In this powerful Black History Month blog, J. Elias O’Neal traces his family’s journey from sharecropping in Jim Crow–era South Carolina to the rare and hard-won ownership of hundreds of acres of land. Through family stories passed down across generations, he reflects on Black land ownership as both an act of survival and resistance — shaped by racism, violence, perseverance, and deep love for place. Read Jamaal’s moving reflection of how the land continues to carry memory, meaning, and possibility.