Back in the 1980's I was a volunteer attorney for the Emergency Land Fund in Missouri. It was then led by Joe Brooks. One of the greatest joys of my life was to be able to confirm a black family rumor about their lost, landed legacy in Missouri. A descendant of that family literally burst into tears, when I gave him a copy of a Missouri Supreme Court decision that affirmed that no black children could inherit property of any kind from a white parent, regardless of marriage or wills! The decision directly divested his black forebears of 3,000 acres of land left to them by their white father who had married their mother. That valuable and laid at the juncture of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. His forebears had moved to Missouri in the 1840s and had eight children! Rumor confirmed.
http://www.cofed.coop/this_cooperative_life_joe_brook_s_story
http://www.policylink.org/about/staff/joe-brooks
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
JOE BROOKS AND EMERGENCY LAND FUND
Back in the 1980's I was a volunteer attorney for the Emergency Land Fund in Missouri. It was then led by Joe Brooks. One of the greatest joys of my life was to be able to confirm a black family rumor about their lost, landed legacy in Missouri. A descendant of that family literally burst into tears, when I gave him a copy of a Missouri Supreme Court decision that affirmed that no black children could inherit property of any kind from a white parent, regardless of marriage or wills! The decision directly divested his black forebears of 3,000 acres of land left to them by their white father who had married their mother. That valuable and laid at the juncture of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. His forebears had moved to Missouri in the 1840s and had eight children! Rumor confirmed.
http://www.cofed.coop/this_cooperative_life_joe_brook_s_story
http://www.policylink.org/about/staff/joe-brooks