An illuminating article in the New York Times outlines the injustice endured by the Neck Land Trust, a group of black landowners who lived in a thriving community, hunting and farming, before the federal government seized their land to build an airstrip in 1942. The residents are Gullah/Geechee, descendants of West African slaves who became some of the nation's earliest black landowners. Their distinctive culture, preserved for years by isolation on the coastal barrier islands, has been threatened by development to such a degree that in 2006, Congress designated a Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, stretching from North Carolina to Jacksonville, Fla.
Their story is about modernity versus tradition, black versus white and right versus wrong.
During World War II, when the federal government was looking for an area for an Air Force base, the government condemned the land and ordered the families to clear out with the promise, some residents recall, that they could come back after the war.
The elders, many of whom are still alive and remember barefoot childhoods spent climbing trees and waking to watch the Canada geese depart in formation, are asking Congress to return the land to them. They said they were given little time to move before their houses were burned. Some had to live in barns to survive.
The Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that the land is a crucial part of the national refuge system, implying that residents can't successfully coexist with the wildlife on Harris Neck. Gullah/Geechee residents disagree.
"Wildlife was a part of us all of our lives," said Kenneth R. Dunham Sr., 80, who was a child when the federal government gave Harris Neck families two weeks to leave before their houses were bulldozed and burned. "In my back door, I could hear the wild geese coming. We left food in the field, so they would have something to eat."
Harris Neck was deeded by a plantation owner to a former slave in 1865. Black families who settled there built houses and boats and started crab and oyster factories. The independent nature of the community was too much for the area's whites, though.
There's no question about what the right thing would be for the government to do: give the land back to the landowners. It would continue to preserve the environment and culture of the Gullah people -- one of America's most distinct vestiges of pre-enslaved African culture.
This likely won't happen without our support. If you support these residents, write or call your congressman or call representatives in Georgia and let your voice be heard.
25-June-10 - Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski is getting heat from Republicans for making comments that sound like he doesn't respect black people.
25-June-10 - Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski is getting heat from Republicans for making comments that sound like he doesn't respect black people.
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18-June-10 - Angela Lowe, the widow of R&B singer Sean Levert, who died suspiciously six days after being jailed back in March 2008, has settled her lawsuit against Cuyahoga County in Ohio and the umbrella company that oversees medical care at the jail.
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15-June-10 - Jarretta Hamilton is angry and unemployed. The 39-year-old teacher was fired last April because she had sex before marriage and wound up pregnant. Now she has broken her silence and has gone public.
12-June-10 - I am not quite sure what to make of the ruffled YouTube video that is now scouring the web out of Paterson, New Jersey, where an officer inexplicably grabs a man, turns him around and puts pepper spray in to his eyes twice.
11-June-10 - Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski called for the firing of a white officer who's been charged with repeatedly striking a 15-year-old biracial boy in the face during an arrest. The attacks allegedly occurred after the boy had been subdued by other officers.
09-June-10 - Gary Coleman's ex-wife, Shannon Price, is up to her post-hubby's-death antics again. As if masterminding the sale of Coleman's pre- and- post-death photos wasn't enough, now the merry widow has managed to get in to Coleman's home and take practically everything that wasn't bolted down! Click Here for the Complete Story
09-June-10 - Todd Bridges, who co-starred with Gary Coleman on the popular sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes,"is livid about both Globe Magazine's and Shannon Price's involvement in Coleman's death photos.
I am doing my Master's thesis on the Gullah/Geechee culture and this article reinforces why I think it is important to shed light on the Sea Islands. The residents have been fighting land developers for a very long time and this is something that should definitely be addressed. The rich and famous are taking the land and building multi-million dollars resorts and other kinds of properties causing us to lose a piece of ourselves and our history. Thanks for this article because when I write my paper it will be a constant reminder to me as to why I want to get my paper published.
By: GullahGeechee Sea Island Coalition on 7/03/2010 8:35AM
Highest Ranked
Peace!
With whom and where are you conducting your research and what is the thesis topic? We have the ONLY archive in the world dedicated to our culture. So, we are interested in knowing what you are presenting.
By: GullahGeechee Sea Island Coalition on 7/11/2010 2:16PM
Neutral
Peace All!
If you are interested in helping with the numerous efforts to protect the rights of Gullah/Geechees, please e-mail GullGeeCo@aol.com or go to www.gullahgeechee.net or www.officialgullahgeechee.info.
On Friday, July 2, 2010, a protest was held in Atlantic Beach, SC, to protest the residents of the Housing Authority of Atlantic Beach being forced out of not just their homes, but the town. Atlantic Beach, according to the National Conference of Black Mayors is the last predominantly black oceanfront municipality left in the nation. It is trying to redevelop itself with its Gullah/Geechee heritage as the focal point. It was a place where some of the G/G people first owned businesses like hotels, restaurants, nightclubs. The white establishment has enlisted the help of some of the town's black leadership in a systematic and sustained demise of the town. The residents of the Housing Authority have been its strongest voting block, the ones that kept it a town. Now they are under attack. They are being given Section 8 vouchers and told they can return after new homes are built. This time it spews forth from the mouth of a black man, David Meachem who admits he came in as the hired gun to shut down the Housing Authority to shut down the town. Help!
