We are the Moore family.
We have lived on our 120-acre homestead in rural Dixons Mills, Alabama, for seven generations. We have over 100 years of history here. Our ancestors toiled as sharecroppers on this land, and for generations we have worked hard to build this safe haven that 75 of us call home.
The state of Alabama wants to expand the road that runs through our community into a highway as part of the West Alabama Highway Project.
The state insists they need to seize four of our homes and 20 acres of our land for the project.
But according to ALDOT code, they can widen this road without taking our homes from us. They want too much land.
We are asking for the Honorable Governor Ivey and the Alabama Department of Transportation to please, spare our homes. We are not opposed to this project, but you do not need our homes to proceed.
We would sincerely appreciate your support for our family. Can you please click on "Act Now" and contact the Honorable Governor Ivey and ALDOT and ask them to spare our homes? We can't do this alone.
An open letter to the Honorable Governor Kay Ivey.
Dear Honorable Governor Kay Ivey,
We hope this letter finds you in awesome spirits today.
We are in need of your help. After months of efforts, we want to thank you for making the West Alabama Highway (WAH) Project a reality.
Our concern regarding the WAH Project is that, as currently configured, it will require seizing four of our family members’ homes, displacing eleven of our relatives and destroying our community built over the past one hundred years—seven generations of history.
Honorable Governor Kay Ivey, our family is not opposed to the WAH Project. We are opposed to the State taking more of our land than what is needed to expand the highway.
The current proposed map would require land in the range of 190 – 225 feet from the east side of the existing highway, but it appears that the state only needs 94 feet from the existing asphalt to widen the lanes. It is that excess taking of land that threatens our homes. One of our sons is pursuing his PhD in engineering, and has studied the maps and requirements exhaustively.
This project can be built without taking our homes, but the state engineer, Stan Biddick, insists they need the extra land. We have tried in every way we possibly could to express our concerns to the engineers of the project, but nobody is listening.
As stated before, our family is very much in support of widening Hwy 43 for infrastructure improvement, economic growth, and jobs. However, we had no idea that the sacrifice for this project would lay so heavily on our family.
Our family is willing to grant the State a construction easement. We just want our homes not to be dismantled.
Our land and our homes are where seven generations of our family members call home.
We are the descendants of Will Grayson and Kate Mosley Grayson, who were Native Americans, and Galloway Moore and Sarah Williams Moore, who were of Irish descent.
Our ancestors worked hard as sharecroppers and acquired this land for us and future generations to live on. Our land is a valuable resource for our family. The base for our freedom, our home is our safe haven, and our comforting place.
Our ancestors have already paid a high price in 1923 when the first US Hwy 43 was constructed, and they were not paid a penny for it.
Honorable Governor Kay Ivey, all our family is asking of the state is to give us the dignity as taxpayers, homeowners, and landowners to only take the minimal amount of land that the state need to construct this project and leave our homes standing, so that our way of life will not decline.
Our family knows that you believe in investing in our state to be a better place to live.
We are hoping and praying that you will invest in the concern of our family in trying to save our homes.
When we save a family, we save a community. When we save a community, we save our state.
Best,
The descendants of Will Grayson, Kate Mosley Grayson, Galloway Moore, and Sarah Williams Moore
Marolyn Moore Grant
Carolyn Moore Fuqua
Sarah Moore
Russell Moore
Nathan Moore
Robert Moore Jr.
Joseph Moore
Tommie Edward Moore
Chester Moore
Daniel Moore