The sign at the end of where the state of South Carolina ends maintenance of the road and the citizens of Warsaw Island  became responsible for the maintenance of the road.  Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s this road remained a dirt road, while other dirt roads in Beaufort county were being paved,  until the citizens of Warsaw Island paved it themselves by taking up a collection. Courtesy Elisa Kadel. 

The cattle gate preventing the public from accessing the road in question. Courtesy the Island Packet

That sign in proximity to Charles' and Adams' houses and land.

The redacted information is my family member's confidential information,  Hence why it will not be shared on a public website

ALL maps Courtesy of Google Maps 

This map was taken from Google Maps. If you look closely you can see that even on Google Maps,  Adams’ land is SUBSTANTIAL smaller according to the property lines. However Adams’ has taken over the road and destroyed it, as you can see in the cattle gate picture and he continues to encroach more on to Charles' property every day. 

A picture taken at the cattle gate on January 6th 2023 At approximately 1 PM. The container on the road would indicate that Mr. Adams is continuing to do more construction on the road that the South Carolina Appellate Court has already determined he does NOT own.

Courtesy Elisa Kadel 

Black Land Matters

By Lisa Santagati Kadel

Black Land Theft

         Black people in America have long suffered a history of abuse, physical, sexual, mental, psychological, and financial abuse, over the last 4 centuries, yet it seems to continue today, although maybe not always as overtly as it had been in previous centuries. Here, in my little corner of South Carolina, an attempt to steal land from black ownership might come to fruition in the local county court. 

        My cousin Charles Gardner, a black man, has lived on his land since the 1980’s.  His land was passed down to him from his father, who inherited the land from his wife, who, in turn, inherited the land from her uncle, and it has been in Charles’ family for over 100 years.  For over 30 years now,  Charles has maintained this land and the road in front of it which, until recently, was considered a portion of the land itself. The road leads to a boat dock and a boat landing created by Charles’ ancestors, and it has been used by the community of Warsaw Island for over a century. Warsaw Island is where Charles and a vast majority of my family lives. The boat ramp, dock, and landing were always open to the public, with Charles and his family’s permission.  Many of my own family members learned to swim there.  We had our family’s annual Memorial Day parties there for many years…until 2015.

       In 2015, Ruben Taylor Adams, a white man from California, bought the plot of land across that little strip of road from Charles. Adams then decided to halt all access to the road AND the boat ramp, building a fence, and declaring it as all HIS land, including the boat dock that Charles’ family had built. This led to trespassing claims by Adams against Charles, as he claimed that Charles was trespassing anytime Charles went out into his yard and ventured close to the road. The Beaufort County Sheriff Department (BCSD) made several trips out to Charles’ house to quash altercations between Charles and Adams. Adams even went so far as to physically attack and violently assault one family member during what was initially a verbal altercation, a family member who was trying to de-escalate the verbal confrontation. After going to court, and Charles providing proof that he has maintained the land and had ownership of that land for over 30 years, the local county court, overseen by Judge Perry M. Buckner III, strangely decided to rule in Adams’s favor.

Doesn't make sense, does it?

       For Black people in America, this is a not new problem.  Since Andrew Johnson’s repeal of that fateful promise of "40 acres and a mule”, Black people have had their land stolen from them by racist white people. It’s been a fact of life for Black people as a whole. Consider the case of Bruce Beach, a waterfront property in Southern California stolen from the Bruce family by the city in 1922, with the city government using vague eminent domain laws to build a local city-owned park on the property. The Bruce family members were finally given their land back and an apology from the state...but it was nearly 100 years later.  In the early 1900s, Black people owned a little over 14 million acres of American land, which they used for farming, to live on, or to invest in real estate.  By the early 2000’s Black people only owned 1.1 million acres of farming land and 1.07 million acres in ownership or co-ownership of residential property for real estate investments or to personally live in.

 So, what happened to the other 12 million acres, you ask?

        Well, it was stolen, either in Land Dispute cases like Charles Gardner's case or in other legal cases, cases routinely decided by white judges in a time when the law was never on the side of black people, and many white judges, during that time period, were ideologically racist and a lot of white judges in the South during that time period were even card-carrying members of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK). They used the laws to their advantage, knowing that most black people, during that time, did not understand how the law worked, or could not afford to hire a lawyer to fight the case.