Ms. Carolyn Cole about this gentification, orchestrated by some blacks as well as white to destroy this culture and its history is what is hapening all over this country..here in the miami,fla. the PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY has taken over HOPE 6, a historic site with a lot of displaced residents who was '"FORCED" out in the 90's and never allowed to return, the new conditions for returning is reqiuiring property owernship vs. rental ( ..a real setup for the demise of this community).. we all must fight back, and who to go after in the "reparation of justice"...POWER TO THE STRUGGLING PEOPLE ALWAYS!!
Thank you for your words of encouragement. Atlantic Beach has had its troubles and struggles to remain a town. The Atlantic Beach Landowners Association joined the lawsuit that was filed on Friday because most of the landowners are absentee and don't have the right to vote. The landowners have counted on the voices of the women in the Housing Authority to monitor the government, hold it accountable, and elect quality leadership through the democratic process. They have done their jobs well. HUD, by participating in Meachem's scheme is not forcing these women out of just their homes, but out of the town of Atlantic Beach to silenece their opposition to the misuse and abuse of our town's government. When Meachem pushes them out of their homes in the name of HUD he pushes them out of the four street town of Atlantic Beach. His combination of paternalism, greed, arrogance, and self-righteousness is a disastrous cocktail for people who don't deserve to have their voting rights trampled. This is really simple. You didn't vote for the "right" candidate when they ousted Charlene Taylor and Josephine Isom, so now we evict you. HUD should be ashamed and should come to the table immediately and put together a plan that allows these long term residents and supporters of the town to remain in their homes until the current HUD property can be renovated or new homes built and allow the women to move within the town as units are readied for move in. Without the mean-spiritedness of Meachem, Taylor, Isom and others, this could have been the approach from the start and would have protected the women and the town. These are the leaders we need to get out of key positions. Meachem may have started out as a champion of the people but that's been over for a long time now. You can help us by emailing Secretary Shaun Donovan at HUD, Jim Clyburn, and President Obama with a message that you want HUD to step in an listen to the women of Atlantic Beach that have preserved the town (not Meachem's put-up jobs) and create a more humane option for them and the town that is more about HUD's fair treatment and understanding of this town's uniqueness and need for preservation. Thank you.
We cannot afford to lose this valuable standing historic model for all Americans to learn, explore and appreciate. Land developers are huge corporate entities that have no shame in mowing down a long standing cultural icon that doesn't produce revenue to their capitalist ideal. How many more land developers do we need all over America??? People derive meaning and inspiration from culture, and money, no doubt plays a part but only to the degree that it preserves, maintains and restores those attributes of cultural value. I recently learned that my great grandmother Percilla Cox's ancestry goes back to Sierra Leone which is ties me to this historical legend in America with the Sea Islands. I can't begin to tell you how proud I am to know that I have a real piece of Africa in my DNA that I can trace back and latch on to that has been well preserved for several centuries. We African-Americans have lost and suffered beyond measure..so much...in the process of making America the richest nation in the world, and it is a wonderful knowledge in knowing the Gullah people have preserved their ties of tradition and culture directly to the motherland through a brutal system of dehumanizing degragation done to any human group. We must not fail! We must tell Blacks and Whites who are engaging in this corporate take over hands off! I am currently in school earning my degree in Cultural studies. I would love to learn and write about this legacy. I have been in touch with the people who put together the Gullah festival in South Carolina and a small group of family members are going to visit the sea islands in August. My mother, whom I feel so blessed to still have is also going. It is her grandmother Percilla who we found out has ancestral ties to Sierra Leone. What a blessing!
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Comments: (16)
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By: RYM on 7/02/2010 3:07PM
I am doing my Master's thesis on the Gullah/Geechee culture and this article reinforces why I think it is important to shed light on the Sea Islands. The residents have been fighting land developers for a very long time and this is something that should definitely be addressed. The rich and famous are taking the land and building multi-million dollars resorts and other kinds of properties causing us to lose a piece of ourselves and our history. Thanks for this article because when I write my paper it will be a constant reminder to me as to why I want to get my paper published.
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By: GullahGeechee Sea Island Coalition on 7/03/2010 8:35AM
Peace!
With whom and where are you conducting your research and what is the thesis topic? We have the ONLY archive in the world dedicated to our culture. So, we are interested in knowing what you are presenting.
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By: GullahGeechee Sea Island Coalition on 7/11/2010 2:16PM
Peace All!
If you are interested in helping with the numerous efforts to protect the rights of Gullah/Geechees, please e-mail GullGeeCo@aol.com or go to www.gullahgeechee.net or www.officialgullahgeechee.info.
Tenki tenki fa disya!
