By Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com)
I can still remember the first time I was invited to visit Sol Legare in Charleston County, SC in the Gullah/Geechee Nation. I loved walking up to the Seashore Farmers’ Lodge and learning its history and seeing how the community was taking the time to care for this space by fully restoring it. I was later invited back to the official unveiling and got to tour even the private space that the members of the lodge sat in to have meetings. I continued to go back to this space time and time again. My fondest memory was when Brother Ernest Parks and Brother James Brown made sure that the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s flag was flying from the flagpole as we all gathered together inside the lodge in celebration of “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week.”
The center of the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s flag is embossed with a Gullah/Geechee family tree that consist of human bodies that are intertwined and rooted in the soil of the Sea Islands. The oak tree is a powerful symbol within Gullah/Geechee culture—mirroring the sacred tree rooted at the very center of the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s national flag. Protecting it represents a refusal to allow the physical markers of our heritage to be erased. “Save James Island” folks have made it clear: “You can’t replant history.” The historic live oak tree at Sol Legare cannot simply be replanted either. It is truly a witness to what our ancestors of Sol Legare went through and now it is a witness to the encroaching destructionment no longer in the distance across the creek from Mosquito Beach but right under its own branches. However, like native Gullah/Geechees, webe de tree planted by de rivers of wata. We shall not be moved!
I’ve been rooted in saving numerous trees throughout the Gullah/Geechee Nation including the historic Angel Oak on Johns Island. This is no doubt why the ancestors came to me in a vision 30 years ago and gave me the slogan of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition (NO! It is NOT a Gullah/Geechee proverb! Only de tief gwine crak e teet an say so!): “Hunnuh mus tek cyare de root fa heal de tree.” I live to do just that! Therefore, I stand with the “Save the James Island” group to protect a 40-inch in diameter 200 year old grand sand live oak at Sol Legare.
For Gullah/Geechees, a centuries-old live oak is part of the cultural landscape. It is a place of collective memory, gathering, ancestral continuity, and survival through enslavement, emancipation, Jim Crow, hurricanes and destructionment pressures and encroachment. Beneath its branches the people of Sol Legare have not only found shade but solace from many of these things until now.
Gullah/Geechee culture is inextricably tied to the land and waterways that flow through the salt marsh and surround the maritime forests. Live oaks play a vital ecological role in the Gullah/Geechee Nation by absorbing immense amounts of groundwater. Removing these grand trees directly increases the risk of severe flooding in low-lying coastal areas, threatening the physical security of the surrounding historic sites and family compounds. Some might find it ironic that as America celebrates 250 years, the Gullah/Geechees are having to fight a battle at Sol Legare, where the historic 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment fought during the 1863 Battle of Grimball’s Landing. However, it is a tried and true battleground that we will not simply cede for a destructioneer to create his designed entranceway for the construction of a subdivision.
This battle should not be one that the community has to fight if Charleston County would revisit what it called: “The Sol Legare Community Plan” and the “Sol Legare Community Overlay Zoning District.” The plan is meant to preserve historic and cultural community values and to allow Sol Legare “to continue to prosper as a distinct community deeply rooted in the Gullah/Geechee culture.” Gullah/Geechee culture thrives in natural environments and is displaced from suburbanized and urbanized environments. Suburbanizing requires the uprooting of vegetation and many times on our coast, that means the uprooting of the people whose hands, blood, sweat and tears have nurtured that vegetation. The uprooting of the historic Sol Legare Oak Tree would mean the uprooting of legacy! We must stop this! If you agree, I ask that you:
1) sign and share the petition for our historic tree:
2) comment at this link before Noon on July 10th: bit.ly/slbza
3) attend the Charleston County Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) meeting that will be held on Monday, July 13th at 4 pm at the following location:
Lonnie Hamilton, III Public Services Building
4045 Bridge View Drive
North Charleston, SC 29405
Council Chambers on the Second Floor, Room 249
Meeting Details
- Date: Monday, July 13, 2026
- Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
- Public Sign-Up: Anyone wishing to speak during the public hearing must sign up on the sheet available in the Council Chambers by 3:30 PM on the day of the meeting.
Fa all hunnuh chillun wha rooted een disya fight wit we, tenki tenki! Let’s bear witness to victory by protecting this vital witness tree at Sol Legare!