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Andrew W. Kahrl
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The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South Paperback – Illustrated, August 1, 2016

by Andrew W. Kahrl (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
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The coasts of today's American South feature luxury condominiums, resorts, and gated communities, yet just a century ago, a surprising amount of beachfront property in the Chesapeake, along the Carolina shores, and around the Gulf of Mexico was owned and populated by African Americans. Blending social and environmental history, Andrew W. Kahrl tells the story of African American–owned beaches in the twentieth century. By reconstructing African American life along the coast, Kahrl demonstrates just how important these properties were for African American communities and leisure, as well as for economic empowerment, especially during the era of the Jim Crow South. However, in the wake of the civil rights movement and amid the growing prosperity of the Sunbelt, many African Americans fell victim to effective campaigns to dispossess black landowners of their properties and beaches.

Kahrl makes a signal contribution to our understanding of African American landowners and real-estate developers, as well as the development of coastal capitalism along the southern seaboard, tying the creation of overdeveloped, unsustainable coastlines to the unmaking of black communities and cultures along the shore. The result is a skillful appraisal of the ambiguous legacy of racial progress in the Sunbelt.
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  1. Print length
    374 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    The University of North Carolina Press
  4. Publication date
    August 1, 2016
  5. Dimensions
    6.12 x 0.84 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1469628724
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1469628721
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Artfully captures the complexities of black community formation as African Americans sought to tame and commercialize the natural coastal environment and negotiated complex and changing structures of racial discrimination, segregation, and exclusion in the Jim Crow and Sun Belt souths."—Southern Spaces

The Land Was Ours shows the importance of coastal capitalism to the development of the Sunbelt South. It also provides a valuable new prism for viewing and understanding the region's growth and the politics of its people. Scholars in many modern U.S. specialties, including African American history, southern history, environmental history, and business history, will find this book engaging and stimulating."—Journal of American History

A fine reminder and exploration of the idea that place matters when tracing the contours of racial changes in American society and landscapes."—Journal of Social History

The Land Was Ours reminds us that in the Sunbelt South, the rise and fall of Jim Crow, the struggle for civil rights, and the exploitation of ecosystems were fundamentally related processes that shouldn't be treated in isolation. That reminder, combined with fascinating, evocative evidence and Kahrl's ability to deftly tell a complicated story, make this a significant book that should be widely read."—American Historical Review

Review

[A] heartbreaking and hugely important study."—Beryl Satter, author of Family Properties

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press; Reprint edition (August 1, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 374 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1469628724
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1469628721
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 0.84 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 37 ratings

About the author

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Andrew W. Kahrl

Andrew W. Kahrl

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Andrew W. Kahrl is professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Virginia.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Zakkiyya Anderson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly powerful read!
    Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I've learned so much through this book already & I'm only a few chapters in. It's a must read with great information.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Jane Smith
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2018
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    Great Book
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  • Conner Bailey, Professor Emeritus of Rural Sociology, Auburn University
    5.0 out of 5 stars Life is (not) a beach?
    Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019
    Professor Kahrl's work is not simply about the opportunity people have to hang out at the beach. The Land Was Ours shows how the law has been used to steal property from African Americans. There is no wonder that some (many) African Americans have a deep-seated distrust of the legal system, the white courthouse gang, lawyers who cheat their clients, and big city developers - white and black alike. This book lays a foundation for discussing the legacy of Jim Crow era that left many rural African Americans unprepared to cope with rapacious coastal developers. Equally importantly, the book shows that this legacy affected not only those who once owned the land but all who enjoyed the coast before condos, hotels, and golf courses transformed the coastal zone. Having lived and worked in coastal areas in other parts of the world, I suspect that the experience of the southeastern US is not unique, that the monetary value of coastal property is more fully appreciated by outside investors than local residents.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • TravelGal
    5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful History Lesson on Wealth Stealing From the Black Communities
    Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2018
    Many people have wondered why more African-Americans do not own property. This book outlines a part of our all too recent history which allows the theft of property from African Americans by those in power. I wonder if the author, Andrew W. Kahrl, has personal experience with this?

