Heirs are working to protect land in Charleston County that has been in their family for generations. Pictured are Roslin Sumter, Juanita Smalls, Carolyn Dover, Jallyn Myers andJ . Herman Blake. Law to give heirs first opportunity to buy property

Heirs are working to protect land in Charleston County that has been in their family for generations. Pictured are Roslin

Sumter, Juanita Smalls, Carolyn Dover, Jallyn Myers andJ . Herman Blake. Law to give heirs

first opportunity to buy property

BY RODDIE A. BURRIS

THE (COLUMBIA) STATE

Monday morning. Onthe steps ofthe county courthouse.

hentage: land.For generations, sherill's sales have been a tool of developers to gain control of coastal property, primarily from

black people, where ownershipis not clear.The pricepaid

for heirs property often is a pittance of its fair-market value.

A new state law is designed to change that. It grants

f a m i l i e s a r i g h t of f i r s t r e f u s a l t o b u y l a n d i f a n o t h e r f a m i l y

member - who alone can force asale - wants out. It also

guarantees families a window of time to do so.

There is much at stake.

"If70 percent of (black)heirs took thenecessary steps to

protect their land, it could change the entire economicface

of theSoutheast," said Willie Heyward, managingattorney

for the Center for Heirs' Property Preservation in North

Charleston. "It'sa giant problem inSouth Carolina."

Pleases e e HEIRS, Page 9-A

Jonathan Dyer/The Island Packet

Adolph Dupree Brownstands with ariodel of thecondominiums

he plans to construct onfamily land in the Squire Pope area.

Man stakes claim to family land

owned for more than 100years.

THE ISLAND PACKET

Brown planned to reconnect

with his South Carolina heritage-

About 20 years ago, Adolph where his great-great-great-great-

Dupree Brown asked his grand- grandfather first boughtland after

father for an acre of the Hilton being aslavein Richland County

Head Island land his family has inthe 1850s - andbuild ahouse.