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Where Is My Land ANNOUNCES STOLEN BLACK LAND IS CURRENTLY BEING USED AS A PARKING LOT BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022 – After being instrumental in the signing of California legislation returning wrongfully seized land in Manhattan Beach to the descendants of the Black entrepreneurs, Where Is My Land (WIML) continues to spearhead the national movement to restore the property and secure restitution for Black families whose land was unjustly stolen in the United States.

Where Is My Land, is amplifying the Jones Family’s plea to reclaim land condemned by the City of Huntsville for use by the University of Alabama-Huntsville.
“Black land theft is pervasive across the United States from California to Cleveland, Ohio, to Connecticut,” said Kavon Ward, Where Is My Land CEO. “While we are working toward statewide policy in California to return Black land, the Jones case and others raise the question of what we are going to do about this injustice at the national level.”
At issue is ten acres of land owned by Willie Jones whose family home occupied the land along with a well that produced the highest quality water, which the Jones family generously shared with their community.

Around 1954, the local government discovered the Jones Family Well as being a clean water source and offered Willie Jones an obscenely low offer of $900 for the portion of land containing the well. In 1958, the City of Huntsville condemned the Jones Family Well. Despite the City claiming the water was unfit for human consumption, it built a pump house on the location.

After the condemnation of the Jones Family Well, Mr. Jones was convinced by realtor and chief of the Huntsville Land Acquisition office, W. L. Sanderson, to move his family from the property on Athens Pike to sharecrop on a property a few miles away on Capshaw Road. Mr. Jones felt he had little choice since the city had condemned his family’s well, their only source of clean water.

Shortly after the move to the house on Capshaw Road, Mr. Jones’ wife died unexpectedly, leaving him a single father to care for seven young children. In 1962, the local government began condemnation proceedings for land including the land owned by Willie Jones. The Jones family contends they did not receive any notice of the condemnation of their land so they could not prevent the condemnation or receive any compensation. Willie Jones’ surviving children are seeking restoration for the uncompensated taking of their land. “Being made to leave my father’s land really affected me in so many ways that by the grace of God we survived,” said Billy Jones, the son of Willie Jones.