There are, in fact, three laws that play a major role in Black Land Theft:

1. Heirs Property Law
2. Tax Sales
3. The Torrens Acts

       You see, in many states, especially in the South, laws were created (by design in many cases) so that land could be stolen from the less fortunate by the most fortunate. First, let’s talk about Heirs Property Law. In many states, when it comes to deaths without a will, land inheritance is determined by what is called Heirs Property Law. Heirs Property Law states that if there is no will, all land or property owned by the decedent is required to be divided equally between ALL living heirs or descendants. This means that if your spouse dies and they own your home, and you have 2 children, that home is divided between your 2 children and you, meaning that you each own 1/3 of the house, or approximately 33%. Let’s say that your children each have a child of their own, then the property is to be divided by 5, so you would each own 1/5 or 20%. The number of owners for 1 piece of land can continue to grow exponentially with each birth in the family over time. This law, in conjunction with the Torrens Act (which we will discuss later), also allows that if one owner has a desire to sell the property they can, without the permission, consent, or approval from the other co-owners of that land.  As an example, in the scenario used earlier, let’s say the land is split 5 ways and your grandchild #1 wants to sell the land, but your own children, your grandchild #2 and, you, yourself, do NOT want to sell. According to the Heirs Property Law and Torrens Act, grandchild #1 can be given the legal right to sell the land WITHOUT your consent, or the consent of the other family members who inherited a percentage of the land, and this is completely legal and binding. Many white land developers would take and have continued to take advantage of this law, even today, in order to buy land from black landowners who refused and currently refuse to sell.

     Then there are Tax Sales. Tax Sales occur because people are billed by the local county to pay a tax on any real estate property they own. If they are not able to pay the tax bill, the county will put the property being taxed up for sale for the price of what is owed on their tax bill. Black people living on a fixed income who couldn't pay their tax bills, were forced to watch as their homes and farms were put up for auction and sold, but not having the money to pay the tax bill, they could do nothing to stop it. Land developers, again, exploited these financial hardship situations as opportunities to “buy” land away from families that had absolutely no desire to sell their land. Some opportunistic developers were able to buy property, even larger houses, for the price of a pair of BUCKLE®️ Jeans ($100).

         And last, but not least, there is the Torrens Act. The Torrens Acts were originally created in 1858 in Australia to "simplify" the registration of land deeds and/or contracts. It allows for a property owned by many to be put in the name of only one, meaning in an Heirs Property case, like the scenario discussed before, you may own 20% of the property but the name on the deed is actually you child’s name, so the property you own is not in YOUR name. This was originally meant to simplify the paperwork for government officials dealing with land ownership documents and deeds. Unfortunately, what it really did was open the door up for land to be stolen.  In layman's terms, the Torrens Acts opened the door for the Heirs Property laws to allow for only one family member to sell land without the permission of the other owners.

       Now these are not the only ways land has been stolen from Black people.  Threats and intimidation was oftentimes used and even murder has been used in some cases. Black people were harassed, both physically and psychologically, and driven from their homes. Some black people even had their homes burned to the ground, in an effort to force them off their own property.

     Now, I’m sure you’re probably thinking, but that was all in the past, right? That doesn’t happen anymore, right?

But what if it isn’t in the past??

      Because it’s happening every day in America still. In fact, it's happening right now in Beaufort South Carolina.  It's happening to Charles Gardner.

