Blaine and Diane Smith are true evidence of reclaiming Black History, having ownership of up to 600 acres of land their enslaved ancestors used to farm. However, they’re facing a serious battle against the local Georgia government who authorized what they consider an unlawful seizure of their property.
Mr. Smith tells Atlanta News First his grandfather farmed the 600 acres of land in Sparta, Ga., picking cotton and harvesting a variety of vegetables while enslaved. Then, in 1920, what used to be a field for enslaved labor became a piece of private property when Smith’s grandfather bought it back. The expansive land has been known to belong to the Smith family for the last few decades.
Though, in 2023, the report says a decision from the Georgia Public Service Commission granted the Sandersville Railroad Company to seize part of the Smith property to build a 4.5-mile Hanson Spur alongside Georgia’s Highway 16. For clarity, one square mile covers about 640 acres of land — pretty much all of what the Smiths own. The company says the route would be used to transport materials for concrete. However, these plans were made against the wishes of the Smith family.
“If you listen to the railroad folks, they say ‘You’re keeping your land, we’re just taking a little piece of it,’” Blaine Smith said via ANF. “But they’re devaluing it, they’re defacing it, they’re creating hazards through it.”
How was the railroad company able to do that? Eminent domain.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development describes it as the right of the government or its agents to utilize private property for public use with compensation. Certainly, the Smith family fought to keep agency over their own land, teaming up with the Institute for Justice to appeal the commission’s decision by arguing that the railroad’s construction wouldn’t count as “public use.” However, on Feb. 4, a Fulton County Superior Court judge ruled that the rail spur was indeed of need for public use, per court documents.
The railroad company clapped back in a statement, arguing that the project would have a significant economic impact on Hancock County.
“We’re trying to make a difference for citizens that are here,” said Ben Tarbutton, president of the Sandersville Railroad Company via ANF.
However, the Smiths aren’t giving up. They’ve taken their appeal up the ladder to the state Supreme Court for review, the report says. Now, they wait to see if the preservation of their land and legacy will be honored in the eyes of the law.
“I go back to what my father said,” Mr. Smith said to ANF. “‘Keep the land.’ The land gives you respectability. Everybody around here knows this is the Smith land. It’s my property. You don’t have the right to take [it].”