A group of 19 black families purchased nearly 100 acres of land in Georgia to create a city that is safe for people of color amidst chaos in the United States.
The families bought the land in Wilkinson County, Georgia, back in August of 2020.
Renee Walters, an investor and entrepreneur from Georgia, USA, said that they did not plan on buying such a large plot of land, however, they did have a goal.
Walters said that they just wanted to create a place that could be safe for people of color in the United States of America.
Ashley Scott, a real estate agent who is also a friend of Renee Walters, talked about the purchase of the massive land with CNN.
During the interview, Scott talked about the main purpose of the land. She added:
I’m hoping that it will be a thriving safe haven for people of colour, for Black families in particular. Being able to create a community that is thriving, that is safe, that has agriculture and commercial businesses that are supporting one another and that dollars circulating in our community, that is our vision.
The news comes amidst the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the United States of America.
Police brutality has been unacceptable in the country. The cases of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd have caused massive protests and violence across the country.
Talking about the protests, Scott said:
Watching our people protesting in the streets, while it is important, and I want people to stay out in the streets, bringing attention to the injustices of Black people. We needed to create a space and a place where we could be a village, again, a tribe, again. We wanted to create this safe space where we can address our own issues and concerns.
Scott and Walters have launched an initiative to protect people of color in the United States by creating a city that will accept them properly.
Talking about the initiative, Walters said:
We both have Black husbands. We both have Black sons. And I was starting to get overwhelmed and have a sense of anxiety when my husband will leave the house to go to work. So, it was like, okay, what can we do? And once I saw the post of Toomsboro going viral, about a town being on sale, I was like, ‘Oh, this is perfect.’
The initiative is currently known as the Freedom Georgia Initiative.
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