Kristin McFadden

KRISTIN McFADDEN, then a graduate student at Stanford Univeristy, Stanford, California, was awarded a grant in April 2023 to aid research on “Contested Land: Black Land Dispossession and Citizenship in the American South,” supervised by Dr. Paulla Ebron. This research examines the risk of land dispossession in Black communities in South Carolina with attention to heirs property as a legal classification impacting ownership retention. Heirs property, broadly defined as property with no clear title that is collectively owned by heirs of a deceased person, is highly prevalent in Black communities across the American South, with South Carolina often considered “ground zero” for heirs property disputes. Examining the legal classification of heirs property, this project considers how race, memory, geographic region, and bureaucratic infrastructure collide to shape Black landowners’ experiences within state bureaucratic systems and their ability to act out everyday ownership rights. Through participant observation, structured and semi-structured interviews, and documentary analysis, this project illuminates how risk of land dispossession is mediated by shifting bureaucratic process, with heirs property landowners caught in a cycle of bureaucratic and legal instability. This research is grounded in anthropological discourse on wealth transfer, land grabbing, bureaucratic materiality, and memory and attuned to discourse in black studies on the afterlives of slavery and racial capitalism. Ultimately, this research highlights the continuity of land dispossession in Black communities over time, marking the intricate bureaucratic negotiations and retention strategies Black landowners employ to resist dispossession.