Black Enterprise; Published By Iman Milner
Nationwide, members of the Gullah-Geechee community are fighting to preserve their rights to land that has been protected for decades against growing pressure from developers and ever-increasing tax rates. The latest battle is taking place on Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia.
According to NBC News, McIntosh County commissioners have unveiled a proposal to do away with zoning ordinances that limit homes to modest sizes near the dwellings of about 30 to 50 Black residents. The rules, introduced in 1994, fall under the Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) and have protected the residents of Hogg Hummock along with other Gullah-Geechee communities throughout several coastal islands in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
“It’s the erasure of a historical culture that’s still intact after 230 years,” said Reginal Hall, a Hogg Hummock landowner whose family’s roots are deeply connected to the island, told NBC News. “Once you raise those limits and the land value increases, we only have two to three years at most. If you talk about the descendants of the enslaved, 90% of us will be gone.” Read more
