Legal scholars, housing advocates and community leaders gathered Wednesday at the Weeksville Heritage Center to discuss deed fraud as an urgent threat to Black homeownership and generational wealth.
Hosted by Access Justice Brooklyn, in partnership with the NYU School of Law Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, the conversation titled "Roots & Resilience: A Story of Black Equity in Brooklyn," examined how present-day deed theft is intertwined with a much longer history of discriminatory housing policies, including redlining, racial segregation, and generations of systemic disinvestment in Black communities.
Moderated by Lilia Toson, president and chief executive officer of Access Justice Brooklyn, the panel featured four experts in housing law, racial justice, and community advocacy: Angella Davidson, director of Operations at Neighborhood Housing Services of Brooklyn; Professor Rachel Godsil of Rutgers Law School; ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program; and Peter S. White II, Director of the city Office of Deed Theft Prevention.
Throughout the discussion, panelists emphasized that deed fraud is not an isolated legal issue, but part of a much longer history of housing discrimination that has shaped Black homeownership and wealth accumulation across generations. Moore traced that history back to the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863, when racial violence forced many Black New Yorkers to flee Manhattan and seek refuge in Weeksville.
"The history of Black homeownership is also a history of displacement," Moore said. "From the Civil War draft riots that forced many Black New Yorkers to flee Manhattan and settle in Weeksville, to redlining and discriminatory lending, Black families have repeatedly been pushed from one place to another while being denied the financial tools that build wealth. Those patterns didn't end decades ago—they continue to shape where banks invest, what homes are worth, and the opportunities communities have today."
That history made Weeksville more than a backdrop for the conversation. Founded by free Black landowners decades before the Civil War, the neighborhood stands as a living testament to Black self-determination through property ownership. The center's preserved Hunterfly Road Houses and historic grounds serve as reminders of what Black ownership has always represented. Here, property was never merely an asset; it was protection against displacement, a foundation for political participation, and a means of building and preserving generational wealth.
Davidson connected those historical patterns to Brooklyn's more recent past, recalling the foreclosure crisis that devastated Black and Latino neighborhoods during the Great Recession. Families, she said, did not willingly abandon their homes.
"People wanted to stay in their homes," Davidson said. "We worked tirelessly to help families secure loan modifications and other options to avoid foreclosure, but those opportunities weren't available equally. In many Black and Latino neighborhoods, families lost their homes, and those losses became a direct pathway to gentrification."
Moore urged attendees to recognize that neighborhood transformation is often presented as inevitable when, in reality, it reflects decades of unequal investment.
"Folks who have lived here for generations see these changes [gentrification], and it becomes clear that these changes were possible all this time," Moore said. "All that had to change were the people who lived there."
Throughout the evening, panelists argued that deed fraud cannot be separated from the broader history of housing inequity. From redlining and predatory lending to discriminatory appraisals and foreclosure practices, they described a continuum of policies that have limited Black families' ability to accumulate, preserve, and pass on wealth through homeownership.
Yet the conversation was not solely about loss. Speakers pointed to the creation of New York City's first Office of Deed Theft Prevention, expanded legal services, and growing collaboration among community organizations as signs of meaningful progress. As homeownership rates continue to decline across demographic groups, panelists emphasized the need for broader coalitions around housing justice and stronger protections for homeowners.
The discussion closed where it began: with Weeksville itself. For one evening, a community founded as a refuge from racial violence became a space to imagine a future in which Black homeownership is not merely preserved, but protected through policy, legal advocacy and collective action. The message was clear: safeguarding Black homes means safeguarding Black history, Black wealth, and the communities that have long sustained Brooklyn.
