A group of Black people is suing a Mississippi city after officials deemed their homes “blighted,” a move that could ultimately lead to their property being swiped through eminent domain amid discussions of a redevelopment plan.
The longstanding property owners of Ocean Springs filed the lawsuit after officials “passed a resolution declaring Plaintiffs’ (and others’) properties to be an “urban renewal area,” which requires a factual finding of substantial blight or slum, and which allows for subsequent exercises of eminent domain,” per the federal lawsuit.
Cynthia Fisher, Esther Payton, Edward Williams, business owner Robert Zellner, and Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church are plaintiffs in this case. The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public interest firm, is helping the group and filed the complaint in the U.S. Southern District of Mississippi. It claims the city violated the residents’ 14th Amendment rights.
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The area has a Black Railroad District, small businesses and a coveted church that has been a haven for residents for over a century.
The resolution, which was passed on April 4, 2023, was carried out without giving the plaintiffs’ notice about it or the short 10-day deadline they had to challenge it and defend their property, the lawsuit alleges. The group wasn’t made aware of it until months later, in August.
According to the lawsuit, Fisher owns a home that has been passed down through multiple generations, and she has no urge to move, as her daughter lives on the property, which has been on 1303 Robinson Street for more than 100 years. Through the new plan, the city ordered that the homeowner “minimize blighting influences” without much clarification. However, it also considered the street it’s on as “well maintained.”
“Cynthia did not learn that the City had placed her property within an urban renewal area —i.e., that it declared her property to be…
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