Case Study

A member of the Ku Klux Klan assisted a marijuana farmer in growing crops on land he allegedly purchased from the descendant of slaves, who had purchased the land in 1896. The county, with the help of the sheriff and the district attorney, seized the property. However the rightful owner, a retired schoolteacher, had not received a single payment for her land.  She was also being sued by three districts for taxes on the land she was never paid for. (Lillie Mae Paley Burns v. “Citizen”)