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Nearly 20 black families buy 100 acres of land in Georgia to create 'safe haven for people of color'

Planners envision agricultural and commercial community designed by and for black Americans.

Published: September 12, 2020 6:05pm

Updated: September 12, 2020 7:58pm

Nearly 20 black families have purchased about 100 acres of land in rural Georgia in the hopes of starting a thriving community there built by, and largely for, black Americans.

The project, called the Freedom Georgia Initiative, aims to "develop [the] vast resource-rich 96.71 acres of land in Toomsboro, GA for the establishment of an innovative community for environmentally sustainable-living, health & wellness, agricultural & economic development, arts & culture for generations to come."

"Our aim is to be a premier recreational, educational, and cultural destination for Black families across the African diaspora," the project's website states. 

The initiative is not entirely exclusive to black families—on its website the group "pledges to create a thriving safe haven for black families and our allies"—though the project appears largely intended for nonwhite individuals: "I'm hoping that it will be a thriving safe haven for people of color, for Black families in particular," one of the initiative's founders, Ashley Scott, told CNN this week.

Still, "we don't intend for it to be exclusively Black," she said, "but we do intend for it to be pro Black in every way."

The project is still in its early phases, with no permanent structures appearing to have been built on the land as of yet. The group has so far raised about half of an $88,000 goal on GoFundMe meant to "bring amenities to [the] newly acquired land" for ongoing events there. 

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