Help Geneva Pay Legal Fees!!

Ms. Geneva Johnson Blasingame needs your help to pay legal fees. 

Due to a recent property line dispute, she owes $3000. One of the main causes of the dispute is incorrect property line information given to her by the Athens-Clarke County Planning Department. Based on data provided by both ACC Planning and the Tax Assessor’s office, Geneva believed her property lines extended into her neighbor’s property. Now, she is being held financially responsible for tree damages and is unable to afford the $3000.

This is where we need your help. We need to raise $3000 to help her pay her legal fees.

Here's a little bit about Geneva. Geneva is an extraordinary woman and elder in the Athens black community who once resided in a historic Athens black community called “Linnentown.” Her family was displaced to East Athens by “urban renewal” in the 1960s, when Linnentown was razed to clear the way for UGA’s high-rise dorms along Baxter Street. Geneva’s house on her current property, 1550 East Broad St., is the only surviving structure from this historic neighborhood, having been relocated from Linnentown by Geneva’s father in 1965.




Recently, Historic Athens and Mayor Kelly Girtz acknowledged the significance of her home.  Her life and her property are time capsules to a rich black Athens history that needs to be preserved. To gain further insight into this history, the Linnentown Project is working closely with Geneva and other Linnentown residents, the Athens-Clarke County Mayor’s Office, several ACC Commissioners, the UGA Oral History Program, UGA History Department, Historic Athens (formerly Athens Heritage Foundation), and many elders in the Athens black community.

This is one reason it’s so urgent to help Geneva. Her life and history are at the root of a rich Athens black history. She is a pillar of her church and the Athens black community, has faithfully paid her property taxes for over 20 years, and is supported by many neighbors, friends, and community members in East Athens. 

But her financial situation is partly the result of generations of city policies that harmed or neglected  Athens’ black communities, including in East Athens where Geneva lives. The Tax Assessor’s Office shows incorrect property lines throughout this neighborhood. These need to be corrected. 

With your donations, Geneva can pay her legal fees to protect her historic property and live peacefully. In turn, we can raise more awareness about unfair city policies so that we can change them for the betterment of the whole community.

Please help Geneva and be a part of making Athens whole again!