Grandmother, 93, fights to keep her South Carolina home that’s been in her family since the Civil War after developers who ‘harassed’ her to sell sue her for ‘encroaching on their property’

Josephine Wright, a 93-year-old grandmother, is fighting a legal battle against Bailey Point Investment Group, who she believes are attempting to force her to sell her family home, which has been in her family since the Civil War. The property developer is suing Wright for encroaching on their land and blocking their progress in developing a 147-unit complex next to her property. Despite the offers made by the developers to buy her property, Wright refused, and the developers began a campaign of harassment, including slashing her tires, throwing trash onto her property, and even hanging a snake from her window.

“I guess they figured I would become so unnerved with the harassment that I would say take it. But they don’t know me. I am here to fight for what I have,” said Wright.

Wright’s property has been in her family since just after the Civil War. (dailymail.co.uk) Her husband was a Gullah Geechee Islander whose relatives were escaped slaves freed by Union soldiers. Bailey Point argues that they own part of the land Wright’s property sits on, even her porch. However, Wright and her supportive neighbors say that her property is 22 feet away from the Bailey Point border.

“I don’t want to say anything that can be used against me, but I think they are unscrupulous and greedy and they want all the property they can get their hands on,” said Wright. (islandpacket.com)

Wright has now instructed an attorney, Bluffton-based lawyer Roberts Vaux, to fight the case. She has also received support from former state legislator Bakari Sellers and the NAACP. Sellers initially tried to open a dialogue with the development company regarding the situation but received no response.

Wright’s situation is not unique, and many other Black landowners on the island have been pressured into selling their property over the years, according to the Island Packet. Gullah landowners, in particular, have seen their share of island land diminished down to a fraction of private owners, despite being among the first to permanently settle there after the Civil War. (gofundme.com)

“There is a concerted effort to take property from Black folk in our community, who have lived a great life. This is about generational wealth, it’s very difficult to obtain. This is about land ownership, this is about heirs’ property, which we know we deal with a lot down here,” explained Sellers.

Wright’s granddaughter, Charise Graves, told reporters of the disruption her elderly grandmother has had to endure in the last year: “Unbeknownst to us, they just started tearing trees down. Our house was shaking like it was an earthquake. They didn’t even have the decency to let us know that this was happening.”

The lawsuit is still in the discovery phase, and Wright’s family has commissioned an independent survey to see if the alleged encroachment crosses the parcel boundary. Wright maintains that her porch has around 22 feet of space between its end and the property line.

Wright’s story has touched the hearts of many, and a Go Fund Me page set up to help her cover her legal expenses has raised more than $37,000 as of Saturday morning. It is a story of a strong-willed grandmother fighting to keep her family home against powerful property developers who are trying to take away her land and her legacy.