Real Experiences for BHM 2016: Home Ownership

Today I want to talk about Black home/land owners. I know from Facebook that a ton of you have just purchased homes so I'm not going to tag anyone specific, y'all know who you are. First off, congrats!😁 Second, i want to say why its a big deal and why I'm shouting out these people today. Owning land or a house is a big deal--it may not seem like a big deal, but it is. You see one of the major benefits of owning a home is that you can use it for collateral. Also, if you've strategically purchased your house and kept it up to date you can make money off of it. This is also a legacy factor. When you leave this world, your children inherit what you've accumulated. They can keep the land/home and continue the legacy or use it to jump start their own purchases. This provides opportunities to borrow money, to make money, to have a place of your own... Below is an article about Black homeownership and the hardship Black homeowners face in comparison to White homeowners. Hopefully, one day that gap won't be so large. Sidenote: did you know the first Black man to own land (and a home) in the territory that would become the US was Anthony Johnson sometime between 1625 and 1640 (unfortunately he was a slave owner too)? #BlackOwnership #BlackHistoryMonth2016 #MakeItCount

Photocredit: Unsplash.com/Rowan Huevel

References

1. Dorthy Brown. "How Home Ownership Keeps Blacks Poorer Than Whites". Forbes. December 10, 2012
2. "Anthony Johnson". PBS; visited February 2016
3. Deborah McNally. "Johnson, Anthony (? – 1670)". Black Past; visited February 2016