Bailey a keynote speaker at Virtual Conference on Heirs' Property and Sustainable Forest Management

Published: February 02, 2021

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Conner Bailey, professor emeritus of rural sociology, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, will serve as a keynote speaker Feb. 8, during a virtual conference on Heirs' Property and Sustainable Forest Management sponsored by the University of Georgia, Fort Valley State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Heirs' property refers to lands passed from one generation to the next without a probated will. In many parts of the rural South, as much as 40% of all Black-owned land is heirs' property, a legacy of the Jim Crow era when access to legal services was limited. Heirs' property is vulnerable to predatory legal actions resulting in land loss, complicates decision making necessary for timberland management and is an underlying cause for the racial disparity in wealth accumulation in the United States.

Submitted by: Conner Bailey