'The Biggest Problem You've Never Heard Of'

This event is a collaboration between the Howard University School of Business, the Howard University School of Law, and New America to explore a critical and under-studied component of the racial wealth gap: property.

Experts say that real estate is the steadiest and safest way to build wealth in America. And yet, African Americans continue to be displaced from their homes and land. For example, the last century has seen a precipitous decline in the amount of black-owned agricultural land, partly as a result of the heirs property land ownership system, which has been exploited to force partition sales and remove black families from their property. And heirs property is hardly the only example of the pernicious impacts of property rights insecurity. Here in the District, gentrification is displacing African American residents at some of the highest rates in the country. Nationally, stark racial disparities in will-making are leaving residents unable to access aid and rebuild their homes after disasters.

This event will use heirs property and black land loss as a jumping off point to talk about property as a key component of building generational wealth.

Follow the conversation online using #BlackPropertyLoss and following @FLHatNewAmerica.

Speakers Include:

Tyra Mariani
President and Chief Operating Officer, New America

Vann Newkirk II
11th Hour Fellow, New America
Staff Writer at the Atlantic
Author of the Atlantic Magazine cover story, “The Great Land Robbery”

Thomas W. Mitchell
Professor, Texas A&M School of Law and Principal Drafter of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

Marcia Chatelain
2017 National Fellow, New America
Associate Professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University

Tony Pickett
Chief Executive Officer, Grounded Solutions Network

This is a partnered event with: