Thomas W. Mitchell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Thomas W. Mitchell
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Mitchell in 2020
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| Nationality | American |
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| Awards | MacArthur Fellow |
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| Fields | Legal studies |
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Thomas Wilson Mitchell is an American law professor. He teaches at Boston College Law School. His work focuses on property law, which is about who owns land and how it's passed down. Professor Mitchell studies how certain laws caused Black Americans to lose a lot of their land, especially since the early 1900s.
In 2020, he received a special award called the MacArthur Fellow. Recently, he started and now leads the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights at Boston College Law School. He works on this project with his wife, Professor Lisa T. Alexander.
Contents
Education and Early Career
Thomas Mitchell went to Amherst College and earned a degree in English in 1987. After that, he studied law at the Howard University School of Law, getting his law degree in 1993. Later, in 1999, he earned another law degree (LLM) from the University of Wisconsin Law School. While there, he was a William H. Hastie Fellow.
In 2000, Professor Mitchell began teaching at the University of Wisconsin Law School. He became a full professor and held an important teaching position there. In 2016, he moved to Texas A&M University School of Law. He also taught in the Department of Agricultural Economics.
In 2022, he joined Boston College Law School. There, he holds a special teaching position called the Robert J. Drinan, S.J. Endowed Chair. He also directs the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights. This initiative helps people and communities who are at a disadvantage to gain and protect their property rights.
Research on Land Ownership
Professor Mitchell's research looks at why Black Americans lost so much land. He found that after the Civil War, by 1910, Black Americans owned about 15 million acres of land in the South. However, by the end of the 20th century, this amount had shrunk to only about 2 million acres.
He studied the legal reasons for this loss. He focused on laws about inheritance, especially when someone dies without a will and has many heirs. These laws often led to land being sold, even if some heirs didn't want to sell. This is called a forced partition sale.
Understanding Forced Sales
A forced partition sale happens when multiple people inherit a property, but they can't agree on what to do with it. A court might then order the property to be sold, and the money is divided among the heirs. Professor Mitchell showed that these sales often resulted in Black families losing their land. This was a lasting effect of unfair laws like Jim Crow laws.
He explained that forced sales usually mean the land sells for less money. Also, minority landowners were more likely to face a forced sale instead of choosing to sell their land. This system caused their family wealth to decrease over time. Professor Mitchell uses a method called "legal empiricism" to study these issues. This means he uses facts and data to understand how laws affect people.
The Partition of Heirs Property Act
Professor Mitchell was the main person who wrote a new law called the Partition of Heirs Property Act. This law aims to help descendants of heirs keep their property if they want to. It gives them better options than just a forced sale. By October 2020, 18 states had adopted this important new law.
In 2020, Professor Mitchell was recognized for his important work and named a MacArthur Fellow. He continues his research and works on new laws across the country. His goal is to bring fairness to communities that have been disadvantaged.
Awards and Recognition
- MacArthur Fellows Program (2020)
- Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award (2020)