Charles' Story

        Charles Gardner grew up in Beaufort, South Carolina, among the Sea Islands, and just up the road from Warsaw Island, which is off the coast of St. Helena's Island, with Warsaw Island being where Charles currently lives. He inherited the land where he currently lives from his father in his father's will, and that land originally belonged to his uncle on his mother's side of the family. On that land is a boat dock that Charles’ family had built, and a boat launch created by Charles' family. For over 100+ years, Charles' family has held open, both the boat ramp and the dock, to public use. Back in 1984 and 1985, when Dataw Island was just starting to be built, the Alcoa Corporation (who built and owns Dataw) asked Charles’ mother, who owned the land at the time, for permission to use the boat ramp, in order to send their construction equipment across the Jenkins River, which runs between Warsaw Island and Dataw Island. There was no bridge to Dataw at the time,  so that was the easiest way for Alcoa to transport their construction equipment.  Charles’ mother, being as generous and gracious as always, said "of course, you can". Anyone and everyone was allowed to use the boat ramp, as Charles and his family knew that it was the best way they could help the Warsaw Island community, as a whole. Local professional fisherman used the boat launch to take their boats out on the river, in order to catch fish, shrimp, and crab for their daily haul to sell, so they could feed their families and pay their bills. Families used it to quite literally fish for their dinner. Parents taught their kids how to swim, fish, and shrimp there. In fact, many of my own cousins learned how to swim there. As I said before, Charles' boat ramp has been a part of the Warsaw Island community for over 100+ years.

           For black people in America owning property is no small thing. It is the whole shebang; it IS the American dream. What Charles wanted from this piece of land wasn't much, just Charles' American dream, which included sharing what he had with the community, and giving back to his community, something all of the people in my family are taught to do.  Then after 30 years of living on this property, of paying taxes on this property, of maintaining the road, the boat ramp and the boat dock at his own expense, Ruben Taylor Adams moved in across from Charles and tried to destroy Charles' American dream.

In 2015, when Ruben Adams moved in, everything initially went well and Charles got on well with him. Then Adams began claiming that 30-foot of road as his property.  But why would he do that, you might ask?

 Well, when Adams first bought his property, he bought it with the intention to build a house on it. After purchasing the property, he was told by contractors, that there was no place for him to put a septic tank, therefore he would not be able to build a house on that property, unless of course, he could use that 30-foot strip of road and build the septic tank underneath that. Without that 30-foot strip of road that belongs to Charles, the land that Adam's bought is worthless, because a house could never be built on it. With that 30-foot strip of road its worth nearly $500,000 to Adams. It was after Adams was notified of this, that Adams started to claim that 30-foot piece of land was his. So, Charles filed in court, because in 2017 Adams started to block him from being able to use his land.  Adams even went so far as to put a cattle gate up which now blocks the road so that nobody can use that road or go to the boat launch. That gate prevents Charles from accessing his driveway, which is near the end of the 30-foot strip of road in question.  So, in October of 2017, Charles filed a complaint lawsuit against Adams with the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas, 14^th Judicial Circuit, accusing Adams of trespassing on Charles’ land. In December 2017 Adams responded to the lawsuit with a counterclaim, claiming yet again, that the 30-foot strip of land was his, and accusing Charles of Trespassing. On June 26, 2018, Judge Perry M. Buckner ruled in favor of Adams, granting him a partial summary judgement, shockingly finding that Adams was allegedly the proper owner of the “30-foot road, the boat ramp at the eastern end of the 30-foot road and the property to the south of the road.” Adams then took that opportunity to reinforce his cattle gate at the beginning of that 30-foot road blocking ALL access to the road by the public. On July 10, 2018, Charles filed a motion asking Judge Buckner to reconsider his decision and a month later Judge Buckner denied that motion. On Sept. 11, 2018, Charles filed an appeal with the South Carolina Supreme Court Appellate Court. Three months later, almost to the day, on December 10^th, 2018, Judge Marvin Dukes III entered an order (in the interim of waiting for the appeal to be heard) restraining Adams from “erecting any permanent structure on the 30-foot strip of road” that would render the road permanently unusable. On April 10, 2019, Adams was issued a Permit to Construct from SCDHEC {South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control} allowing him to build a septic tank under the 30-foot strip of road in question. Adams had submitted the application for this permit on August 27, 2018, 18 days after Judge Buckner denied Charles’ motion to reconsider. Adams had originally been denied for that permit on Oct 12, 2018, but he appealed that decision. He appealed the decision from DHEC AFTER Judge Dukes’ order restraining him from building on that portion of land. Adams began building the septic tank shortly after the permit was approved. Charles filed a contempt case pertaining to Judge Dukes’ order at the end of July 2019. Two months later, on Sept 19, 2019, Judge Dukes decided that building a septic tank on that portion of land did NOT violate his order, a ruling that has legal experts I’ve spoken to baffled. The language used in that order, however, is deeply concerning and has micro-aggressive undertones, which is very telling. For instance, Judge Dukes stated that the purpose of the restraining order was to “cool tempers” (despite the fact that the only party to become violent has been Adams) and “prevent any sort of permanent structure from forever impeding the road SHOULD the final verdict fall to the Plaintiff (Charles)” which implies the notion that Charles shouldn’t win the appeal, but this was just in case he does. Judge Dukes also stated that Adams installing a septic system and a drain field (a drain field that would run right onto Charles’ land) violated the “spirit” of the order but did not violate the “mandate”, even though building a septic tank would be, (by South Carolina’s own legal statute regarding contempt of court orders and the requirements to prove a contempt case) a direct violation of the judge’s order. Judge Dukes justified his decision claiming that he, himself, had deemed the road as NOT being permanently unusable, meaning that if Adams lost the appeal, he could “simply” take out the septic tank, and because Adams agreed in court to remove the septic tank if he lost the appeal, Dukes decided it was not a violation. One wonders if that ruling would have been the same if Charles Gardner had been a white man.

