BLACK Lives Matter supporters bought nearly 100 acres of land in Georgia to build what they say would be a new city that’s safe for black people to live.
The Freedom Georgia Initiative’s website states the group’s “vision is to develop our vast resource-rich 96.71 acres of land in Toomsboro.”
The land is for the “establishment of an innovative community for environmentally sustainable-living, health & wellness, agricultural & economic development, arts & culture for generations to come,” the group explains online.
“Our aim is to be a premier recreational, educational, and cultural destination for Black families across the African diaspora.
“We welcome you, your family, and all Black allies to support us in our vision to be the change we want to see!”
One of the group’s founders is Ashley Scott, a realtor in the Peach State who started the group with her pals.
She wrote in an op-ed for Blavity that the idea for the safe black community came following the death of Ahmaud Arbery in February.
Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was jogging in a Georgia neighborhood earlier this year when he was gunned down allegedly by two white men.
Scott wrote that she “sought counseling from a Black therapist and it helped. It helped me to realize that what we as Black people are suffering from is racial trauma.
“We are dealing with systemic racism. We are dealing with deep-rooted issues that will require more than protesting in the streets,” she said.
“It will take for us as a people, as Atlanta rapper and activist Killer Mike so eloquently put, ‘To plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize.’ So that’s what I and my good friend Renee Walters, an entrepreneur and investor, did.”
Scott said the group “began to look for ways to change the world for the better in whatever small way we could,” as they “wanted to do something to amass Black power to affect real change.”
She said the group “considered the reality that even in Atlanta, with an exceptional Black woman like Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, there was still no respect for the humanity of Blacks.
“That even with Erika Shields, a Black woman Chief of Police at the helm, there was the murder of Rayshard Brooks.
“We can see there is something much deeper happening. Politics, as usual, isn’t the answer. Something new has to happen,” she continued.
They came across a post about the entire town of Toomsboro being for sale and she said they decided to go for it.
Together with 19 families, they started an LLC, “considered a field and we bought it. We bought 96.71 acres of land!”
“Amass land, develop affordable housing for yourself, build your own food systems, build manufacturing and supply chains, build your own home school communities, build your own banks and credit unions, build your own cities, build your own police departments, tax yourselves and vote in a mayor and a city council you can trust.
“Build it from scratch! Then go get all the money the United States of America has available for government entities and get them bonds,” Scott wrote.
“This is how we build our new Black Wall Streets. We can do this. We can have Wakanda! We just have to build it for ourselves!”
