Jury awards $750,000 to families evicted over race at Smith Mountain Lake

(VIRGINIA MERCURY) - A Franklin County jury has awarded $750,000 in damages to two families who were evicted from a Smith Mountain Lake campground after the owner learned one of the family members was Black, the Virginia Mercury reports.

The verdict marks the largest fair housing jury award ever secured by the Virginia attorney general’s office, according to a news release by Attorney General Jason Miyares.

The case centered on Regina Turner, owner of Lazy Cove Campground, who had rented lakeside lots to families for decades. But in June 2020, she abruptly sought to evict two families after discovering that one of the husbands, Damien Smith, was Black.

According to a complaint filed with the Virginia Fair Housing Board, which was first reported by The Washington Post, Turner told a tenant, “You didn’t tell me that your friend’s husband is Black… Had I known, I wouldn’t have rented the lot to them. I saw the son, but I figured everyone makes a mistake.”

Miyares hailed the jury’s decision as a critical victory against racial discrimination in fair housing.

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