ABOVE PHOTO: LiCurtis Reels (l) and Melvin Reels (Photo credit: Image from Silver Dollar Road Wayne Lawrence/Amazon Studios)
By Kharisma McIlwaine
On Thursday, October 19, The Philadelphia Film Center opened its doors for the 32nd Annual Philadelphia Film Festival. The festival, which runs through October 29, featured Oscar-nominated director (“I Am Not Your Negro”) Raoul Peck’s latest documentary, “Silver Dollar Road.”
“Silver Dollar Road” chronicles the story of the Reels family, a Black family in North Carolina, and their ongoing fight to keep the land that is their birthright in their possession. Peck began his journey with the documentary after reading the 2019 ProPublica feature by Lizzie Presser that highlighted the Reels family’s struggle to maintain ownership of their land.
Elijah Reels purchased the 65-acre stretch of land known as Silver Dollar Road in 1911. The land, which includes a private beach, eventually gained the attention of local developers in Adams Creek Carteret County. Since then, the Reels have been in an ongoing legal battle to protect their land and their way of life.
“Silver Dollar Road” begins with 95-year-old matriarch Gertrude Reels sharing her father’s dying request.
“He said ‘Gertrude, I won’t be with you all long. And whatever you do, don’t let the white man have my land,’”she recalls.
Reels raised her family on that land. Her children — LiCurtis, Melvin and Mammie — grew up playing, fishing, and living on that land.
“When I was a little girl and growing up here on Silver Dollar Road, I like thinking about those days ‘cause it was so innocent,” Mammie said. “It was so magical. You just felt free, you felt happy, and you felt love. It was like a village. You was free to roam and play, and you had the water. And going to the water for me was magical.”
Mammie’s granddaughter, Kim Duhon, echoed a similar sentiment.
“We walked around in our bare feet from this aunt’s house, to that aunt’s house, to cousins’ houses,” Duhon said. “[ We would ask] ‘Can you take us swimming today, ‘cause Grandma said we can’t go down unless we have an adult.’ We had our own beach. My uncles would bring their boats to the pier, and we’d run up, help them offload shrimp and fish and crabs. And it was a good time — music, dancing, barbecues, concerts, or local churches just putting on gospel concerts and baptisms in the water. Being in the sun, the sand, being stung by sting rays and running out, putting sand on you, just trying to get the stinging off. And it was just amazing.”
While the Reels’ love and respect for their land has never wavered, some of the magic they once knew began to fade when Silver Dollar Road, and the beach front property it holds, gained the attention of a real-estate investment company called Adams Creek Associates. Similar to most situations where native members of a community are displaced intentionally through gentrification, taxes were raised in an effort to price out the people who would inevitably be unable to afford to remain there. Throughout the early 20th century, landownership was one of the only ways that Black people could acquire stability and wealth. As a result, white supremacist groups targeted and terrorized Black landowners across the South, killing them, stealing land, and destroying Black communities. We can see the same tactics used today with gentrification, red lining, drastically raising taxes and the intentional devaluing of Black properties in appraisals. “Silver Dollar Road” shared the following statistic, “Over the 20th century, Black Americans lost about 90% of their farmland.”
Families like the Reels are not alone. Although they’ve been tenacious in their fight to maintain possession of their land, the battle continues.
The timeline of the Reels’ battle starts in 1939 when Elijah Reels lost the property due to back taxes. Elijah’s son Mitchell then purchased the property in 1944 at the courthouse. In 1970, Mitchell died without a living will, which allowed the land to become heirs property — property passed down to his descendants.
It was documented that Gertrude Reels and her siblings were the rightful owners of the 65 acre property during a court proceeding. Heirs property, however, leaves room for loopholes in laws to be enforced when developers and real estate investors set their sights on taking land from its rightful owners. Melvin and LiCurtis were casualties of those predatory practices.
Melvin, who ran a club and lived in an apartment above it, made a living for himself as the owner of a shrimping boat, while LiCurtis, who worked as a brick mason, and built a property near the river’s edge. In 2011, after decades of battle, Melvin and LiCurtis were jailed for eight years for refusing to sign over and leave their land. A portion of their land was sold to developers years prior without their knowledge or consent. That land was sold when Gertrude’s uncle, Shedrick Reels — also known as Shade — stole 13 acres of what he viewed as the most valued part of the Reels’ land and maintained it legally by using an obscure law called the Torrens Act.
Because it does not require people to abide by the laws of the court, the Torrens Act is known in the south as a legal way to steal land. In the Reels’ case, the Torrens Act circumvented Gertrude’s possession of Mitchell’s deed and the court document declaring the land was theirs. It also allowed Shade to sell his stolen portion of the property to Adams Creek Associates.
“Silver Dollar Road” brilliantly documents the years of turmoil the Reels family experienced while battling for their land. Melvin’s boat was blown up, family members were threatened and denied visitation. Some lawyers quit at pivotal moments in their case, while others took advantage of family members who were trying to get Melvin and LiCurtis out of jail.
The heartbreaking betrayal and loss the Reels family experienced did not end with the theft of their land and resources — their time and freedom was also stolen. Melvin and LiCurtis lost eight years of their lives for trespassing on their own land. Although the two men were eventually released, sadly, the Reels family is still fighting to keep their property.
The story revealed in “Silver Dollar Road” does not paint a pretty picture, and there is no happy ending. Instead, it serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing battle that many Black families are immersed in as they struggle to maintain their land and birthright. It is also a reminder that as many of those families continuing their fights, there are many on the opposing side who will always value land over legacy.
“Silver Dollar Road” is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
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