NBA player Kyrie Irving has donated $40,000 to a GoFundMe page set up by the granddaughter of Josephine Wright, a 93-year-old South Carolina woman caught in a legal struggle with developers who are purportedly attempting to evict her from her house.
Wright’s family has owned the property since the Civil War, according to WSAV. She married a Gullah Geechee Islander whose family members escaped enslavement and were freed by Union forces. Wright has been living alone on the 1.8-acre Hilton Head property since 1998, when her spouse died.
Bailey Point Investment Group, on the other hand, has launched a lawsuit against the nonagenarian, stating that a portion of her home is located on land it is developing. Wright has stated that she will fight to keep her home despite claimed harassment by the firm.
“I’ve pretty much been a fighter all my life,” she said. “This house means it’s a home, a place where I want to be at this age,” she added. Wright also said the company’s action initially “puzzled” her, but later got her angry. The 93-year-old woman and her ex-daughter-in-law, Delores Wright, are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Delores, who co-owns the property with Wright, said she ultimately moved out of the home because of the stress she experienced from staying close to the construction site.
Bailey Point alleges in the lawsuit that it has evidence that elements of Wright’s property are located on their property. Despite the fact that she removed a satellite dish and spent $1,900 to have a shed moved, the company still claims that the 93-year-old’s porch is on their property, according to WSAV.
“You can see I’m at least 12 feet away from the border line, which is right there,” Wright explained to the news site. Her neighbors also stated that the distance between her house and the road built by the firm is 22 feet. Wright also alleged that the corporation began harassing her when she refused to give them her land. She said her tires had been slashed and that rubbish and a snake had been dumped on her property.
“I guess they figured I would become so unnerved with the harassment that I would say take it. But they don’t know me. I am here to fight for what I have,” she said. “I don’t want to say anything that can be used against me, but I think they are unscrupulous and greedy and they want all the property they can get their hands on.”
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Wright is pursuing the legal battle with the help of a legal team and former State Rep. Bakari Sellers. The GoFundMe campaign established to help gather funds for Wright’s legal bills has raised more than $250,000, with a goal of $350,000.
Tyler Perry promised to back Wright after hearing her story. Irving has done the same. The NBA player just paid for the tuition of nine Lincoln University students, a historically Black college in Pennsylvania. The donation was purportedly made to pay off the graduating students’ debts. He gave $22,000 to a young Howard University student in December to assist her finish her study.
In 2018, he also funded the remodeling of a gym, locker room, weight room, and lounge at his alma mater, The Patrick School in Hillside, New Jersey, according to Forbes. The NBA player also donated $323,000 to Feeding America to assist feed people affected by COVID-19. He also collaborated with City Harvest to donate 250,000 meals to underserved communities in the New York area.