The family of Josephine Wright, a 94-year-old South Carolina woman who spent her last days fighting developers to keep her family home from being demolished, has now settled with the company.
According to South Carolina Public Radio, the settlement acknowledges that the Wright family owns the Hilton Head Island property in the middle of Bailey Point Investment Group’s planned 29-acre neighborhood. The company cannot contact the Wright family about purchasing the land, and a privacy fence will be placed between the Wright family’s land and the new construction.
Wright’s story first came to light when she refused to sell her land to Bailey Point developers building around her Hilton Head Island home.
In 2023, the company began constructing a 147-residential-unit project around Wright’s property. They approached her to purchase her land, but she said no. In February 2023, the company filed a lawsuit alleging that her home encroached on its land.
During that time, Wright alleged the company used bullying, intimidation, and harassment techniques against her to get her to sell, including polluting her home and land, cutting her shrubs, and attempting to bypass her and speak with other relatives.
Wright’s story made national headlines. Several celebrities supported her, including Tyler Perry, who pledged to build a new home for her on the land; Kyrie Irving, who contributed $40,000 to her GoFundMe campaign; and Snoop Dogg, who gave $10,000. Overall, the GoFundMe campaign raised more than $350,000.
Wright passed away in January, but her family kept the fight going.“I know they know that their grandmother is proud because they continued and they didn’t back down,” the family’s publicist Altimese Nichole told WJCL-TV in South Carolina.
Nichole also said that Perry has kept his promise to Wright and is in the process of helping to build the family a new home.“Tyler Perry has honored his commitment and is moving forward with the home,” she said.
Her family established the Josephine Wright Foundation in her memory, which is “dedicated to supporting education, providing scholarships to underprivileged students, and bringing awareness to land grabbing in the Lowcountry and beyond.”
Wright is survived by four children, 40 grandchildren, 50 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren, according to South Carolina Public Radio.