Two more years went by while Charles waited for his case to make it through the SC Appellate Court. On April 6^th, 2021, the court finally heard arguments from both sides, both written and oral. Then after just one year and 21 days the SC Appellate court issued their written opinion that shocked and confused us. While the Appellate court reversed the Partial Summary Judgement determining the land to was NOT Adams’ land, yet they also stated they didn’t believe the 30-foot strip of land to be Charles’ land either and remanded the case for “further proceedings consistent with our findings”. They even referred to the portion of land as the “unpaved Beaufort County road”.

In May 2022 Charles filed in court for Injunctive Relief asking the court to order that Adams remove the cattle gate from blocking the road, the same road that the South Carolina Supreme Court has decided does NOT belong to him, and Adams still has NOT removed the gate, despite the court’s findings. This seems to prove that Judge Dukes ruling on the contempt charge was a humiliatingly bad call on Dukes’ part, as well as calls into question Judge Dukes ability to judge one’s character and credibility, as Adams continues to refuse to undo the damage he had previously done to that portion of land.

Then the County of Beaufort got involved. On July 27, 2022, Beaufort County filed a motion to intervene in this case, similar to an Amicus brief, but claiming their own dominion over that 30-foot strip of road, citing the language in the appellate court’s ruling, which referred to the 30-foot strip of road as the “unpaved Beaufort County Road”. This is especially interesting, considering that on May 19^th, 2015, in response to Adams’ inquiry of the county, questioning who owned the road, The Beaufort County Engineering Department responded:

“To whom it may concern:

The property depicted on the Beaufort County Tax Map as a private section of Warsaw Island Rd. is not a public road. It is neither owned by, nor has it ever been maintained by Beaufort County.”

And that is where we find ourselves today, awaiting another trial. Charles has been in this fight for 5 years now. For 5 years Charles has NOT had access to his own driveway. For 5 years Charles has NOT had access to the dock he built, himself. For 5 years Charles has had his American dream ripped away from him by 2 white judges in Beaufort County, his white neighbor, and a panel of judges in the Appellate court consisting of only 1 black judge and 7 white judges. It is impossible to believe that he got a fair shake in this case, even as the case moves forward. This isn’t a case of playing the “race card”. This is a case of laws created with racist intent, being used precisely as they were designed to be used, and the court in a country that touts the ideals of equality for all, not treating the parties equally. Mr. Adams only documental evidence in court, according to the exhibits list included in the court records, was a letter. Charles brought in documents, surveys done by surveyors at the request of the court, the previous tax receipts and the deed. How an experienced judge like Judge Perry M. Buckner III, who had been practicing law for 43 years at the time of this ruling, could rule for the defendant, with such insufficient evidence from the defense, defies logic, and possibly even some legal precedents. How the Appellate court could find that the road, which state and county officials have never maintained, is not owned by the person who has paid taxes on and maintained said road, is mind-boggling and doesn’t make sense legally, or otherwise. How Judge Marvin Dukes, who has practiced law for 35 years, could decide that tearing up a road and putting a large vacuous container underneath it, does not constitute permanent or irreparable damage to that land is beyond basic reasoning.       

What can America do to change this?            

         With all these peculiar rulings that seem to have little to no true basis in actual law and appear to be based solely on the discretion of the judges themselves, it’s hard to believe that their decisions aren’t rooted in racism. After all, this is the American South, where slavery was still on the ballot in some states in 2022. This is the American South, where people fought a war to OWN human beings, and even 120 years later in the 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s until now people still say “The South will rise again” proudly, in support of a group of people who apparently still want the right to OWN other people. Over the decades since the Civil War, the original promise of an equal America for Black people has continued to go unfulfilled. First the promise was “40 acres and a mule”, to any slave who took up arms, and fought for the Union in the Civil War. However, when the war was over, that promise was quickly rescinded by Andrew Johnson who, himself, had been a slave owner and debated over the idea of repealing the 13^th amendment after Lincoln’s assassination. Then, freed slaves were promised voting rights, and equal treatment under the law, but those promises haven’t even come close to being fulfilled, specifically on the voting rights front, until another 100 years later, in 1965, with the Civil Rights Act. Even after the Civil Rights Act, Black people have still (even today in 2022) had to contend with the suppression of our voting rights especially after the US Supreme Court repealed the Voting Rights Act in 2013. That promise of equal treatment under the law has NEVER been fulfilled, even now 157 years after slaves were freed, and after the 14^th Amendment was created, even 57 years after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson, even today.

Black people make up only 13.6% of the population of America, yet black people account for 27% of all criminal offense arrests, 36% of violent crime arrests, 51% of robbery arrests and 53.7% of homicide arrests. To be clear, there is no substantial evidence that black people commit crime with more or less frequency than White People, or that White people commit crime with more or less frequency than Black people. In fact, most criminology data shows that there is NO difference in the amount of criminal and/or violent behavior between black and white people. Let me say that again…THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN THE AMOUNT OF CRIMINAL AND/OR VIOLENT BEHAVIOR BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE PEOPLE. This means Black and White people commit crimes and/or acts of violence at the same rate. So why then, when White people make up 75.8% of the Population, do they account for only 45% of homicide arrests, only 46% of robbery arrests and only 59% of violent crime arrests. That kind of math does not compute. The fact is black people have NEVER been treated as equals to white people under the law in America, as a whole. On a case-by-case basis or anecdotally, we may have had victories, but those cases were the exception to the rule and, sadly, for most of black people in America, we are not the exception, we are the RULE.  After every racial reckoning in this country, we always hear the same things… we heard them after Rodney King, we heard them after the Charleston 9, and Trayvon Martin, and George Floyd. We hear our political leaders say, “We need to do better!” “We disavow racism!” and my all-time favorite “We need to make the world a better place for our children”. I was 15 years old when Rodney King was beaten by 6 LAPD officers in 1991. That was 31 years ago. As of today, there are 17 Congressmen and Congresswomen who were in Congress in 1991 and are still in office now, 31 years later. In those 31 years, there has been very few reforms in race relation laws from Congress. Some of the same politicians in office today, like Chuck Grassley (IA-R), Peter DeFazio (OR-D), Richard Shelby (AL-R) and David Price (NC-D) have had 31 years to “do better”, to “disavow racism” and to “make the world a better place for our children” by passing common-sense voting rights legislation, common-sense police reform, and anti-racism legislation. They’ve had 31 years to make laws that ensure equality for all people, but they have not. The culture of America hasn’t changed enough to stop it either.  The mere fact that saying the words “Black Lives Matter” elicited rage and violence from very small segments of White Americans and, at the very least, angered large swaths of a major political party in America is concrete proof that Racism is very much alive and well in America. Racism did not die with the election of Barack Obama, as much as some Americans would like to believe that. So, what can we do?

