Help us help Roosevelt Dye, a Black man, fight the timber company that stole land from him, affecting his family’s generational wealth and his community. Help him get a new court case against the timber company with a new impartial judge. Help him get the financial restitution that he and his family deserve! 

Roosevelt Dye was born in Kelso, Arkansas in 1952. When he was a teen, he met James “HJ” Marshall, a Black man who worked as a land leveler. After Mr. Marshall had a stroke in the late 1980s, Roosevelt became his caregiver, eventually moving the elderly gentleman into his own family home and became his power of attorney in 1990. Roosevelt cared for Mr. Marshall until he died in 2000.   

James Marshall’s paperwork revealed that Roosevelt had been named executor of the estate and that Mr. Marshall had left him all his property in his will, in appreciation for Roosevelt taking him into his home and caring for him for many years. Roosevelt hired a lawyer and discovered that when Mr. Marshall had been incapacitated due to his stroke, as well as due to an error by the tax assessor, delinquent taxes had accrued on the land.  Roosevelt followed the law and did everything required of him to settle the estate. No person or entity came forward with a claim against Mr. Marshall’s estate or to claim the land. The court approved the settlement of the estate, closed it, and discharged Roosevelt as executor and administrator. Roosevelt now had title to the land. 

Imagine Roosevelt’s surprise when the individual he hired to survey the property was threatened with arrest by a national timber company that had set up operations on the land without a permit from Mr. Marshall. The company claimed ownership, but didn’t have legal title, and had never paid taxes on the property!! Yet, after presenting multiple theories and arguments to the court as to why it should own the land, it eventually succeeded in convincing the court to grant the company title to the property.  When the judge declared the property wasn’t even in the county where Mr. Dye had paid taxes and, WITHOUT CONDUCTING A SURVEY, removed it from the tax records of that county (where it had been listed for almost 100 years) and transferred it to another county, it was clear to Roosevelt he was fighting a system that was built to work against the Black community.  The timber company has yet to conduct the survey the court ordered over a decade ago.  

Roosevelt fought the courts for several years, and in 2018 requested another review of the case. The Arkansas Supreme Court denied his request to review the Court of Appeals decision in favor of the timber company, stating that he exhausted his number of appeals. 

The timber company, which has a reputation for essentially stealing timber-rich land from private landowners, schemed to steal Roosevelt’s land and negatively impacted the community as a result. The land is in a small, close-knit, Southern community where it is widely known the land belongs to Roosevelt. The timber company continues to harvest timber from it and also issues hunting licenses on the property. In fact, a judge from one of Roosevelt’s county court cases applied for and received a license to hunt on the land from the timber company before hearing the case, which should have resulted in him recusing himself from the case.  

“There’s not a relationship between corporations and townspeople,” Roosevelt’s son, Jay noted.  “If a company decides a location is no longer profitable for them, they will relocate, not thinking about the impact on that town. Whereas, a local landowner is connected to the town and the people and feels the impact of those decisions. Local landowners drive economic growth in their communities by hiring from within their city or towns and by giving back and investing. For a local landowner to lose their land, it impacts the individual, the family, and the community.” 

Roosevelt is now working with Where Is My Land, an organization dedicated to helping Black people discover, search for, identify, and reclaim land taken from them in an attempt to obtain justice and financial restitution from a company known for questionable tactics in its dealings with private property owners, and a legal system that did not treat him fairly.  

In the wake of Justice for Bruce's Beach's recent success in getting land returned to Bruce family heirs, an initiative spearheaded by Where Is My Land Founder Kavon Ward, Roosevelt is hopeful. He continues to fight to blaze a trail of generational wealth for his children and grandchildren.   

Help us help Roosevelt Dye reclaim his land and obtain financial restitution! Help us get him a new court appeal and a new judge for his land! 

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