Descendants of the Black Gwinnettians who created a thriving community on former plantation land at the county’s southern tip asked the Gwinnett County Commission on Tuesday night to make a binding decision against taking any of the historic property through eminent domain.
The county earlier this month notified the Livsey family of its intention to exercise eminent domain — the government’s power to forcibly acquire private land for public purposes — to buy 10 acres of the historic “Promised Land” property for its appraised value of $710,000. County officials said the land was needed to complete its vision of a museum and park highlighting the area’s history.
After backlash from the Livsey family and community members, the commission pulled the eminent domain vote from Tuesday’s agenda.
“I feel as if the topic should have been on the agenda tonight to hear from the board, the commissioners, to say publicly that you are not going to steal the Promised Land property,” said Karen Anderson Archer, whose family once owned the land on which Anderson-Livsey Elementary School sits.
Neighbors and community leaders made similar requests and asked the county commission why the former plantation house, purchased in 2017 from the Livsey family and intended for a museum, has not been renovated yet.
Speakers included Snellville City Council Member Solange Destang, former State Rep. Donna McLeod and Gwinnett NAACP President Penny Poole.
The land in question is owned by Thomas Livsey Sr., who is credited with opening businesses and building homes since the 1960s that turned some of the sprawling “Promised Land” plantation, on which people had been enslaved, into a prosperous Black neighborhood. The land includes Lake Sheryl, a pond he created and named after his daughter.
His grandson Chad is one of many Livsey family members who live on the shores of Lake Sheryl.
“We really appreciate everybody for just supporting us and being good community members,” said Chad Livsey’s wife, Candra.
She said road work had harmed the community and took issue with the county’s plans to recreate a plantation in the future park.
“To put a plantation with slave quarters where slave quarters do not currently stand is offensive,” Candra Livsey said. “You want to take it and put a plantation back as if you’re helping to highlight what we’ve done. Put businesses there. Rebuild the Promised Land the way it was.”
In the past several years, Gwinnett County has negotiated the purchase of an additional 4.5 acres of land from the Livsey family. But Thomas Livsey Sr.’s wife, Dorethia, said earlier this month they had no intention of selling the rest.
Thomas Anderson, the son of slaves, and his wife in the 1930s opened the area’s first Black-owned grocery store at the Promised Land. Karen Anderson Archer said she herself became Gwinnett’s first Black cheerleader in 1973 at South Gwinnett High School.
“Those were not easy times for me, but the Promised Land was home, and if you know anything about being able to go home and put claims on something, it means something to you,” Archer said.
Archer remembered playing on dirt roads, making mud pies on Lake Sheryl and having family gatherings. She repeated a quote she’d recently heard: “If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu.”
“We’re here to let you all know tonight we are at the table,” she said. “We’re not on the menu and we too know how to play chess.”
