Elon Musk’s data centers are pushing out a family that’s owned land since “before people of color were allowed to”

On a 2-acre property in Mississippi, 52-year-old Krystal Polk’s family lived off the land for generations, raising chickens and pigs, growing onions and herbs and trading their peaches for pears.

The land, on the border with Tennessee in the city of Southaven, was her family’s survival, Polk said. “We lived a very simplistic life,” she told CBS News.

While life there may have been simple in Polk’s view, the circumstances surrounding her home rarely ever were. Her family acquired the property”before people of color were allowed to have land,” she said, and it’s been passed down for four generations. When Polk’s parents first moved in, they discovered “KKK” scrawled at the bottom of the hill of their property, she said. 

Holding on to the land was made more difficult a year ago when a noisy neighbor appeared across the street — a power plant so loud, it drove the family away. Since then, the land has sat mostly empty, occupied only by an unrelenting hum.

The plant, which is powering Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI data centers in the Memphis area, has sparked backlash from Southaven residents concerned about noise and air pollution. A petition by the resident-run Safe and Sound Coalition calling to shut down the power plant has over 1,400 signatures. 

Polk said she remembers when she could hear the birds chirping at her family home. Now, she said the plant’s “constant roaring” lingers in her ears even after she leaves.

“It’s like you’re in the middle of the airport where the planes are taking off, but they never take off,” she said.

SpaceXAI, formerly known as xAI, recently said in a July press release that it is investing millions of dollars in sound walls and silencers with “advanced quieting technologies” around the plant. Southaven residents have told CBS News that one sound wall installed so far has provided little reprieve from the noise. 

“We gathered there”

Over the course of two years, Musk has expanded his footprint in the Memphis region starting with the construction of his Colossus 1 data center just north of Southaven in 2024. By January 2026, two more data centers were announced. This July, Musk quietly confirmed the construction of another local data center, “Minihard,” in a reply to a post on his platform X.

Musk’s SpaceXAI projects will total more than $20 billion in investments to Southaven, which Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a press release will “bring amazing opportunities to its residents for generations.”

But for Polk, the development has meant a new kind of strain on her family. 

“We don’t know the future,” she said. “So we’re not sure what to invest into it.”

Polk moved away from the family home after getting married, and for years, it bounced between relatives. It was where Polk churned her own ice cream as a child, held her rehearsal dinner when she got married and hosted the holidays each year.

“We gathered there and we thanked God for what we had,” she said. “It was always a celebration.”

She planned to return as a retiree and eventually pass the property down to her children. But now, those plans have been put on hold. Apart from the “24/7” noise, Polk said she and her family have asthma and are concerned about fumes from the gas turbines at the plant. 

“I’m afraid that we will be the ones that everyone looks back on and says, ‘Hey, remember they tried to tell us that these things were hazardous to our health and causing harm,'” Polk said. “I’m afraid that we’re going to be those casualties.”

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups sued xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech in April, alleging that the plant “emits significant amounts of harmful pollutants.” 

In June, SpaceXAI filed a motion to dismiss the case, and the Department of Justice also moved to intervene and dismiss the case. The Justice Department said in a statement that the matter “concerns national security and Mississippi’s lawful action regarding permitting” and that the NAACP’s lawsuit “could hinder the War Department’s use of AI for national defense.”

CBS News reached out to SpaceXAI multiple times for comment and has not heard back.

The company has entered into an agreement with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality that includes removing the 69 temporary turbines at the plant and replacing them with 41 permanent turbines over the course of a year. 

But a study conducted by EmPower Analytics Group, an independent consulting firm that provides scientific analysis of the health impact of AI infrastructure, found that the plan to install dozens of gas turbines would increase air pollution in the area and would be concentrated in communities that are disproportionately Black.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said in a statement that it doesn’t comment on “third-party reports or matters involved in pending litigation” and that it “remains committed to carrying out its responsibility to protect public health and the environment through implementation and enforcement of applicable state and federal environmental laws and regulations.”

MDEQ said that as part of the permitting process, MZX Tech was required to demonstrate that the proposed facility would not violate air quality standards.

Still, residents are not convinced. Shannon Samsa, a 27-year-old physician assistant living in Southaven, is concerned about the plant’s impact on her community’s health. She’s become an outspoken advocate against the plant, speaking up at city meetings and leading the Safe and Sound Coalition as its director.

“It’s not just my neighbors, it’s not just my family and friends, it’s my future patients,” she said. “It’s also a huge healthcare issue.”

Priceless property

As SpaceXAI extends its reach in the region, the future of Polk’s property hangs in the balance. Some companies have expressed interest in purchasing it.

Polk said she was approached by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield with an offer. After multiple “nos” over the course of weeks, she said she eventually filed a Better Business Bureau complaint, accusing the company of harassment and manipulation. 

In the complaint, reviewed by CBS News, Polk alleged the firm’s Tennessee branch tried to coerce her into agreeing to services. 

Cushman & Wakefield, in response to the complaint, said it was exploring the potential acquisition of Polk’s land on behalf of a client, who was not identified. The firm confirmed it made multiple attempts to contact Polk “by phone, text and written correspondence,” but denied engaging in “harassment, pressure tactics, or inappropriate conduct.” CBS News reached out to Cushman & Wakefield and did not receive a response. 

Polk said the company has not reached out since she filed the complaint. She declined to disclose Cushman & Wakefield’s offer, but said that “it was not worth anything.”

Selling the land is complicated — keeping it was her father’s dying wish, Polk said. 

“He asked me to please keep it as much as I could within reason,” she said. “I’m not sure if you could offer a value.”