Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving has donated $40,000 to a 93-year-old South Carolina woman in her legal battle to protect her family home from an encroaching developer.
Josephine Wright, a long-time resident of South Carolina’s picturesque Hilton Head Island, is being sued by Bailey Point Investment Group for allegedly blocking the developer’s progress on a 147-unit complex next to her property — a 1.8-care plot that was first settled by escaped slaves and has remained in her family since the Civil War. Wright inherited the land in 2012 from her late husband.
The developers have reportedly made offers of up to $39,000 to buy Wright’s plot, but when she refused, they began a campaign of harassments that included slashing her tires, throwing trash onto her property and even hanging a snake from her window, she alleges.
‘I guess they figured I would become so unnerved with the harassment that I would say take it,’ Wright said at a recent press conference. ‘But they don’t know me. I am here to fight for what I have.’
A gofundme page was started in Wright’s name, which is how Irving came to donate $40,000 to her legal efforts. That campaign had raised $248,263 of its $350,000 goal as of Wednesday morning.
Wright, a native of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina says she is being forced off her land
Kyrie Irving has donated more than $500,000 to various gofundme campaigns over the years
Wright is being supported by former state legislator Bakari Sellers
While Irving has become a controversial figure in NBA circles, he’s also developed a reputation for generosity.
In 2017, he paid school tuition for a 12-year-old battling a debilitating migraine condition known as pseudotumor cerebri, as well as funeral costs for a 14-year-old at Irving’s old high school in New Jersey.
More recently, Irving paid funeral costs and other expenses for the family of Shanquella Robinson, a woman who was murdered while on vacation in Mexico last year.
In fact, Irving has donated more than $500,000 to various gofundme campaigns, according to NetsDaily.com, a Brooklyn team blog.
Irving recently re-signed with the Mavericks, agreeing to a three-year deal worth $126 million. He was acquired in a trade with Brooklyn last season, but failed to propel Dallas to a playoff berth.
As for its lawsuit, Bailey Point argues that they own part of the land Wright’s property sits upon, including her porch.
Wright and her supportive neighbors have argued that her property is 22 feet away from the Bailey Point border.
‘I don’t want to say anything that can be used against me, but I think they are unscrupulous and greedy and they want all the property they can get their hands on,’ said Wright.
‘I want to just keep my property and them to leave me alone.’
Wright has now instructed an attorney, Bluffton-based lawyer Roberts Vaux, to fight the case.
She has also received support from Former state legislator Bakari Sellers and the NAACP.
Sellers initially tried to open a dialogue with the development company regarding the situation but received no response.
‘I want to just keep my property and them to leave me alone’ Wright told reporters on Thursday
The property has been in Wright’s family since just after the Civil War
Wright’s husband was a Gullah Geechee Islander whose relatives were escaped slaves freed by Union soldiers and moved to the property
Bailey Point argue that they own part of the land Wright’s property sits on, even her porch
‘Perhaps more disrespectful than a no is a non-answer,’ Sellers told reporters.
Wright’s situation is not unique, and many other Black landowners on the island have been pressured into selling their property over the years, according to the Island Packet.
Gullah landowners in particular have seen their share of island land diminished down to a fraction of private owners, despite being among the first to permanently settle there after the Civil War.
Sellers told reporters that ‘there is a concerted effort to take property from Black folk in our community, who have lived a great life.
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‘This is about generational wealth, it’s very difficult to obtain. This is about land ownership, this is about heirs’ property, which we know we deal with a lot down here’ he explained.
Bailey Point Investment Group for encroaching on their land and blocking their progress in developing acre, 147-unit plan next to Wright’s historic property
Charise Graves, Wright’s granddaughter, told reporters of the disruption her elderly grandmother has had to endure in the last year: ‘Unbeknownst to us, they just started tearing trees down.
‘Our house was shaking like it was an earthquake. They didn’t even have the decency to let us know that this was happening.’
The lawsuit is still in the discovery phase and Wright’s family have commissioned an independent survey to see if the alleged encroachment crosses the parcel boundary.
Wright maintains that her porch has around 22 feet of space between its end and the property line.
