Gullah/Geechee and SCELP Fighting Racial Discrimination Case to Protect Cultural Protection Overlay District

Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ June 9, 2026 ♦ Leave a comment

On June 8, The South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP) filed a motion to intervene on behalf of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition in the latest federal lawsuit filed by the Pine Island developers on April 20, 2026, that directly challenges Beaufort County’s Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) for St. Helena Island as unconstitutional “on its face.” 

The new lawsuit argues that the CPO – a zoning overlay in place since 1999 that prohibits golf courses, resorts and gated communities on St. Helena Island – violates the developers’ constitutional rights because it explicitly references and seeks to protect the island’s rural character and Gullah/Geechee cultural heritage. The complaint characterizes the overlay as a “race-conscious zoning scheme” and asks the court to end enforcement of the CPO entirely. SCELP and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition reject that characterization and legal premise.

“The CPO was created by and for the people of St. Helena Island – a community that made a clear and democratic decision decades ago about what kind of future they wanted,” said SCELP Senior Managing Attorney Leslie Lenhardt. “Reframing that decision as racial discrimination is a legal maneuver, not a legal argument. We will defend the CPO as vigorously in this lawsuit as we have in every preceding one.”

This is the third lawsuit the developers have filed in pursuit of a gated golf resort on Pine Island, an approximately 500-acre property on the northern end of St. Helena Island, which was purchased in March 2023 for $18 million with knowledge of the property’s location within the CPO zoning district. Beaufort County has rejected the developers’ repeated attempts to evade the CPO rules at every turn – at the Planning Commission, at the County Council, through mediation and in court.

The developers’ previous federal lawsuit was dismissed on February 20, 2026, with the court finding the case moot. On March 25, Judge Richard Gergel denied the developers’ motion for reconsideration. That dismissal is now on appeal to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, with briefs scheduled for June and July 2026. The new lawsuit – filed less than a month after reconsideration was denied – presents substantially similar allegations and legal arguments as the case now pending before the Fourth Circuit. 

Widely recognized as the heart of Gullah/Geechee culture in the United States, the CPO was created in 1999 to protect St. Helena Island from resort and golf course developments that had already transformed neighboring Hilton Head, Daufuskie and other Sea Islands. The overlay reflects decades of deliberate, democratic community decision-making about the future of the island and the people who call it home.

Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and the Founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, has been a part of the creation and sustaining of the CPO since 1999. “St. Helena Island is the epicenter of Gullah/Geechee culture,” said Queen Quet. “This is largely due to us being able to keep our cultural heritage community intact due to the CPO. Gullah/Geechee culture is inextricably tied to a safe and healthy Sea Island and coastal environment. The CPO’s environmental protections ensure healthy water, a sustained coastline and the rural character, which are essential to continuing our way of life, as well as low density and an absence of gated, high density development that negatively impacts the land and waterways as well as our cultural community.”

Queen Quet continued, “I have reviewed the complaint brought by the Plaintiffs in this case and recognize that they seek to destroy and invalidate the CPO so that their “destructionment” can move forward.  The lawsuit is being made under the guise of claiming that the CPO is a race-based law.  This is inaccurate and a misrepresentation.  That accusation is legally unsound, historically inaccurate, and sociologically reductive. It collapses Gullah/Geechee culture into race and thereby erases the very heritage, land-use traditions, spiritual practices, language, kinship structures, ecological knowledge, and settlement patterns that the CPO was designed to protect. No one of any race or culture can violate the CPO law!  We have the right to protect the environment and to continue to peacefully exist as native Gullah/Geechees and anyone that has come to St. Helena Island to live benefits from the healthy environment of our beloved island. We binya and ain gwine nowhey!”

The new lawsuit’s constitutional theories seek to undermine local government’s powers to regulate land uses and enact community-led zoning protections. If a zoning ordinance can be struck down simply because it prevents developers from pursuing their desired business model, the legal tools available to communities seeking to preserve their cultural heritage and prevent displacement would be severely curtailed.

“This case is a test of whether local communities have the legal authority to define their own vision for their land,” said SCELP Senior Attorney Jessie White. “The people of St. Helena Island have answered that question clearly, repeatedly and democratically. We intend to make sure it stands.”