- Descendants of enslaved individuals residing on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, are determined to persist in their struggle following a contentious decision by county commissioners.
- These residents, predominantly Black and of Gullah-Geechee heritage, fear that the recent vote to double the maximum allowable home size within their tiny enclave will hasten the decline of one of the South’s remaining Gullah-Geechee communities.
- The community on Sapelo Island rallied supporters and residents to contest zoning alterations they believe favor affluent buyers and may result in property tax increases, placing pressure on them to sell their ancestral land.
Descendants of enslaved people living on a Georgia island vowed to keep fighting Tuesday after county commissioners voted to double the maximum size of homes allowed in their tiny enclave, which residents fear will accelerate the decline of one of the South’s few surviving Gullah-Geechee communities.
Black residents of the Hogg Hummock community on Sapelo Island and their supporters packed a meeting of McIntosh County’s elected commissioners to oppose zoning changes that residents say favor wealthy buyers and will lead to tax increases that could pressure them to sell their land.
Regardless, commissioners voted 3-2 to weaken zoning restrictions the county adopted nearly three decades ago with the stated intent to help Hogg Hummock’s 30 to 50 residents hold on to their land.
Yolanda Grovner, 54, of Atlanta said she has long planned to retire on land her father, an island native, owns in Hogg Hummock. She left the county courthouse Tuesday night wondering if that will ever happen.
“It’s going to be very, very difficult,” Grovner said. She added: “I think this is their way of pushing residents off the island.”
MY ANCESTOR WAS ENSLAVED. DON’T TELL MY FAMILY SLAVERY BENEFITED SLAVES
Hogg Hummock is one of just a few surviving communities in the South of people known as Gullah, or Geechee, in Georgia, whose ancestors worked island slave…
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