Black residents of Sapelo Island are mounting a legal challenge to a controversial rezoning they fear will lead to higher taxes and ultimately spell the demise of the only remaining intact Gullah-Geechee community on the coast.
Lifelong residents of a tiny Georgia island who are descended from slaves are pushing to give voters a chance to override local zoning changes that they say threaten one of the last Gullah-Geechee communities in the U.S. South.
The rezoning more than doubles the maximum legal size of homes on Hogg Hummock, worrying many that Gullah Geechee descendants will be priced out of their ancestral land.
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. Residents of the tiny Hogg Hummock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island packed a county government meeting Thursday to oppose a proposal to end zoning protections enacted to protect the enclave from wealthy buyers and tax increases.
Descendants of enslaved African community have been on Sapelo Island for 13 generations. But just 30 Geechee descendants of the original 44 enslaved families remain — and the General Assembly quietly passed a bill on March 2 to modify the rules of the Sapelo Island Heritage Authority without the input of those residents.
The community’s legal battles with the state and local authorities began in 2016. The residents received a $19 million settlement from the State of Georgia in 2020 forcing state agencies to upgrade the transportation facilities that the historic Black community residents and descendants rely on to travel to Sapelo.
For a while, Purple Ribbon Sugarcane thrived on Sapelo Island, off the Georgia coast. Then, disease nearly wiped it out altogether in North America, but...
A federal judge in Georgia has refused to dismiss a lawsuit that claims racial discrimination is eroding one of the last Gullah-Geechee communities of...
A federal judge said the state of Georgia is not immune from a lawsuit that claims the state discriminated against a community of slave descendants on...
When it rains on Sapelo Island, it doesn’t take long for the roads to turn into mud according to Gullah resident Stacey Grovner. “Back in March we had a...
Sapelo Island, Georgia is a coastal community with rich wildlife, an enviable coastline and towering moss draped trees. It’s no wonder many choose the...
Members of Sapelo Island’s Gullah Geechee community are suing local and state governments for practices they say are threatening their ability to live...
