Burning the Story of Gullah/Geechee Townships and Beaches Into the Minds of the People
During and just after the Reconstruction Era in the United States, numerous Black townships arose and many were destroyed by terrorist attacks by white supremacists. The violence of this time period that has come to be known as the “Jim Crow Era” is very rarely told. The fact that numerous Gullah/Geechees were self-sufficient and self-protected throughout that era is also rarely told. To that end, there are numerous people around the world that are unaware that those Gullah/Geechees that survived enslavement and whose descendants survived Jim Crow were also those that set up places for their own leisure during segregation. These places were the Black beaches that dotted the Sea Island and Lowcountry landscape which included such places as Mosquito Beach off of James Island, SC (where “Gullah/Geechee Famlee Day” will be held to celebrate that legacy on July 30th) and places such as Seabreeze, NC.
Wherein Mosquito Beach still stands and is continuing to be restored after withstanding many storms, Seabreeze has succumb to being removed from the hands of Black people and has been taken over by those in political and economic power in North Carolina. It stands as a painful story of defeat that seems to harken back to the 1898 Wilmington Massacre that was put in place to destroy the independence of the Blacks and Gullah/Geechees of Wilmington in the Cape Fear Region of NC. The orchestrated acts of disenfranchisement that were inflicted upon the people of African descent of Wilmington truly placed “fear” in the hearts and burned it into the minds of many that are from North Carolina. As a result, some fled physically and others fled emotionally away from standing up to hold onto their own property and their own community. The brutal reality of what took place to cause the psychological harm to a community that once thrived is told through the documentary, “Wilmington on Fire.”
WILMINGTON ON FIRE is a feature-length documentary that will be the centerpiece of the Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival™‘s “Party with a Purpose” on Friday, August 5, 2016 at 6 pm at Scott’s Grand Hall in North Charleston, SC. The documentary will give a historical and present day look at the Wilmington Massacre of 1898. The Wilmington Massacre of 1898 was a bloody attack on the African-American community by a heavily armed white mob with the support of the North Carolina Democratic Party on November 10, 1898 in the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina. It is considered one of the only successful examples of a violent overthrow of an existing government (coup d’etat) and left countless numbers of African-American citizens dead and exiled from the city. This event was the spring board for the white supremacy movement and Jim Crow Segregation throughout the state of North Carolina, and the American South. This incident is barely mentioned and has been omitted from most history books. It was not until 2006, after the North Carolina General Assembly published a report on it, that the tragedy became known to the public. The film features interviews from historians, authors, activists and descendants of the victims of the Wilmington Massacre of 1898.
Filmmaker Christopher Everett and Kent Chatfield, Larry Reni Thomas, and Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation who are some of the people in the film will be present to dialogue with the guests. There will also be film related items, books, CDs, Gullah/Geechee crafts, and cuisine on sale. DJ Kwame Sha of “All Mobile Productions™ (AMP™) will be spinning music throughout the evening while guests meet and greet many of the VIPs that will be in the house including several recording artists that will perform at the Charleston Maritime Center on the Saturday of the “Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival™.
Tickets can be obtained in advance at
Go to www.gullahgeechee.info for overall event details or email GullGeeCo@aol.com.
The “Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival™” has taken numerous groups to the locations of Gullah/Geechee townships and beaches over the past decade. The “Party with a Purpose” will truly burn this story into the minds of the people. Cum fa jayn we and yeddi bout we storee pun de road fa self-determination een de Gullah/Geechee Nation!
- Posted in: Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ Environmental Justice ♦ Gullah/Geechee Businesses and Industries ♦ Gullah/Geechee Events ♦ Gullah/Geechee Films ♦ Gullah/Geechee Land Ownership & Rights ♦ Gullah/Geechee Ourstory ♦ Gullah/Geechee Riddim Radio Education Links ♦ Gullah/Geechee TV Educational Links ♦ Human Rights ♦ Queen Quet ♦ Uncategorized
- Tagged: All Mobile Productions, Black history, Black land ownership, cultural heritage, documentary, Geechee, Gullah, Gullah/Geechee Nation, Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week, Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival, human rights, Kwame Sha, NC, North Carolina, Queen Quet, SC, Scott's Grand, Sea Islands, St. Helena Island, Wilmington, Wilmington Massacre, Wilmington on Fire, Wilmington Race Riots
3 Comments
Trackbacks