Gullah-Geechee residents on Georgia island face losing protections of their land

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September 7th, 2023

A sticker celebrating the Geechee heritage is seen on a pickup truck, June 10, 2013, as passengers board a ferry to the mainland from Sapelo Island, Ga. One of the few remaining Gullah-Geechee communities in the U.S. is in another fight to hold onto land owned by residents' families since their ancestors were freed from slavery. The few dozen remaining residents of the tiny Hogg Hummock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island were stunned when they learned county officials may end zoning protections enacted nearly 30 years ago to protect the enclave from wealthy buyers and tax increases. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Descendants of enslaved people who populate a tiny island community are once again fighting local officials who have proposed eliminating protections that for decades helped shield the Gullah-Geechee residents from high taxes and pressure to sell their land to developers.

Residents of Hogg Hummock say they were stunned last month when McIntosh County commissioners unveiled a proposal to cast aside zoning ordinances that limit homes to modest sizes in the enclave of 30 to 50 Black residents on Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia.

The rules were enacted in 1994 for the sole purpose of protecting one of the South’s few remaining communities of people known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia, whose ancestors worked island slave plantations. Their isolation from the mainland meant they retained much of their African roots and traditions.

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