acres in 1910 to about one million acres today. Researchers in a 2022 study, Black Land Loss: 1920-1997, found $326 billion was stolen from Black farmers and land owners.  We have compiled a bibliographic Fact Sheet of articles and reports that detail the multifaceted legacy of Black land loss and highway robbery in the United States over the decades. 

Black southerners are at heightened risk of losing their land and homes because of unstable property rights and the fact that a sizable share Black property is heirs’ property. According to the USDA, “heirs’ property is family-owned land that is jointly owned by descendants of a deceased person whose estate did not clear probate.”  Both natural and human-made disasters—such as hurricanes and floods in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and in Houston with Hurricane Harvey in 2017—pose special challenges for Black homeowners in the South where heirs’ property in more pronounced serve as artificial barriers to accessing federal recovery dollars after major flooding events. This lower rate of accessing recovery funding is causing more Black homeowners to lose their homes and contributes to the widening racial wealth gap.  A 2024report from Northeastern University Law School, Advancing Black Land Ownership and Preservation: A Brief History, Strategies and Tools to Mitigate Loss, is a resource that offers solutions, legal remedies and other tools to assist home and property owners land for future generations. 

Homeownership is a stable path to wealth building. Black homeownership is a major cornerstone for building wealth and a ticket to the middle class. Black homeownership (44%) continues to lag behind White (73%)homeownership.  Black wealth is about one-tenth of White wealth. The Black-White homeownership gap figures largely in the Black-White wealth gap. 

We are using the US 84 highway expansion project and the flooding of home, business and property owners in Elba, Alabama’s historic Black Shiloh community by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) as a case study of Black land loss in the making (if we don’t successfully intervene) and stop this highway robbery, a modern-day illegal land grab. The Shiloh highway flooding story is best told in the award-winning ABC News investigative report that documented the role ALDOT played in damaging the community and landowners and how USDOT under Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Biden administration failed to hold the state accountable for the flood damages it caused.     

Shiloh becomes a lake during hard rains—resulting in flooded homes and driveways, sinking foundations, overflowing septic systems and causing sewage backups in homes. Moisture in attics from leaky roofs is causing mold that’s making homeowners sick.  The constant flooding of the land is causing subsidence with homes sinking into the red clay, contributing to major structural damage to home foundations. Sadly, flood-related claims are being denied by insurance companies. Some residents are losing their homeowners insurance altogether. The community didn’t flood before the highway expansion and homeowners were not insured against flood hazards. Shiloh homeowners are left with mounting bills from the flooding. These extra flood-related costs are especially burdensome for elderly and low-income families on fixed incomes.

ALDOT has used restrictive deed covenants and unconscionable settlements agreements to ward off flooding claims and lawsuits from several Shiloh homeowners. The homeowners went to the state for help, and they ended up with restrictive covenants attached to their deeds that limit the ability of current and future homeowners to file actions against the state. Residents feel they were “tricked” and coerced into signing the agreements—with promises that portions of their property sold to ALDOT would stop the flooding.  This proved to be not true as the Shiloh community has continued to flood after the agreements and restrictive deed restrictions. ABC News also documented a huge disparity in ALDOT payment for property bought from White families ($160,000) experiencing flooding from US 84 highway expansion and amounts paid to Black families in Shiloh ($5,000). 

While the Biden administration USDOT was able to secure a binding Voluntary Resolution Agreement (VRP) with ALDOT to fix the highway it built that caused the flooding. However, the federal government stopped short of holding ALDOT accountable for flood damages to Shiloh homes, property and businesses—all caused by a flawed highway project. Black Shiloh landowners were left in the cold with flooded and damaged homes, depreciated property values and indebt. We have prepared a chronology of media coverage  of the Shiloh flooding and gas pipeline problem from 2022 to 2025. 

It’s time to stop this sad history in the Shiloh community and in other places where “White men’s roads are being built through Black men’s homes.”  It’s time to break this vicious cycle of racism where roads and highways are still being built on top of Black communities—robbing home and landowners of their wealth, stealing their inheritance, erasing their history, dividing neighborhoods, destroying community solidarity, and causing loss of use of their property for family gatherings(family reunions), cook outs, outdoor recreation, and other personal uses.    

The Bullard Center and allies are demanding Just Compensation for Shiloh home, property and business owners for the losses and damage caused by ALDOT highway flooding over the past six-plus years.

If you would like to contribute to the Dr. Robert D. Bullard GoFundMe Shiloh Flood Fund, click HERE.