I live in a small town in South Carolina. This small town is along the coast. I was reared here. I went to school here and then I went off into my adult life from here. As many of you may now know I served in the military and made a career out of it. Specifically, the Army was a good life. I had a good life here in this town and now I’m back.
I take care of my elderly parents here. I’m in my 60s. My parents are in their 80s and we have a good life but it’s a disturbing life at the same time. You may ask, “Why is it disturbing? Since you’re retired, they’re retired, what could be the problem?” Well I’ll tell you: it’s disheartening what I see.
The people I grew up with have left and they haven’t come back. Now there are some people who are still here from when I grew up but most of them are gone, never to return. That’s the problem. All of the properties that were in foundational Black American hands in this town are slowly but surely being sold off by people my age who have moved out, have built lives elsewhere, and have no plans on returning. That’s a real problem.
It really hurts when I drive around town and see the old buildings and the old properties that we used to own as a people. FBAs, we owned a lot of property around here and now to see that those properties have all been sold. In some cases, the taxes have not been paid, and the local government has taken them and sold them for their tax value. That hurts so much to see this place so different than when I left it.
Even though there are still a lot of people here, there are not so many people my age who I grew up with (…I just turned 67). They’ve all moved away, built their lives elsewhere, and apparently have no hope, dream, or desire to return. In fact, since I’ve been here, very few have returned even to visit.
The place, this little town, is changing rapidly…too rapidly in fact. Perhaps the problem is: As best as I struggle against it, I know that I see this situation with my old (young eyes). I know things will never be the same. Nevertheless, it still hurts my heart, especially when I see that we no longer own very much of anything anymore in this town.
Why that’s so bad is that these are the small towns that many people (white people) are running to. They’re leaving the inner city, they’re leaving the suburbs, and they’re coming to these smaller towns in the more rural areas. They’re setting up their lives in these rural areas. We, FBAs, seemingly, are doing just the opposite: we are running to the inner city.
We are running to the Atlantas, the Charlottes, the Colombias, the Miamis, the New Yorks, the larger cities. We’re abandoning these smaller rural towns and we’re doing so even as work life becomes more distributed; even as firms, practices, and companies are laying off workers, especially workers my age. Again, I’m in my 60s and I fear that as prices rise; life will get (financially) tougher. Life will get more expensive.
Those who grew up with me in this town may decide that they may want to come back or settle in an area like this, only to find that the properties are no longer available to them. That’s the shame of it all. What are we to do? It seems that people my age are not looking far enough down the road to hold on to properties that their mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers and aunts and uncles, etc., have left to them. Far too many often sell these properties for a pittance. Then they head to the big city to pay the higher prices.
I’m afraid that at some point in time in the very near future they will come to understand that those city environs are just too expensive. Even as they retire and begin to live off a mere 40% or 50% of what they had been making, they will find that it is not enough. By that time, the option of coming back home to this small town and to the many other small towns like it will have evaporated because properties will no longer be available.
I am seeing every week, it seems, many, many folks are moving down from the north. These folks are mainly white. They’ve made their money in the north, whether in New York or Connecticut or Vermont or wherever, and they find that life is too cold for them anymore up there, so they come down here, to the south. When they come down, they bring a great deal of money with them. They have great retirement plans, they’ve invested properly, and their dollar stretches further down here.
They come here, build nice homes, and quietly live out their lives, while FBAs like me: we rush to the cities, the crowded cities, the expensive cities, and many of us pay rent. That cost seemingly increases every year. What happens when we find out that we can no longer live in those cities, that we can no longer afford those prices?
You see, in my way of thinking we are about 20 years behind white people. We tend to go where white people have already gone 20 years prior. We rush to the cities and as we rushed to the cities, they left the cities and went to the suburbs. Then, we started leaving the city centers and started going to the suburbs. Now, they’ve left the suburbs and are now coming to the rural areas.
I fear in the future we, too, will decide that we wish to come back to the rural areas. By that time, there will be no properties left. You see, my family owns property in another county as well. In that adjacent county, that property is truly a rural farm area. For the last 20, 30, 40 years, we’ve had a number of whites who would buy property in that area or buy properties that have gone to the tax lien sales. They would hold on to those properties for a time. Perhaps, they would cut the timber off the property, but then they would sell the property – flip it, if you will – make a nice profit, and leave. What I’m seeing now is something totally different.
Whites are coming to those rural areas where FBAs lived exclusively. They’re buying up large tracts of property, fencing them in, and hunkering down. They’re not flipping anymore and they’re not selling anymore. They’re buying 10, 20, 30, 50 acres of land at a time, building a nice home, perhaps digging a pond, and are intent on living a private life and then turning these properties over to their children.
Meanwhile, what will happen to Blacks, to FBAs, who, once they understand that the cities are untenable pricewise and they wish for a quieter life, just what will they do? What lands will they have to come back to? That is my greatest problem, or the greatest problem I see right now. We, as FBAs, are not holding onto our properties: the properties our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents fought to acquire and to keep. It seems, we’re selling them for a pittance, buying a fancy car, and living the high life in a large city. It seems that we are not thinking about tomorrow. We have no desire to continue the legacy that our forefathers built and passed on to us.
The Bible says that a good man leaves something for his children and his children’s children. What are we leaving for our children and our children’s children if the life we have chosen eats through everything that we have invested and saved up for? What will we have left to pass down to our descendants? What will our great-grandchildren have that is ours? That’s my greatest worry. We are losing so much property and for stupid reasons:
- We don’t pay our taxes.
- We don’t pay the bills.
- We don’t keep up the properties.
Now, what happens? I fear for us. I fear for my people. We have largely become a de-landed people. What will happen to us? That is my greatest fear.
FBA Nation, are you seeing the same thing where you live? If so, how are you feeling about this? What can we do about it?