We fight, not with our fists, but with our minds. We fight, not in a field, but at the ballot box. We don’t get mad when people throw racism our way, we educate them. We don’t back down, we don’t give up, we fight the good fight, and we make good trouble. We’ve fought this fight for centuries, and we are still fighting today, even in 2022. We are weary, we are tired, but we will not give up, because we have come so far. We refuse to be stifled, to be muted, to be suppressed and oppressed, because we’ve watched as our parents and grandparents were oppressed, and we refuse to be treated like that even 40, 30, and 20 years later. We also must ask, we have to ask those Anti-racism allies across America and around the world for their help, because there are far more Anti-racists in America than there are racists. Only 28% of White Americans self-identify as either being racist or subscribing to racist ideologies, like white nationalism, or white supremacy. The other 72% of White Americans are either Anti-racist allies or do not have a total and full understanding of racism as a whole and how it affects black people and people of color in America, but they do strongly disagree with the basic tenets of racism, and white supremacy either on a moral, ethical, or religiously spiritual level, and therefore are willing to listen, and learn to help combat racism, which makes them allies, albeit less racially aware or less racially educated allies. To fight racism, we need all these allies, because the sad fact is that white racists are more willing to listen to white Anti-racists, than they would be willing to listen to black Anti racists. If all the things those political leaders continue to say are true, that they “Disavow racism”, that they “want to do better”, that they “want to make the world a better place for their children” then NOW is that time. Political leaders should always come out in unison against racist rhetoric and ideologies, even against their own party’s members. In 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd public execution, some political leaders refused to just say the words BLACK LIVES MATTER, so I don’t hold out much hope. This is a fight that up until 50 years ago was solely fought by black people, 30 years ago was fought by black people and a small populace of white people, and today this fight is being fought by black and white people alike. Things are getting better, but still far too slowly. It is the 2020’s and Black people still cannot go for a jog in their own neighborhoods without the fear of getting murdered for “jogging while black”. Black people still cannot go into Walmart without the fear of being murdered by a white supremacist for “existing while black” or being racially profiled as a “thief”, and Black teenagers still cannot walk down the street without the fear of being accused of various crimes because they are “walking while black”. It pains me greatly that now, in 2022, I am having to write about Black Land Theft, and Black Land Loss because my cousin is having to fight a problematically faithless court and an unscrupulous, and venal neighbor. It pains me greatly that racism continues to be still so prevalent even today, so long after the Brown VS Board of Education in 1954, after the Civil Rights Act in 1965, after Loving VS Virginia in 1967. It hurts me, because I was lucky enough to be raised in a family that accepts all people, and taught us to treat all people equally, from the CEO to the Janitor, from the president of the US to a homeless man, all people are deserving of, at a minimum, basic respect, decency, and dignity. Charles was one of the family members who helped instill that belief into me. What pains me most is that this is happening to Charles at all. Charles worked hard all his life, and he worked hard for something that he could share with his community, at his own expense, carrying on the generosity of his ancestors. He worked hard to do what was necessary to keep his American Dream, by paying his taxes and maintaining his land. Now that dream may be taken away from him, for no real or valid legal reason. That’s not the promise of America. The United States Pledge of Allegiance ends with “with liberty and justice for all.” The Declaration of Independence states that” all men are created equal …they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”. But those promises still haven’t been kept. Even 246 years later, Black people are still not treated as equal. Black people are routinely denied the promise of life and liberty, and they are certainly denied the pursuit of Happiness. Now, I know that most people hearing this may say “America is not a racist county” but there is evidence of a long history of racism in American government, starting with the very document America was founded on, and the real reason why the American Revolutionary was fought. Consider the 3/5ths Compromise in the Constitution, or the fact that the taxation American Revolutionists were rebelling against was actually a tax on slave ownership, and not to mention the fact that the America of the Revolutionary War Era was built with the literal blood, sweat, and tears, of and using the hands of Black slaves, and yet, to this day racist white people give the credit of the industrialization of America to wealthy white slave owners, not to the slaves who actually did the physical labor to literally build America. There are also the events over the course of American History, events like slavery as a whole, the Zong Slave Ship case, Jim Crow Laws, lynchings like that of Emmett Till, the Tulsa Riot (which was more of a racist mass massacre), the Watts Riots, and the LA Riots in the 90s. The course of history has shown us that America has always been and is still currently a racist country. The only people who can change that are the American people. However, as it stands now, nearly half of all Americans deny that racism in America even still occurs. Some of them even espouse this belief, simultaneously while claiming that they, themselves, are not racist [ironically enough]. They don’t believe it exists because they have never experienced it.  To them racism is the simple act of someone disliking you based on the color of your skin but that is not racism, that is prejudice. You don’t have to use racial slurs  to  be a racist. Racism is systemic, not individualistic.  Racism is when an entire group of people is stopped from having the same treatment, opportunities, rights, and freedoms, as another group of people based on their race. It’s the belief that one race of people is better than, and therefore more deserving of rights and privileges, than another race of people. Failing to realize is that, and denying that racism exists in America today, in and of itself, IS a form of  complicity in and condoning or tacitly approving of the racism that black people and people of color have no choice but to endure every day, yet white America will never experience. The laws that were created from 1700’s on to the 1970’s, were created with racial animus and bias, and many of those laws are still on the books. An example of that is the citizen’s arrest law that had been on the Georgia books in 2020 that led Travis and Greg McMichael and William Bryan to believe they had the right to chase, assault and murder Ahmaud Arbery. That law was created to allow white people to harass, police, and control black people in the Reconstruction and Jim Crow Eras. The law gave white people the right to perform a citizen’s arrest and detain freed slaves, (whether they actually committed a crime or not) for whatever reason they deemed fit.

