Eva M. Clayton: “we are raising the issue tonight of land loss by Afro-Americans or blacks, and this issue was raised to us as a result…”

“we are raising the issue tonight of land loss by Afro-Americans or blacks, and this issue was raised to us as a result of the AP series. The AP series was a 3-part, 10-article series plus graphics. It was published in December, and it was published all across the United States. Many of us knew that this was happening, but because this had such wide distribution, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) brought to our attention that this was an opportunity to raise this issue in a concerted way. This issue is not just confined to Afro-Americans or blacks who live in the South; as the series articles clearly stated, that those who lived in the North had no guarantee that their lands would not be taken, also. So what are we talking about? What is this all about? This is about raising the consciousness that historically there has been a practice overtly, in some ways benignly, both through illegal means and through legal means, the taking of land. My colleagues heard the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watts) and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard) talk about the color of law, that it is not necessarily racial, it is not illegal in terms of petitioning. It is not illegal in terms of eminent domain, it is the application of that. So the color of law, even those things that are within our legal system has an impact of moving or dispossessing citizens, and Afro-Americans particularly, from their land. Why is this important? Well, land is wealth.…”