Tuesday, May 31, 2022

From the Texas Tribune: Decades after Texas took part of its historic farm, a family fights again to save its land from a highway expansion

An example of eminent domain, as well as racial discrimination in Texas.

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TxDOT plans to add more lanes to the highway that already abuts the Alexander Farm and Cemetery. But this time around, Alexander-Kasparik is determined to see a different outcome. Her fight isn’t only about keeping the private property intact. It’s about preserving one of America’s remaining Black-owned farms — and the legacy of her ancestors who founded the farm while enslaved and defied the odds to keep it in the family across several generations.

“They are not taking any more of our historic, hard-fought-for, blood-ridden land,” she said.

The widening project is still in the planning stages, making it unknown how much, if any, of the Alexander Farm will be needed to support the added concrete. The agency is noncommittal on what it may want, despite Alexander-Kasparik asking for specifics for years.

If the road intrudes on the land or cemetery any farther, it could overtake the entrance to the cemetery and demolish two of the farm’s three houses, by Alexander-Kasparik’s estimation.