Long After We Are Gone Quotes

“All this time she was caught between who she was and who she believed herself to be. And now she knows who she is.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Feelings don’t die. They wait.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“had never heard of heir property before. After much research, I was amazed that the Reels brothers were not alone in their fight and that involuntary land loss from heir property is such an important issue that no one really knows about or talks about. It’s not recognized as “the worst problem you never heard of” or “the leading cause of Black involuntary land loss” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture without justification. In Long After We Are Gone, I hope to shine a light on this issue and how certain laws, policies, and loopholes continue to dispossess families of their land.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Today, in the country as a whole, the number of Black Americans without a will is more than double that of white Americans.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Heir property is a form of ownership in which descendants inherit an interest in the land, similar to holding stock in a company,” Ethan explains. “The practice began during the Reconstruction when many Blacks did not have access to the legal system, and it continued throughout the Jim Crow era.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“The woman does not speak nor move. She just stares out past them. She is in two places at once. More there than here.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Heir property is land passed down to all living family members by inheritance. It’s created when someone dies intestate, meaning without a will. King did not have a will.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“King inherited the land from his father via heir property. His father inherited the land the same way. That’s the way it’s been passed down through all generations.” “What is heir property?”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“heir property as the leading cause of Black involuntary land loss. It is estimated that between 1910 and 1997, Blacks lost about 90 percent of farmland worth billions of dollars.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“But those who were there think otherwise. They know it as the place where intergenerational trauma died. That it saved them, freed them from a life they didn’t want to live, freed them from the handcuffs of the past.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Remember what King used to say about wood? You can’t polish bad wood? Trying to have a marriage with a woman and a boyfriend is polishing bad wood.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Even if I weren’t who I am…” Junior blanches but pushes on. “Your father is blackmailing me into selling my family’s land. If not, he’s going to spread these pictures all over town. And you think we can just go on after that?”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Fuck me? Normally I wouldn’t take offense to such an insult, but I realize that you very well might fuck me.” He leans against his desk. “I don’t get it. There’s nothing better than pussy, especially the desperate kind. They give it up better. You can get them to do just about anything, anywhere.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Though I did all those things for you, I’ve never liked you, Junior. I thought I would grow to at least respect you, but I never did. Genesis respected you. She loved you. Why, I do not know.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Gladys seems to be stuck in the seventies with her white beehive and cat-eye glasses.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know? And Mark, that fuckin’ Mark…” he growls. “You’ve been sleeping with him?” “It’s just sex.” “It’s extortion!”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“If she stayed, this would have been her life. Married to Ellis, living on the Kingdom, kids. She remembers the vision she had all those years ago, how crippling it felt. But now, that life doesn’t seem so bad.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“CeCe is not good. Good people don’t steal, lie, and give their bodies to bad men in exchange for keeping secrets. The world is ugly and so is she. She has become the villain in her own story.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Is it always about the money with you?” Tokey snaps.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“It doesn’t surprise Tokey that CeCe would say this. CeCe would latch onto any idea that involved money.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“She didn’t plan on eating so much. She never does. It’s always one. Just one. Before one becomes two and two becomes four.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Tell me,” Junior says, folding his arms cross his chest. “What did you mean? To remind me that it was a plantation at one time? You don’t think I’m aware of that? We are reminded of it every day, especially when rich white men like you come and try to steal it away from us.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Nah…Mance ain’t no snitch.” Shad inches closer. “But he’s a coward. He’s gotten soft. Just like King. Whatever rot that’s in our bloodline has been passed to you. And Henry. There’s no running from it.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Why are you here? What did you want me to do? Bend over for you and make the pain of losing your father go away?” “That’s not it, and you know it. Don’t belittle us. It’s insulting.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“We’re still on a break.” Junior doesn’t believe the words himself. It isn’t a lie, but it isn’t entirely the truth either. There’s more, much more, but he doesn’t know how to say it. Simon laughs. “Are you sure? Does she know that? Because it didn’t look like it to me.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“Things have changed. You have to take your place as the head of the family. You need your wife and kids, not a boy toy.” She’s barely five feet, but made taller by self-assurance and grit.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“I know you’re not here to bury King or to unburden yourself of being a lousy daughter. You want something.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“She grew up feeling wrong and needed someone, a compass to guide her through life when the baby fat never left, when the King height never materialized, when the promise of beauty stalled.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“They navigate the rough tides well, treading water to stay afloat, too afraid to learn how to swim. But this was different. Their father was dead.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone

“The humid air stinks of minimum wage and food stamps, of fried food and bad decisions.”
― Terah Shelton Harris, Long After We Are Gone