I hate to say this (more than you know) but, sadly, America is and has always been deeply rooted in racism. THIS IS EXACTLY WHO WE ARE and those who deny that part of our American history are doomed to continue repeating it. So how are you, whoever you are reading this, going to do your part in fighting racism? What can you do?

Well, you can start by writing and calling your Congressmen or Congresswomen, often and frequently, and demanding that they support legislation that combats racism, legislation like police and criminal law reform, legislation like the anti-lynching bill Congress passed in 2022, legislation that ends racist business practices like redlining, gerrymandering, and predatory lending. You can also call out racism and racist behavior whenever you see it. Most white racists will stop their racist behavior, when other non-racist white people call them on their racist actions. Last, but not least, you can open your heart, and your mind to learning about, and understanding the very REAL struggles of the victims of racism, the dehumanization and degradation that they are forced to experience, [in some cases] on a daily basis, and from a very young age. Sympathize and empathize with their experiences, recognize the pain, and suffering they feel [which again is a daily reality for MANY of us] and consider what you can do to help, even if it’s just to be a listening ear for them to vent. Join the peaceful racial injustice protests, stand up for equality at every opportunity. When we can change the culture of American denialism in terms of racism, we can end racism. That doesn’t start just with black people. Lord knows, Black people have been fighting that good fight for over 400 years and clearly, we’ve only gotten so far in the fight. We need everyone, regardless of race, religion, political ideology or affiliation, sexual orientation, sexual identity, gender, and any other identifying characteristic, to fight racism as well. This is an all-hands-on deck situation. This is a CALL TO ACTION.  So, if you’ve ever said the words “I am not a racist”, then NOW is the time to put your money where your mouth is. If you’ve ever wanted your kids to grow up in a more just world, and a less racist world, then NOW is the time to demand that change. If we don’t demand that change NOW, we tell our children that the change that we need, that the world we wanted to create for them, isn’t worth fighting for. Instead of making a more equal, fair, and just world, we would only ensure that the world we want for our children will never happen. So, step up, step out and stand up for equality for EVERY American. Stand up for human decency and human rights, because Black rights ARE also human rights. Say the words Black Lives Matter and say the words Black Land Matters. Get informed and get involved. Let’s make America keep the promises that America made to EVERY citizen 246 years, 157 years, and 57 years ago!

The road in question after Adams began construction on the road, despite Judge Dukes order. Courtesy of The Island Packet. 

Adams continues to do construction to the road to this day (Taken January 6th 2023 approx. 1PM EST) though the South Carolina Appellate Court has already ruled that road does not belong to Ruben Taylor Adams. Courtesy Elisa Kadel 

{L-R} Charles Gardner and Ed Atkins, who are both in litigation with Adams over the public use and access of the boat ramp, boat dock and road. Courtesy  The Island Packet.

Charles Gardner pointing out the property boundaries to a reporter for the local newspaper. Courtesy The Island Packet.

If you would like to help Charles out financially please go to:

https://gofund.me/8d83a4e4