    The author was also interviewed by NPR today on the same kind of issues facing minority property owners TODAY after hurricanes. Both horrific and sobering that we live in a country that actively promotes laws allowing these atrocities and wealth stealing.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Mr Royster
    2.0 out of 5 stars Save History -- Donate Punctuation Here
    Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Fascinating summary of a time period that is timely in the Black Lives Matter/George Floyd moment in 2020. Dr. Kahrl chronicles yet again how Black progress, here the accumulation of wealth and exercise of pleasure at the seashore, is stolen by the systematic social and societal machinations of white people. The book is well researched, with elaborate yet relevant reporting from real estate records for example and photographs of black people enjoying themselves in their ocean getaways.

    I saw the author speak on his work at an African American museum in Alexandria, and my family used to own a house in a Black section of beach in North Carolina. So, with all the appeal the topic has personally, why do I give it only 2 stars?

    The book is unreadable. It is coded in academic prose that requires a complicated plan and intricate parsing of grammar and logic to pierce. I have over-written this review to give some idea of what it's like to read this book, which in some places the books seems like it is one long, winding sentence! We need to donate some periods to Mr. Kahrl so that others might be able to take advantage of his excellent research.

    You notice in the few cases where an editor prevailed and ideas are presented straightforwardly and clearly rather than in a middle of dependent clauses and parallel constructions. These few moments of clarity are just that--too few.

    Academia seems to pride itself on the length it takes to express an idea and the complexity of the sentence structure used to link disparate thoughts and propositions. Mr. Karhl would do better to share his rare research so others and appreciate and learn. He doesn't have to try so hard to impress us.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • Paul Maginley
    4.0 out of 5 stars Poor coastal engineering leading to land erosion and poor development ...
    Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    As professor Kahrl points out towards the end of his book, possession of land was important to freed blacks and it validated their conception of freedom in a powerful manner. His book details examples of black ownership of coastal lands and describes the ultimate fate of such lands. The outcomes appear to be universally tragic. Kahrl focuses his study on black owned beachfront properties along the East coast-Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and beaches of the Gulf coast where Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana meet. These areas commonly experience brief success then are eventually taken over by white interests or are destroyed through financial collapse or from environmental change. Whatever pleasure derived from them by their original black owners all falls tragically short. So how are such lands taken over by white interests? The ways are manifold: We see predatory lending and usurious rates; we see property tax manipulations; we see coastline engineering leading to uncontrolled erosion; we see gained entries into private lands through the use of partition sales; and when all else fails, there is always the white mob. This latter option surprisingly was sparingly used, but that was because it wasn't necessary. Getting hold of a private beachfront spot was a way for Northern negroes to escape the burdens of race. The northern cities had no Jim Crow, but still their black citizens had to endure daily indignities and were forced into crowded and overpriced parts of town, which could be expanded only vertically. Interestingly enough, black families of means sought similar exclusivity in vacation spots as white families did. Their concept of vacationing was one of escaping Jim Crow and equally one of escaping the black masses. Beachcombers when approaching these private lands would walk into physical barriers which reached into the sea. As we read the book, it becomes clear how short lived many of these ventures were for both black owned as well as white owned lands. Fads change. Dollars get directed elsewhere. Poor coastal engineering leading to land erosion and poor development of septic systems causing the mixing of water and sewage along with storm destruction all take a toll. It would have been a stronger study, I think, if Professor Kahrl had explored the concept of private ownership of coastal lands in a general way. Is it, or should it be ethical to be allowed to own beachfront property to begin with? Shouldn't all beaches be declared accessible to the public in our relentlessly capitalistic nation? Beach lines are notoriously unstable with hurricanes and storms. The sand erosion resulting from the development of levees and from cutting off inlets; the lack of community septic systems all argue against private ownership. But still we have to give Andrew Kahrl four stars for addressing a topic which had been hitherto ignored. This book finds its way into the space-restricted library.
    6 people found this helpful
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