The McQueen Family wishes to express our sincere gratitude to The Charlotte Observer for its front page coverage of the developer’s efforts to force the sale of our family’s land.  The clarity of the reporting is critical to understanding the problem of predatory real estate development and the corrosive impact the often unethical practice is having on historically black neighborhoods in cities across the nation.

There are voices missing, however, as reporters continue to hone in on the confusing and potentially fraudulent tactics used by some developers to obtain land.  In our case, the developer and his attorney of record, R. Gregory Tomchin of Cranford, Buckley, Schultze, Tomchin, Allen & Buie, P.A., did not respond to any of The Observer’s requests for comment.  Indeed, the developer has essentially gone dark, deleting or attempting to hide his online fingerprints, not long after this petition launched.  This is a curious business model for a business which depends on being accessible to the public.

Astonishingly, Mr. Tomchin’s law firm boldly advertises its services as demonstrating “compassion that counts,” but we beg to differ and ask Mr. Tomchin to explain how taking a 91-year old hospice patient to court to sell family land that has been hers since the 1940s and that she does not want to sell shows one ounce of “compassion.”  To us the actions of Mr. Tomchin on behalf of his real estate developer client demonstrates nothing more than calculated greed.

The McQueen Family will continue to speak out about the injustice of the developer’s lawsuit.  Mr. Tomchin and his client should understand that even if the family ultimately defeats the developer in court, we will never forget the cruelty of the very existence of this lawsuit and the emotional burden of having to defend our family’s rights in court instead of giving our full attention to our matriarch as her health continues to decline.

However, true story, shortly before his death in October 2003, Mangie McQueen told a great grandson stories of how he protected his family and home on St. Mark Street from violence threatened by the Ku Klux Klan.  Yes, he built houses and provided well for his family, but he himself deemed as one of his greatest duties, protecting his home, family and land.

Fortunately, today the threat is not violence and the enemy is not hiding under a white sheet.  The threat this time is a summons to appear in court for a government sanctioned court process which the developer hopes to use as essentially a “private” eminent domain action.

To this we have responded in court and will continue to do so by shedding light on this developer’s tactics and taking his business model under a microscope to defend our family’s land.

Mr. Tomchin, we await any display of “compassion.”

In the meantime, while we wait, we’ll continue to defend our family’s land, never giving an inch, both in court and in the court of public opinion.

Our late patriarch, Mangie McQueen, would expect nothing less from us.

Finally, as ever, we thank the almost 1000 supporters who have signed our petition.  Please continue to forward to contacts, new and old, so that we do not lose any momentum in this important effort.

Stay tuned.  More to come as we dig deeper into what appears to be an unregulated playground for cruel corporate bullies.

With deep gratitude,

The McQueen Family