Holland Farm Legal Fund - Help Stop Land Theft!

Holland Farm Legal Fund - Stop Land Theft

"All my life I had to fight". Those are the words our grandmother Louise H. Morsell use to always say. Who knew years later her children and grandchildren would experience the true meaning behind that saying?

For the last two years, the Holland Morsell family in Calvert County, MD, have endured endless and ongoing harassment, with most recently the destruction of family land and theft of personal property on the farmland in Sunderland, MD.

For two years,

after endless peace orders being filed and with only one being temporarily granted with ongoing harassment by an aggressive land possessor (ALP) who purchased land surrounding the family farmland the harassment continues. The family continues to make calls to the County and state police and file peace orders with over 16 filed as of to date.

At times, they have experience police bias to our calls with some officers attempting to render decisions for land matters when responding to calls of our complaints of harassment and destruction of our property. We continue to make calls to the police and file reports to the Circuit Court still have left the family of Louise and Thomas Morsell to continue to fight and prevent the land-stealing tactics of the aggressive land possessor.

On November 8, 2022, this landowner placed survey cap stake markers along the property, and now the family who has had this land in their possession for over 60 years await a survey to prove they own these lands. This is the America we live in today. Millions of farmlands across America continue to be acquired through systematic and aggressive tactics such as redlining, raising property taxes, and those who flat-out desire to take what they want by staking claim to it. But not with the Holland-Morsell family.

We are fighting back! The Holland-Morsell family long history of farming and planting tobacco and crops such as corn, black-eyed peas, and string beans served the community. The family farm also provided cows and pigs for local meat and poultry supply stores. The Holland and Morsell family farm provided food for families living in Calvert County's local stores and markets from the 1940s to the 1980s. When black farmlands were disenfranchised from opportunities to continue their farming due to racial discrimination from USDA agriculture loans, the family had to reduce their family farming and eventually could no longer support the farming trade.

The recent illegal property staking will now require the family to obtain an attorney to file a complaint with the Calvert County Circuit Court for removing the survey cap stakes inserted by the aggressive land possessor (ALP).

A family member, who is a retired Army Veteran serving three tours in Iraq was illegally arrested for trespassing and detained on August 9, 2022, for walking on his family land. The charges were later dropped. However, these charges still appeared on his case docket search. The family member proudly and with honor has served this country, and to be continually harassed by the ALP and unable to obtain justice after filing with the Commissioner's Office, the State Attorney's office leaving the family to file a civil suit within the Circuit Court.

Help us fight land theft with support through your donation to help us with legal costs as we continue to preserve one of the few remaining black farmlands in Calvert County, MD. We appreciate any donation made to support our cause, OUR FIGHT!