‘LEGACY’

Enslaved Family’s Descendant Sues Company for $900M Oil Claim

Kneeland Youngblood claims his family partly owns an oil-rich tract in Texas.

A financier descended from freed enslaved people is suing an oil company for $900 million alleging that his family’s claim on a resource-rich tract of land was unfairly ignored, according to a report. Kneeland Youngblood, 67, told The Wall Street Journal that his ancestors bought the land in the Eagle Ford shale in Karnes County, Texas, after they had been freed from slavery. Youngblood now alleges that oil company ConocoPhillips disregarded his family’s claim on the property and sided with another family in order to begin drilling on the land as quickly as possible. The financier, who co-founded private-equity firm Pharos Capital Group, told the Journal that he and his family are trying to honor their ancestors. “This is about legacy,” Youngblood said, adding that while a favorable outcome in the case wouldn’t change his life, “for many of my relatives it could be transformative.”