Nineteen Black families purchased more than 96 acres of land in Georgia to create a safe space free of oppression. Eventually, they hope to grow the area into an incorporated, self-sustaining community.
In the face of a pandemic that has hit Black Americans harder than almost any other group, while the nation continues to confront the toxic legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, two Georgia women have come together to build a community that will be a place free of oppression, “a tight-knit community for our people to just come and breathe.”
With her friend Renee Walters, an entrepreneur and investor, she founded The Freedom Georgia Initiative, a group of 19 Black families who collectively purchased 96.71 acres of rural land in Toomsboro, a town of a few hundred people in central Georgia, intending to develop a self-contained Black community. The space will have small homes for vacation use and host weddings, retreats and recreational functions, and eventually may evolve into an incorporated, self-sustaining community.
America’s first Black town dates back to 1738, near what is now known as St. Augustine, Fla. Thirty-eight fugitive slaves seeking refuge formed a town named Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose. Historian Dr. Jane Landers explained that, “As news of the foundation of Mose spread through the South Carolina plantations, groups of slaves broke loose and tried to make for Florida,” causing some to call it their ”first Promised Land.
In order to begin reclaiming Black-owned land and generational wealth, Scott believes Black Americans must create their own social, political and economic institutions.
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