Help us help the Keen family reclaim land stolen under laws meant to prohibit interracial couples from marrying and their children from inheriting.

Help us help the Keen family get Eli Keen, Jr.’s land back to his rightful heirs.

This is a story about complicit state legislation supporting the doctrine of white supremacy. This is a story about a man and his commitment to family; family having more to do with morals and civilization of a people than any other institution. This is a story about Phoebe and Eli Keen, Jr., U.S. citizens residing in the state of Missouri. 

Phoebe Keen was born “Phoebe Stokes” between 1822 and 1825. Around 1847Phoebe and her daughter Martha, who was around one year old at the time, were sold to Eli Keen, Sr., where Phoebe worked keeping house. 

When Eli Keen, Sr., died in 1850, his son, Eli Keen, Jr., purchased both Phoebe and her daughter, Martha (around 3 years old at the time) from his father’s estate. What no one knew was that Phoebe and Eli, Jr. were in a romantic relationship. In 1850 Eli “purchased” Phoebe and her daughter and until approximately 1885, Eli and Phoebe lived together in the same house as husband and wife, and had eight more children together. The couple was never formally married because of Missouri’s anti-miscegenation laws, but they referred to each other as “husband” and “wife.” The children referred to Eli as “pa,” and to Phoebe as “ma” in the presence of anyone in the vicinity, and without objection from Phoebe or Eli.

All the Keen children were educated in what they referred to as “the Keen Schoolhouse.” The school was organized under the laws of Missouri and was located a few hundred yards from the Keen residence on property donated by Eli to provide education for Black children. Eli built the Keen School to ensure his own children had access to a good education, as they were prohibited from attending the local school because of their race. Eli also sent several of the older children to schools in Iowa and Tennessee. It was clear to anyone who knew the Keens that they were a family and that Eli adored his children. They had family dinners together. They had one family account at the local store where Phoebe and the children made purchases that were charged to Eli’s account. Eli and Phoebe were known as husband and wife in the community.

In August 1883, Eli married his second cousin, Sophronia Keen. She never lived with Eli during their marriage, remaining instead in West Virginia in a home Eli provided for her full time. She claimed Eli visited her once or twice a year and that she had made a couple of trips to Missouri. Sophronia eventually claimed, under oath, that at the time of her marriage and up to a few months before Eli’s death that she didn’t know about Phoebe or the children. 

On November 21, 1883, a mere three months after his marriage to Sophronia, Eli’s desire to provide for Phoebe was made evident when he conveyed to her the old St. Charles County, MO home where the couple had lived for many years. In that deed, he designated her as “Phoebe Keen” and deeded her a life estate interest. She was to hold the property for as long as she lived and, upon her death and his, the title to the farm should go to Lettie Ann Skinner, Phoebe Wise, Mary Phillips, and Alice Cora Brown (Eli and Phoebe’s daughters). Furthermore, he also expressly reserved for himself the use of one room in the house. Eli lived in the house with Phoebe until 1885, when they both moved from “the home place.” Eli purchased a house for Phoebe on 6th Street in St. Charles, Missouri, and he moved in with his son, Reason, in his house located on property his father had conveyed to him. Similarly, Eli conveyed hundreds of acres of land and/or houses to each of his children to ensure they were provided for prior to his death. 

Eli and Reason lived together until December 1900, when he became so ill, he needed to move back to Alton, Illinois to access medical treatment. Only when Eli’s condition became dire was Sophronia summoned to Alton, IL. From the time she arrived until Eli Keen, Jr.’s death, she prohibited the Keen children from visiting their father whenever she was present to prevent their access to him.

Any doubt regarding whether Eli Keen, Jr. considered himself to be the father of his and Phoebe’s children was put to rest when Eli died in February 1901. In his will, he unequivocally recognized the children as his own, and left all the property he owned in Missouri to his children. He left a life estate for Sophronia in one of the farms, but the property bequeathed to his children, he left absolutely. Eli left all the property he owned in West Virginia to Sophronia, and let it be known in the will that she had not contributed one dime to the purchase of the property. 

Eli Keen, Jr.’s will specified that Sophronia would forfeit her inheritance if she challenged the will. Eli intentionally did not disinherit her, but rather, left Sophronia property and personal possessions valued at MUCH MORE than she stood to inherit under Missouri laws governing spousal election.  Sophronia was undeterred by Eli’s attempts to discourage her. She ignored the will's instructions, and on April 1, 1901 filed a renunciation of Eli Keen, Jr.’s will in St. Charles County court electing to instead take one-half of her husband’s estate after payment of his debts. She subsequently filed an action for ejectment in the Circuit Court of St. Charles County on July 29, 1901, seeking to recover property that had already been distributed to the Keen children. Rather than instructing the executor to carry out the mandates of Eli Keen’s will, the Circuit Court allowed Sophronia to renounce the will. The court further allowed her to challenge the very provisions of the will, rather than declaring she forfeited the provisions he made for her in accordance with Eli’s instructions that she not be allowed to challenge.  

Sophronia’s bequest of personal and real property valued at more than half the Missouri estate (ALL real and personal property in West Virginia), was not enough for her. She also elected to take half of the property her husband had left to his children! She argued she was the only heir under Missouri law and that Eli’s children were not heirs legally capable of inheriting from him. In the end, the court agreed with her argument and held that the children named in the will were not relatives who had a legal right to the estate. They were considered to be the equivalent of non-relatives who, even though named in the will, could not receive a bequest before Sophronia received one-half of the total estate. The result of the court decision was that Eli’s children were left to split half the estate their father intended to leave them, while Sophronia was wrongfully allowed to take the other half. Had the court sided with Eli Keen’s children, Sophronia’s portion would have been reduced to one-third of the total estate. The case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States which dismissed Ellis Keen’s writ of error. The justice who wrote the opinion was Justice Brown, who wrote the opinion for Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Sophronia managed to get over 1,000 acres of the property Eli Keen, Jr. left to his children including land he had given them before he died! In doing so, the generational wealth and benefits of land ownership were forever removed from the direct descendants named in his will. Sophronia died without a will and did not have children. This resulted in her nieces and nephews claiming the property.  The property was passed down to people who were very distant relatives of Eli Keen, Jr. and who had never had any relationship with him.

"This orchestrated misfortune made possible by consciously hostile state statutes toward negroes was successful in destroying 50 plus years - the entire Keen family’s generation of work,” according to a statement from a family representative. Per an Economist, following the language of the will, the total estate with growth and development from 1900 to the present day, "represents a dollar loss to the family in the tens of millions of dollars.” 

Descendants of Eli Keen, Jr., Phoebe Keen, and their children are working with Where Is My Land, an organization dedicated to helping Black people discover, search for, identify, and reclaim land taken from them. 

In the wake of the recent successful return of Bruce’s Beach to the Bruce heirs, which was spearheaded by Where Is My Land’s founder Kavon Ward, the Keen family continues to fight to reclaim the generational wealth that Eli meant for them to have.

Help us help the Keen descendants reclaim their land. Help us get them the financial remuneration they deserve!

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