Dead Men Bring No Claims: How Takings Claims Can Provide Redress for Real Property Owning Victims of Jim Crow Race Riots
2016; Routledge; Volume: 57; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0043-5589
Autores Tópico(s)Legal Systems and Judicial Processes
ResumoTABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. A Real Property Remedy for Race Riot Victims A. Race Riots as a Source of Real Property Claims B. The Ocoee Riot and Real Property Claims C. Standing for Descendants of Property Takings Victims II. A TAKINGS CLAIM SOLUTION TO THE REAL PROPERTY HARMS OF RACE RIOTS A. Physical Occupation of Real Property Caused by Government Action B. Government Authorization and Endorsement of Physical Occupation of Private Land III. Deciding Takings Claims by Descendants of Race Riot Victims on Merits A. Equitable Defenses as a Means of Overcoming Statutes of Limitation B. Redress Without Problems that Plague Reparations Claims CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION For years now I have heard word Wait! It rings in ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This Wait has almost always meant Never. We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that too long delayed is justice denied. --Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail July Perry, a black citizen, was hanged on Election Day in 1920 in Ocoee, Florida. (2) Rumor had it he tried to vote--hanging was penalty--but some members of black community in Ocoee whispered that he and his family were targeted because of their wealth. (3) July Perry and his family were not only victims in Ocoee; census records show that after year 1920, almost 500 black residents disappeared. (4) Over 100 of these residents owned their own land. (5) The series of events that unfolded has been termed the Ocoee (6) As Election Day darkened into night, black residents were given a choice: they could either leave town or die. (7) A deputized mob that was partially composed of government officials made good on death threats. (8) A committee of white Ocoee residents, together with local court, distributed black residents' property to white citizens in aftermath; victims were uncompensated for most part, although some received a few dollars. (9) Congress endorsed actions of Ocoee government and white citizens after fact, commending them for upholding law and order. (10) Cruelly, black cemetery in Ocoee--abandoned for eighty years after riot--is located in a subdivision off Bluford Avenue, named for Captain Sims, who took ownership of Perry's land. (11) Adding insult to injury, every year Ocoee government throws a festival celebrating town's founders: former slave owners J.D. Starke and Captain Sims himself. (12) In 2014, city of Ocoee paid $302,000 to celebrate founders. (13) The Fifth Amendment forbids taking of private property by government without just compensation. (14) The Supreme Court has held that outright seizure of property is unnecessary to support a takings claim for compensation; it is enough if the government authorizes a compelled physical invasion of property. (15) When government actors require property owner to submit to such an invasion, a taking has occurred, and Constitution requires that property owner be awarded just compensation. (16) The victims of Ocoee Riot and their families have been deprived of their property for nearly one hundred years, and even during hopeful time of Florida's Rosewood Reparations Claim Bill's success, lawmakers and attorneys alike maintained that State of Florida had no similar reparations obligation to victims of Ocoee Riot. (17) Though lack of reparations for Ocoee Riot victims is tragic, it need not be end of story. Remedies for racial injustice are not limited to civil rights actions or reparations claims bills. Alternatively, takings claims can offer a means of redress to descendants of victims who lost real property during American race riots. (18) This Note explores possibility of such claims through example of little-known Ocoee Riot's most prominent victim, July Perry, taking of his property by government officials after his lynching, and kangaroo court proceedings (19) constructed to mislead his family members who attempted to seek redress in probate proceedings. …
Referência(s)