Real estate agent Ashley Scott joined a group of 19 Black families to roughly 97 acres of land in Georgia. Their purpose? “freedom” says Scott. “I’m hoping that it will be a thriving safe haven for people of color, for Black families in particular” Scott said. That’s right, the group bought the plot to create a very specific community with one purpose: “to create a safe space for their Black families.”
“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” added Scott. Her vision started after the death of George Floyd sparked nationwide riots and protests. “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” said Scott.
One of the families joining the initiative is Scott’s friend Renee Walters. Walters is an investor and entrepreneur who explained why she joined Scott. “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” said Walters. “So, it was like, OK, what can we do?” She then saw a post of a town for sale that went viral and thought “Oh, this is perfect.”
The ad circulating the internet was for the sale of the Town of Toomsboro. Walters called Scott to ask if she had seen the ad. “For the price of a small condo, we could buy a whole town for $1.7 million.” Turns out the town itself was not actually for sale, but Scott and Walters had warmed to their new idea. They ended up finding a large piece of land for sale just outside of Toomsboro. “It was just such a beautiful piece of land. It was affordable, and it just made sense that we could create something that would be amazing for our families” said Scott.
