In Toomsboro, Georgia, is land a group of 19 Black families banned together to create.
Ashley Scott, a realtor and her good friend Renee Walters spearheaded The Freedom Georgia Initiative, which purchased 96.71 acres of land, to establish a self-sustaining Black community.
"We figured we could try to fix a broken system, or we could start fresh. Start a city that could be a shining example of being the change you want to see. We wanted to be more involved in creating the lives we really want for our Black families," she said. "And maybe, just maybe, create some generational wealth for ourselves by investing in the land. Investing in creating a community that is built around our core values and beliefs."
Scott and the rest of the 19 families own Toomsboro and plan to equip it with Black farmers, BIPOC and women vendors, suppliers, and contractors.
"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," Scott wrote. "Build it from scratch! Then go get all the money the United States of America has available for government entities and get them bonds. 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!"
Historian Kendra Taira Field, an associate professor of history at Tufts University in Massachusetts, underlines that Black Americans have tried to set up their own communities like Freedom before.
In recent years, Black Americans searching for a real-life Wakanda started moving to Ghana in droves.
For those who are settling in Freedom, Georgia, it’s a new beginning for them. Black Americans are suffering trauma and the solution for them is to get away.
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