Promised Land Community Association

The Promised Land community is steeped in historic value as an original land offering to freed slaves in 1870. Owning land was the essence of freedom. Fifty farms were subdivided into 50 acres each and sold for the inflated price of $10 per acre. Settlement of the land coincided with the establishment of a school for former slaves in 1898.

The Promised Land School was built in 1954 and closed in 1970 when faculty and students were moved to Greenwood schools as a result of desegregation. Since then the community has thrived but the school has been left to decay.

Badly in need of a community center, a small action group, The Promised Land Society, has formed to apply for a Feasibility Grant. In order to be considered, the property must be secured. This includes boarding up 52+ windows/doors and the removal of years of neglect and debris. Each board is $70 and the community group is willing and excited to volunteer their labor. Money is also needed to maintain the school grounds and for professional inspectors before the grant is submitted. 

With your help, we can start the process to create a community center to serve as a venue for weddings, meetings, classes, celebrations, and children’s programs. In the past, the community hosted annual reunions and revivals every August that include relatives that left for the Great Migration north. They’d like to bring back the annual tradition.
Any amount helps.