ReportageOn a plot of nearly 200 hectares in the municipality of Toomsboro, Freedom, a self-financing community, should see the light of day in eighteen months.
It takes imagination. For now, we rely only on the senses to embrace the surroundings. There is the resinous scent of pine trees. The icy wind blowing through the bushes and lashing the sandy ground. In the distance, a muffled explosion. Rare cars pass nearby. Boar footprints. The calm, the emptiness. However, it is here that Freedom must be born. It is here that a crazy project must arise, still confined to virtual drawings, that of a new community in the municipality of Toomsboro, a two and a half hour drive south of Atlanta (Georgia). A dream conceived and financed by black families in search of a haven of peace, far from urban violence and racial tensions.
This community is planned as an ecological model, a place of economic and agricultural activities, a center for recreation and art. For the time being, these are empty lands: nearly 39 hectares purchased for 110,000 euros two years ago by nineteen families, brought together by friendship, attendance at a place of worship or motivation in share. Subsequently, an additional 160 hectares were acquired. The participants meet regularly, on weekends, around two caravans. We eat, we sing, we drink, we take stock of the state of the project. The first houses should point their noses in eighteen months. The ambition is to generate income allowing us to move forward, together. Theoretically, whites might join them, provided they are “allies”. Funny word.
At the origin of the project are three energetic women, great friends and mothers. Ashley Scott, 35, welcomes us to her home, along with Renee Walters, 37, and Laura Reilly, 48. Ashley Scott started out in marketing.
She switched to real estate following the birth of her first child. She knew Renee at church. This one, originally from Chicago, converted to pastry following a serious accident at work. Finally, there is Laura, who describes herself as a “Serial entrepreneur since age 17”from the care salon to insurance, via TV production.
“Our DNA is traumatized”
It was Ashley who came up with the idea in 2015 of a second home for their families. Then the pandemic came, undermining everyone’s morale. “We had the opportunity to reflect on what it meant to be black in this country, this Laura Reilly. There have been the murder of george floyd [par un policier à Minneapolis]. I don’t want my husband to become a hashtag on Twitter. » But was the reality different ten or fifteen years ago? “No… but there weren’t all these cameras, these social networks. We can’t escape it.”note Renee Walters. “Okay, we might put our heads in the sand at the time, object Ashley Scott. But, now, we can finally have THE conversation on the racial question. You can’t tell me I’m crazy anymore. »
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