How One Woman Landed in Jail Over a Fight to Protect Her Family’s Land

Jennine Labuzan spent two weeks in federal custody in June — shuttled from her residence in Georgia to Tennessee to Mississippi — after refusing a judge’s order to sign away more than 1,300 acres of land she says her family has owned for generations.

Her arrest and release came after a legal battle she never expected to still be fighting. It started with a name.

Growing up in the Bay Area, Labuzan remembered sitting at her grandparents’ feet, listening as they rattled off a list of names of those who had long passed away.

For years, she engulfed herself in Black history, focusing on the places she’s called home: in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and in California and Georgia. But, she wanted to know more about her own ancestral lineage.

She gathered the names she wrote down, inputting them one by one into her family tree. Then, she found something new she never knew about her family history: Her third-great grandfather, Charles A. Labuzan, a New Orleans native, owned an interest in over 1,300 acres in rural Mississippi. 

“I just couldn’t believe it — like, what in the heck?” she told Capital B. “So much began to unravel, because it’s like you find this, now what’s next?”

She began studying constitutional law, a diversion from the psychology degree she obtained at Howard University. She paid for a title abstract and filed a deed to record her ownership. In September 2022, she sued a group of law firms, farms, and agricultural businesses that she alleged occupied her land illegally. She anticipated the case would be resolved in six months. 

Instead, she’s been on an emotional and legal rollercoaster ever since. 

“I’ve never had more than a speeding ticket, let alone jail. It was very disheartening but … God finally gave me peace, like this is a door you had to walk through,” she said.

The roadblocks — and even jail time — aren’t stopping the Muslim American mother of seven. She’s still in litigation and launched a GoFundMe, which has raised over $11,000 after content creators shared her story on social media. She’s joining others, including a Black rancher in Alabama who is using the courts to hold onto his family’s generations-old land protected by federal land patents.

From the appeals court to the Supreme Court 

When Labuzan filed the original petition in 2022, she laid out her findings. In 1836, her ancestor Charles Augustus Labuzan, along with his business partners Robert L. DeCoin and Frederick W. Schmidt, purchased 1,361 acres in Washington County, Mississippi. Charles owned one-fourth interest in the property. In 1840, they received a federal land patent. 

At the center of her argument are five words referenced in the land patent: “to heirs and assigns forever.” Jennine Labuzan, who is representing herself in the proceedings, said she believes that language means as a lineal descendant, she has a vested interest in the property. She asked for compensation and to be established as the legal owner. She filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. District Judge Sharion Aycock — the first woman to be chief judge in the state — presided over the case.

View Labuzan’s 2022 complaint:

The defendants — Cochran & Cochran Land Co. Inc., Cochran Farms Inc., Lakeland Farms LLC, David T. Cochran (who passed away last year), Greenlee Family LLC, and Jennings Farms LLC. — argued she isn’t the rightful owner of the land, and that her ancestor sold his interest in the land to the Merchant Bank of New Orleans in 1848. They claim that she’s impeding their ownership of the land and slandering their title.

Labuzan contends the sale of the property did not have Charles’ original signature.

Glen Beckham, who represents Cochran and Jennings Farm, did not respond to Capital B’s request for comment. James Mathew Tyrone, counsel for the Greenlee Family, did not respond, either.

Scott Philips, attorney for Lakeland Farms, told Capital B he does not respond to comments about pending litigation.

“My client’s position is set forth in the various dispositive motions, all of which were granted,” Philips wrote.

Labuzan tried to get to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, but the court denied her application. She also made a plea to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but it upheld Aycock’s ruling. 

In March, Aycock held Labuzan in contempt and ordered the U.S. Marshals to detain her after she refused to sign a quitclaim deed, which Labuzan says relinquishes her rights as an heir to land. Aycock referenced two occasions, in 2024 and 2025, where she says Labuzan didn’t comply with court orders to execute the deed.

Read Judge Aycock’s ruling:

Labuzan was jailed on June 5. On June 23, the day she was released from jail, she still refused to sign the order. Judge Aycock rendered a judgment that divested Labuzan of “any interest she now claims, or has at any time claimed during the course of this litigation.” 

The next day, Aycock issued an order that granted summary judgment for Lakeland Farms and Greenlee Family and closed the case. 

“The Court has entered a judgment to resolve the litigation via an alternative avenue … and directed the chancery court of Washington County to file the judgment in the land records,” Aycock wrote. “The court enjoins Labuzan — or anyone acting on her behalf — from making any further filings in the land records as to the subject property.”

A sliver of hope, and a daughter’s persistence

Fajr DeLane always knew her family’s history was “unique.”

As a child, she’d hear the stories every Thanksgiving at Auntie Brenda’s house. Was there land? She wasn’t sure, but many family members alluded to it, she said. When her mother, Jennine, announced her plans to pursue the Mississippi land, she wasn’t surprised.

Yet, it did shock her when her mother ended up in handcuffs. 

Fajr is one of the few who has been by her mother’s side. She took the fight to social media, posting multiple viral videos on Instagram to amplify her mother’s case. In a world where society diminished Black culture, identity, and value, it was important for Fajr to encourage others to take pride in their heritage and learn more about their history, she told Capital B.

“What my mom’s fighting for, this is a generational breakthrough. It’s not light, but it really would help our family in so many different ways for generations,” she said. “That’s why finding your own genealogy and figuring out that process could also be the key to unlocking wealth and prosperity for the families to come.”

This ordeal has taken a mental, physical, and financial toll on Labuzan. At some point, she’s going “to need therapy,” she said. But, she’s been surrounded by her family, including Fajr, to help her through a difficult time, she added.

Despite the obstacles in the previous case, last week Labuzan was handed a small victory.

Earlier this year, Labuzan filed a separate lawsuit against the federal government after she learned the Army Corps of Engineers is allegedly occupying 94 acres of her ancestors’ land.

U.S. Attorney Samuel Wright, who represents the U.S. and filed a motion to dismiss the case, wrote to Capital B he does not provide comments or interviews while litigation is ongoing.

“However, I will note that the pleadings in this case accurately reflect the Government’s position thus far in this proceeding,” he said.

Despite the effort, the case will proceed. 

In a July 14 memorandum opinion and order, U.S. District Judge Robert P. Chamberlin denied the government’s motion to dismiss, noting that the government failed to “carry its burden to dismiss” because it did not provide any evidence of how much land belonged to Charles, he wrote.

“There is nothing to suggest that Charles only owned an undivided fourth part and therefore conveyed the entirety of his interest in the land in the 1848 deed to Merchants Bank,” Chamberlin wrote. “For all the Court knows at this point, Charles could have owned up to a third, and perhaps more.”

With the attention on her case, Labuzan is doubling down on her efforts to help others find genealogy and land records through her business. She’s also using her fight to educate more people who may be going through similar issues trying to access ancestral land. 

“We need to let people understand in a simple way how American lands were given out through land patents and land grants,” she said. “Once we get all these doors knocked down, people can get ready to go ahead and walk through the door, too.”

Read More:

• Resources for Black Families Fighting for Control of Their Land

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