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By: Carolyn Cole on 7/04/2010 2:29AM
On Friday, July 2, 2010, a protest was held in Atlantic Beach, SC, to protest the residents of the Housing Authority of Atlantic Beach being forced out of not just their homes, but the town. Atlantic Beach, according to the National Conference of Black Mayors is the last predominantly black oceanfront municipality left in the nation. It is trying to redevelop itself with its Gullah/Geechee heritage as the focal point. It was a place where some of the G/G people first owned businesses like hotels, restaurants, nightclubs. The white establishment has enlisted the help of some of the town's black leadership in a systematic and sustained demise of the town. The residents of the Housing Authority have been its strongest voting block, the ones that kept it a town. Now they are under attack. They are being given Section 8 vouchers and told they can return after new homes are built. This time it spews forth from the mouth of a black man, David Meachem who admits he came in as the hired gun to shut down the Housing Authority to shut down the town. Help!
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By: hilroy on 7/05/2010 7:39AM
Give the land back to these proud people you ................ Give it back.
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By: marva lightbourne on 7/05/2010 11:31AM
Ms. Carolyn Cole about this gentification, orchestrated by some blacks as well as white to destroy this culture and its history is what is hapening all over this country..here in the miami,fla. the PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY has taken over HOPE 6, a historic site with a lot of displaced residents who was '"FORCED" out in the 90's and never allowed to return, the new conditions for returning is reqiuiring property owernship vs. rental ( ..a real setup for the demise of this community).. we all must fight back, and who to go after in the "reparation of justice"...POWER TO THE STRUGGLING PEOPLE ALWAYS!!
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By: Carolyn Cole on 7/06/2010 1:39PM
Thank you for your words of encouragement. Atlantic Beach has had its troubles and struggles to remain a town. The Atlantic Beach Landowners Association joined the lawsuit that was filed on Friday because most of the landowners are absentee and don't have the right to vote. The landowners have counted on the voices of the women in the Housing Authority to monitor the government, hold it accountable, and elect quality leadership through the democratic process. They have done their jobs well. HUD, by participating in Meachem's scheme is not forcing these women out of just their homes, but out of the town of Atlantic Beach to silenece their opposition to the misuse and abuse of our town's government. When Meachem pushes them out of their homes in the name of HUD he pushes them out of the four street town of Atlantic Beach. His combination of paternalism, greed, arrogance, and self-righteousness is a disastrous cocktail for people who don't deserve to have their voting rights trampled. This is really simple. You didn't vote for the "right" candidate when they ousted Charlene Taylor and Josephine Isom, so now we evict you. HUD should be ashamed and should come to the table immediately and put together a plan that allows these long term residents and supporters of the town to remain in their homes until the current HUD property can be renovated or new homes built and allow the women to move within the town as units are readied for move in. Without the mean-spiritedness of Meachem, Taylor, Isom and others, this could have been the approach from the start and would have protected the women and the town. These are the leaders we need to get out of key positions. Meachem may have started out as a champion of the people but that's been over for a long time now. You can help us by emailing Secretary Shaun Donovan at HUD, Jim Clyburn, and President Obama with a message that you want HUD to step in an listen to the women of Atlantic Beach that have preserved the town (not Meachem's put-up jobs) and create a more humane option for them and the town that is more about HUD's fair treatment and understanding of this town's uniqueness and need for preservation. Thank you.
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By: lainla on 7/05/2010 1:35PM
We cannot afford to lose this valuable standing historic model for all Americans to learn, explore and appreciate. Land developers are huge corporate entities that have no shame in mowing down a long standing cultural icon that doesn't produce revenue to their capitalist ideal. How many more land developers do we need all over America??? People derive meaning and inspiration from culture, and money, no doubt plays a part but only to the degree that it preserves, maintains and restores those attributes of cultural value. I recently learned that my great grandmother Percilla Cox's ancestry goes back to Sierra Leone which is ties me to this historical legend in America with the Sea Islands. I can't begin to tell you how proud I am to know that I have a real piece of Africa in my DNA that I can trace back and latch on to that has been well preserved for several centuries. We African-Americans have lost and suffered beyond measure..so much...in the process of making America the richest nation in the world, and it is a wonderful knowledge in knowing the Gullah people have preserved their ties of tradition and culture directly to the motherland through a brutal system of dehumanizing degragation done to any human group. We must not fail! We must tell Blacks and Whites who are engaging in this corporate take over hands off! I am currently in school earning my degree in Cultural studies. I would love to learn and write about this legacy. I have been in touch with the people who put together the Gullah festival in South Carolina and a small group of family members are going to visit the sea islands in August. My mother, whom I feel so blessed to still have is also going. It is her grandmother Percilla who we found out has ancestral ties to Sierra Leone. What a blessing!
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By: Carl Linke on 7/06/2010 8:07AM
Haint Blue, a new novel, though fiction touches on this topic. Available on Amazon.
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By: Pretty Almond Eyes on 7/06/2010 9:01AM
I commend you on a informative and well written editorial.
The article suggests that "we write or call your congressman or call representatives in Georgia and let your voice be heard."
A link that includes a preformatted letter and a link to the approriate congressman and or representative to contact would be very much appreciated.
I agree that the right thing would be for the government to do: give the land back to the landowners.
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